23 February 2010
City helps to "Make It Happen" through new digital inclusion
animation
[Photos available upon request]
A new animation is urging local authority chief executives to
join the digital revolution by embracing technology to help cut
costs without compromising service levels.
"Make It Happen" is a short animation designed to help local
authorities get to grips with delivering efficient, joined-up and
inclusive services through technology. It aims to raise awareness
among local authorities and their partners about how the innovative
use of technology can help to meet the needs of citizens and tackle
social exclusion. It promotes Digital Inclusion Advisors, a
national free advice service designed to assist local strategic
partnerships and stakeholders tackle this often complex issue.
Susan Attard, Deputy Town Clerk at the City of London
Corporation, said: "New technology brings with it new opportunities
for local authorities to provide innovative and effective services
that make a real difference to residents. In order to fully exploit
these, however, we must first ensure that services are made
available to all regardless of their background.
"We cannot afford to let the digital divide widen. Only by
delivering successful and socially inclusive services - such as
housing, employment, and education to name but a few – will we
ensure that everybody can use new technology to contribute to
society.”
“The benefit of Digital Inclusion Advisors is we don’t have to
go it alone. Digital Inclusion Advisors provide local authorities
with customised advice pulled from good practice across the
sector.”
"Technology has a crucial role in delivering efficiency gains
but making better use of resources should not come at the expense
of including people. “Make it Happen" is about delivering 'better
for less' but also delivering more fairly and inclusively."
Nigel Cooke, Acting Chief Executive of One Nottingham The Local
Strategic Partnership, said: “We found the research the Digital
Inclusion Advisors did was a useful start in us understanding how
digital inclusion can help us to provide better services for the
citizens of Nottingham City. We hope to build on the research
and develop further our understanding of how we can close the gap
so that all our citizens can realise the benefits of the digital
age.”
Watch the animated video
Ends
Notes for editors
What is “Make it Happen”?
Make it Happen is a short animation that aims to:
- Encourage the take up of Digital Inclusion Advisors, tools,
research and resources by local authorities and their strategic
partners
- raise awareness with senior officers of the role of technology
can play in assisting local authorities and their partners
to:
o understand citizen needs,
o deliver efficient and effective services
o support innovation required to deliver more for less
o improve the lives and life chances of people and the places
in which they live
The animation was commissioned by the City of London’s Digital
Inclusion Team as part of its national remit to encourage the
innovative of technology to deliver improved services and tackle
social exclusion. Make it Happen was produced by the company Adjust
Your Set.
What are Digital Inclusion Advisors?
Digital Inclusion Advisors are free advice service for local
authorities and their strategic partners. These advisors are part
of the general pool of Local Improvement Advisors (LIA).
Specifically, Digital Inclusion Advisors support Local Strategic
Partnerships (LSPs) in using technology innovatively and
effectively to tackle social exclusion, address local service
delivery priorities and meet national challenges within the local
authority performance management framework.
Their role, as with all LIAs, is to prove provide face to face
coaching, training and mentoring and build capacity within the
partnership to help support and improve service delivery. LIAs are
funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG)
and managed via the Regional Improvement and Efficiency
Partnerships. Digital Inclusion Advisors use tools and resources
created by the by City of London’s Digital Inclusion Team. The
Advisors are pre selected specialist in the area of digital
inclusion and have extensive experience in local, public service
delivery environments.
Digital Inclusion Advisors are funded until the end of March
2011.
About the City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation is a uniquely diverse
organisation. It supports and promotes the City – the business
district at the heart of London - as a world leader in
international finance and business services and provides local
services and policing for those working in, living in and visiting
the Square Mile. It also provides valued services to London and the
nation. These include the Barbican Centre and the Guildhall School
of Music & Drama; the Guildhall Library and Art Gallery and
London Metropolitan Archive; a range of education provision
(including three City Academies); five Thames bridges (including
Tower Bridge and the Millennium Bridge); the Central Criminal Court
at Old Bailey; over 10,000 acres of open spaces (including
Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest), and three wholesale food
markets. It is also London’s Port Health Authority and runs the
Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow. It works in partnership with
neighbouring boroughs on the regeneration of surrounding areas and
the City Bridge Trust, which it oversees, donates more than £15m to
charity annually.
The City of London’s Digital Inclusion Team is the policy
delivery team funded by CLG and hosted by the City of London on
behalf of local government to implement the Social Exclusion Unit
report Inclusion through Innovation: Tackling social exclusion
through new technologies published in 2005. Its focus is on how the
innovative application of digital technologies, of any kind, can
improve the lives and life chances of socially excluded people and
deprived neighbourhoods. The Team’s work in the City includes the
City of London’s Portsoken Community ICT project; a partnership
between industry (BT), the third sector (Citizens Online) and the
public sector (the City of London). The aim of the partnership is
to explore, in line with national digital inclusion policy, the use
of technology to improve the social outcomes of residents in the
City of London and on the City fringe – particularly those in more
deprived areas.
About One Nottingham
One Nottingham is the Local Strategic Partnership for Nottingham
City, bringing together public, private, voluntary and community
sector organisations to champion the long term vision for
Nottingham and tackle disadvantage. One Nottingham engaged two
Digital Inclusion Advisors through the East Midlands Regional
Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (RIEP) during June/July
2010.
Press contact
Sanjay Odedra, Press Office, City of London Corporation
T: +44 (0)20 7332 1835 / M: +44 (0)7831 542 856
Email:
sanjay.odedra@cityoflondon.gov.uk