Digital Southwark

Dionne Lowndes, Chief Digital & Technology Officer for Southwark Council, outlines the plans to build a connected and collaborative borough for all

We believe that technology has a critical role to play in supporting our residents and meeting our biggest challenges head on, many of which have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a borough, there has been a greater focus on digital over the last decade in line with a national mandate to digitise services for residents. This year, however, we at Southwark Council are reviewing and renewing our efforts with a new-look Technology and Digital Strategy. We want to build a borough where our residents can learn digital skills and access excellent, digitally-enabled services, supported by staff who benefit from cutting-edge workplace technology. The goal is a connected and collaborative Southwark for all.

To achieve this, we are focussing on these key areas: Digital Citizenship, SMART Council and SMART Borough. Data will be a key enabler of these pillars that we believe will deliver transformation in the borough and empower more of our residents through digital, data and technology.

COVID-19, collaboration and data

The last 18 months has been an extraordinary time that none of us could have predicted. COVID-19 has impacted all of us. As a council, our priorities have been to keep our residents safe and to support them. The crisis has taught us many things and has directly informed the Technology and Digital Strategy.

Smarter use of data has helped us navigate our way through the difficulties of the pandemic. The way we brought data together from partner organisations and from different services in the council to meet the needs of our residents has given us a real appetite to take that further into the future.

As part of our renewed approach to technology we are creating systems that will have interoperability, so we can connect and exchange data across the council. We will need to make decisions about what data we will hold and what data our residents are comfortable with us having to give them the reassurances that we’re not going to use their data in any ways they haven’t consented to. This is key to our strategy on data and in doing all of that, there’s a real opportunity to harness data and get a view of the future and a single view of our residents’ requirements.

Collaboration also has and will continue to be essential. We have really strong partnerships with technology partners around connectivity and 5G adoption in the borough, and the opportunity to develop new technologies. Partners like Microsoft and Hitachi have also been brilliant as we’ve created a modern IT stack and changed our operating model.

Strategically, we’ve also got some key partnerships with the other London boroughs through the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) formed in a spirit of openness. We believe it’s really important as a local authority that we work with other early adopters of technology, and deliver seamless technology that has already been experimented with. Post-COVID-19 and going into recovery, there’s real excitement around how we can do more of that together and make a change to the services that we deliver and the outcomes for our residents.

A clear focus

This plan is ambitious, demanding and hugely exciting. We have a clear focus around enabling our citizens to get online and building a smarter borough and a smarter council. And we genuinely believe that through our Technology and Digital Strategy - whether it’s with the help of one of our new community of Digital Champions, taking advantage of the free broadband installed at over 60 of our vital community hubs, or any other of our outstanding initiatives - residents and our own employees will realise the game-changing benefits of digital transformation.

All in all, our aspiration is to have a vibrant, safe borough where our residents have the opportunity to work and live healthily and happily. Southwark might be an iconic London borough steeped in history, but this is all about the future: a future where, with digital tools at their fingertips and a greatly simplified relationship with their council, the people of Southwark can thrive.