Sutton Council makes pledge for future of digital services

Sutton Council, along with the UK Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Government Digital Service, has co-published a Local Digital Declaration.

The declaration, announced at this year’s Local Government Association Conference by minister Rishi Sunak, is a cross sector shared mission, enabling the foundations needed for the future generation of local digital public services.

It embodies five principles of internet age local public services. These are:

• To go further to redesign services around the needs of the people using them.

• ‘Fix our plumbing’ to break our dependence on inflexible and expensive technology that doesn’t join up effectively.

• Design safe, secure and useful ways of sharing information.

• Demonstrate digital leadership, creating the conditions for genuine organisational transformation to happen.

• Embed an open culture that values, incentivises and expects digital ways of working from every member of our workforce.

Cllr Sunita Gordon, Sutton Council’s lead member for Digital Strategy and the Smarter Council programme, said: “Joining this declaration is just one way we plan to demonstrate our commitment to improve the way we work. We want to transform our services using new tools and technology to provide a better service to residents. We are delighted that collective action is being taken across all levels of government to create the next generation of public services, whilst keeping the cost of delivering those services down.”

Sutton Council’s digital strategy focuses on improving services through the use of technology to better serve local residents. The council is continually working to improve its website to be more user-friendly, has recently installed new technology for use by residents in libraries across the borough, and is looking to introduce new systems to ensure it is delivering effectively for residents and businesses.

Read the full declaration on the Local Digital website www.localdigital.gov.uk/declaration