Despite being down to just two team members for the week (Jay’s currently on holiday, lucky man), LOTI packed quite a bit into the short week following the August bank holiday. 

A few key highlights are below:

Exploring next steps with Bloomberg Associates

LOTI has been hugely fortunate to have the support of Bloomberg Associates right from our inception. As well as helping get LOTI off the ground, they supported our City Tools project to document the technologies that power boroughs’ services and back-office functions. They’re currently helping us develop a digital, data and innovation capability model for London local government. 

On Tuesday, Eddie met with Todd Asher and Tess O’Brien to discuss how they might support our Year 3 strategy. Lots of ideas were discussed. Among the most promising was using Bloomberg’s global network of city leaders to help LOTI further its work into how boroughs can develop new service models. Our aim in this area is to help boroughs think innovatively about new ways of meeting resident needs. Seeking out some of the most thought-provoking examples from around the world will be key to doing this well.

Data skills capacity

We continued analysing the results of our recent data skills capacity survey with London boroughs. Borough data officers have shared candid feedback about what they most love and least like about their roles. They’ve also shared their thoughts on how LOTI might help boroughs access more data talent. LOTI’s own analysis of the survey was enriched by expert insight from Joanne Cumper, a recruitment consultant with significant experience of recruiting for data and digital roles in both London local government and other sectors. The findings from the survey will be discussed at a workshop this Wednesday. If any London borough data leads would like to attend, sign up here.

National Digital Inclusion Forum

Fresh back from holiday, Genta attended the National Digital Inclusion Forum. The meeting consisted of a series of presentations from different authorities and organisations across the UK on their digital inclusion approaches. 

Among the presentations, Mastercard shared some details about their newly developed Inclusive Growth Score Tool. The tool is an interactive digital map of the UK. It brings together for the first time Mastercard proprietary data, combined with other 18 publicly available data sources, to map how inclusive the economy is in all parts of the UK. 

Innovation in procurement housing services systems

Our work with Govtech consultants PUBLIC drew to a close, with the production of two final resources which we hope will be useful to both LOTI members and the wider local government community. The documents, which will be shared shortly, include:

• Housing Tech Supplier Landscape research. This document maps the technology providers (other than the traditional full-suite HMS incumbents), whose products align with the functional specification for a Housing Management Solution.
• Housing Tech Innovation Best Practice. This document aims to identify new approaches to HousingTech innovation in other local service contexts. It summarises methods and technologies that have been highlighted by industry press, housing association award programs, innovation competitions, trade associations and reports, and should be used to identify peer councils with whom housing managers can discuss their strategies for ‘trying something new.’

Electric Vehicle Charge Points

Genta also found time to attend an Electric Vehicle charge point workshop with the London Data Commission. Genta was pleased to hear that there’s a real concerted push to ensure that data standards can be put in place that will complement and build on LOTI’s earlier work with the GLA, London Councils and boroughs to create an EV charge point dashboard for London.

Coming up this week

This week, we’re:

• Finalising the job description for someone to fill the large shoes left by LOTI’s former Strategic Engagement Manager, Onyeka. Look out for the job ad soon! We were also delighted to celebrate Onyeka’s appearance (twice!) on the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2021 for “Hero of the Year: Enterprise” & “Lockdown Legend of the Year: Tech”.
• Running workshops with our community of data professionals to explore what we can do to improve access to data talent in local government.
• Assessing submissions for our recent tender to help us run a discovery into digital exclusion in temporary accommodation.

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