In our latest blog, we introduce CAF Support, new £6 million fund for 52 councils that have completed a CAF assessment. The funding will help councils accelerate improvements in key areas of cyber resilience and strengthen resilience across the sector.

Read the blog

We’re updating the Local Digital website to improve the homepage and navigation.

We’ll be running online user research and are looking for councils to help us test and improve these changes.

The one-hour research sessions will involve:

• navigating the new website designs
• sharing feedback on what works and what could be better

Register to take part

The LGR Digital and Cyber community brings councils together to shape how the sector approaches the digital and cyber aspects of LGR.

By working together, we can share learnings and feed insights back into the playbook to keep it relevant, practical and useful.

The community is open to:

• councils that have been through LGR
• councils currently working through LGR
• DDaT and cyber council staff

Access the playbook roadmap to see the new content that will be added in future releases.

Join the LGR Digital and Cyber community

Government Digital Service (GDS) has published the latest instalment in its series of introductory courses to roles in the Government Digital and Data profession - Business Analysis in Government: Getting Started. The course is free and open to everyone.

Explore more learning opportunities on the Government Digital and Data Hub

GDS Local is running a discovery to better understand the barriers and opportunities for councils adopting GDS products including Pay, Notify, Forms and the GOV.UK App. They will work directly with councils through user research to hear from teams on the ground.

To take part, email [email protected]

The Local Government Association (LGA) and Socitm are running a survey to better understand the impacts of legacy IT and the steps councils are taking to phase out these systems. The insights will be used to shape support for local government alongside central government.

If you are a council IT lead or director, you can share your views in the Local Government IT and legacy systems survey

The LGA’s Cyber Incident Grab Bag has been refreshed with new service-specific guidance for adult social care, children’s services and finance. The resource helps councils coordinate the organisational response to a cyber incident, including service continuity, communications, data protection, elected member engagement and recovery in the first hours, days and weeks.

Access the Cyber Incident Grab Bag

Socitm has shared the findings from a workshop with IT contract managers, DDaT specialists and LGR leads. The workshop found that to make LGR successful, councils need:

• an ongoing focus beyond vesting day
• stronger collaboration across boundaries
• a shared commitment to turning reorganisation into a platform for long‑term improvement, not short‑term survival

Read the report

This session will share the NCSC’s current perspective on AI and cyber security, including how AI is being used by threat actors, where it can strengthen defences, and the risks organisations need to manage.

It will also highlight key themes from recent NCSC guidance and explore what safe and responsible AI adoption looks like.

Explore how AI and machine learning can transform your council's core financial operations.

Attendees will work together to explore problem statements linked to vesting day and develop collective approaches to solving these challenges.

The Change Agent Programme for local government combines skills training and technology to support change and transformation. This course is free, and a Socitm membership is not required.

Local Digital’s cyber team will be exhibiting at this year’s Annual Northern WARP Conference. This year’s theme, ‘Protecting public data – the human factor’, puts people at the heart of cyber resilience.

Tickets are free to members of WARP organisations. Paid tickets are available for public sector staff who are not WARP members. If you cannot attend in person, you can join online.

Access a collection of digital learning resources that have been developed for the sector following research and testing with councils. The resources introduce new approaches to designing products and services.

Access the resources