An introduction to technical skills which contribute towards council’s digitalisation objectives.
This page provides an introduction to some of the technical skills which contribute towards council’s digitalisation objectives.
It is not intended to be comprehensive. Instead, it illustrates how different skills – when applied strategically, cohesively, and with consideration of a council’s context – might work together to achieve an objective.
Heads of Service can use these lists to facilitate more detailed conversations with IT and Organisational Development teams.
SO1: Reduce manual or transactional tasks for the workforce, creating efficiency savings and enabling a focus on more creative tasks
- Redesign processes to promote accessibility and efficiency
- Review existing systems for automation opportunities, and automate business processes and routine tasks to allow teams to focus on more complex tasks
- Streamline internal procedures and eliminate duplicate functions
- Ensure processes are digital by default, to reduce paper usage
- Reduce the number of applications and promote technology re-use
- Standardise and optimise IT tools and services
- Create an integrated digital infrastructure, with systems that communicate with one another
- Provide consistent access to systems and information
Data strategy and data insights:
- Data architecture: This enables councils to design the overall structure of its data assets in a way that supports business needs. This can make it easierfor datasets to be shared or joined up across a council.
- Data engineering: This helps to ensure that the technologies for gathering, processing, and delivering data, support the services to access, input, and use data as intended. This can help to reduce the need for duplicate data entry.
- Data management: This enables councils to take a structured and consistent approach to storing and tagging data, which means that data can be used more effectively across services, and the need for repeated data entry is reduced.
- Database administration: This enables councils to maintain, secure, and operate databases to optimise their performance and availability.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Information governance: This enables councils to implement governance practices to ensure data quality and integrity in automated processes.
- Information security: This enables the council to implement security measures to protect automated systems and data.
Supporting people:
- Organisational change management: This enables councils to set out a strategy for supporting the workforce to adopt new ways of working.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- AI-assisted testing: This enables technical teams to leverage AI to rapidly generate test scripts and simulations, speeding up the validation process and allowing developers to focus on higher-value creative tasks.
- Process automation: This enables developers within service areas to link front-end interactions with back-end databases, automating repetitive data entry and communication tasks without needing traditional development resources.
- Solution architecture: This enables councils to create detailed plans and specifications for solutions to address business problems, and to set out how the different components of the solution – such as hardware, software, and networks – will work together.
Understanding and meeting users' needs:
- User experience analysis: This enables councils to understand the context of use for existing processes, and set out goals for their improvement based on what the user is trying to achieve.
- User experience design: This enables councils to create prototypes of new and improved processes, so that users can try them in practice. This helps the council to understand whether the new process enables the user to meet their goals.
- User experience evaluation: This enables councils to systematically check whether new ways of working are helping users to achieve their goals, and to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Understanding what the council needs from technology:
- Business analysis: This enables councils to analyse business needs and identify opportunities for improvement in manual processes.
- Benefits management: This enables councils to clearly state the benefits which a new process or way of working could bring, and identify ways to track those benefits.
- Business process improvement: This enables councils to streamline or re-design business processes in ways which can meet business needs.
- Emerging technology monitoring: This enables councils to track and identify new tools, technologies, products, services, and techniques which could help to create efficiencies for services.
- Innovation: This enables councils to identify ways to implement new and emerging technologies, products, services, methods, or techniques, so that the council can capture their benefits in practice.
- Service catalogue management: This enables councils to keep track of available systems, software, and tools. It supports the identification of existing tools which could be operationalised in new ways to improve processes.
SO2: Implement working methods which allow for a more mobile and efficient workforce
- Implement organisational processes such as hybrid meetings.
- Enable off-site working and data entry, to reduce duplication in processes and enable a mobile workforce.
- Expand internet-based services and simplify local infrastructure for hybrid working.
- Equip staff with modern, reliable, and usable tools, to enable more efficient working.
- Review and utilise technological advances.
Data strategy and data insights:
- Data Management: This enables councils to structure and catalogue their data assets, so that access, combine, and analyse data from a range of locations.
IT service and support:
- IT infrastructure management: This enables councils to maintain or improve its hardware, software, and networks, and make sure that they are performing well enough to meet a mobile workforce’s needs.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Information governance: This enables councils to establish clear protocols for the secure handling of resident data in a mobile environment, ensuring that statutory compliance and information rights are maintained regardless of where staff are working.
- Information security: This enables councils to understand the security implications of different ways of processing and storing data, e.g. cloud-based storage, and to choose appropriate controls to protect data confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
- Risk management: This enables councils to consider the risks associated with new ways of working, so that they can make decisions which balance beneficial outcomes with risks to e.g. security or finances.
- Security architecture: This enables councils to ensure that security considerations are reflected in the specification and design of new or changing solutions.
- Security operations: This enables councils to identify the potential security risks from hybrid or mobile working, and implement technical controls which mitigate those risks.
Supporting people:
- Learning design and development: This enables councils to develop training programmes to enhance the skills of staff in using mobile technologies.
- Methods and tools: This enables councils to ensure that new methods and tools are easily usable – for example, by automating the use of certain tools, or tailoring them to the needs of the organisation.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- Asset management: This enables councils to keep track of their assets, including hardware, software, and data. It can help to ensure that the technologies needed for mobile working are properly stored, distributed, and disposed of, and that their use is compliance with legal and security requirements.
- Cloud platforms and engineering: This enables councils to design and manage secure and resilient cloud infrastructure to ensure reliable service delivery and support modern ways of working.
- Enterprise and business architecture: This enables councils to ensure that their technology strategy - their data, applications, ways of working, and technologies - align with business objectives.
- Solution architecture: This enables councils to design solutions that support mobile working methods and enhance efficiency.
- Systems design: This enables councils to ensure that new systems are compatible with existing council systems or software, and that overall business needs are being met.
Understanding and meeting users' needs:
- User experience design: This ensures a positive and efficient user experience for mobile working interfaces.
Understanding what the council needs from technology:
- Business analysis: This enables councils to analyse business needs and advise on changes to enable a more mobile and efficient workforce.
- Digital brokerage and translation: This enables councils to act as a conduit between technical teams and front-line service units (like social care or housing) to ensure that mobile working solutions are designed to deliver real business value in a field environment.
SO3: Develop digital, self-service routes for customers, creating efficiency savings and reaching more residents
- Promote a “digital by default” organisation, i.e. digital is the default mode of customer interaction. Facilitate channel shift to digital services, including the use of self-serve platforms.
- Redesign processes to proactively anticipate and support citizen and business requests.
- Prioritise usability in digital service design, ensuring completion at the first attempt.
- Ensure that services are intuitive, accessible, and cater for diverse customer needs.
- Provide easily accessible and always available information online.
- Establish performance measures to ensure digital services meet expectations.
Coding and development:
- Frontend development: This enables councils to write their own website code, to build and test new online services.
- Low code development: This enables councils to rapidly prototype and deploy custom digital tools, so that they can quickly deliver tailored solutions that meet specific local needs.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- AI governance: This enables councils to establish the ethical guardrails and fairness protocols needed to deploy automated resident-facing tools (like chatbots or automated eligibility checkers) safely and transparently.
- Information governance: This enables councils to obtain assurance that any risks to information from online services have been properly identified and managed.
Understanding and meeting users' needs:
- Accessibility design: This enables councils to ensure that online services comply with accessibility standards, so that they are easy to use for everyone.
- Content design: This enables councils to ensure that online content is easy to use, understand, and navigate, so that residents are incentivised to use online services.
- Digital inclusion advocacy: This enables councils to promote accessibility and inclusive design at the start of a project, ensuring that self-service routes do not exclude residents who lack digital skills, hardware, or connectivity.
- Interaction design: This enables councils to design online services which are intuitive to navigate.
- Testing: This enables councils to evaluate websites before publication.
- User experience evaluation: This enables councils to assess whether new online services are being used and are usable as expected.
- User research: This enables councils to understand what residents need from a service, and helps to ensure that the design of new, digital self-service routes supports users to achieve their objectives.
Understanding what the council needs from technology:
- Business analysis: This enables councils to analyse business needs and requirements to ensure digital solutions meet customer and efficiency objectives.
SO4: Enable residents to communicate with services and access information about themselves in one place
- Develop and enhance end-to-end digital services for a positive customer experience.
- Establish a “single sign-in" customer account for easy access to information.
- Implement personalised online information availability for both customers and workforce.
- Achieve and maintain end-to-end automation and updates.
- Minimise the number of times residents need to input data, ensuring information collection efficiency.
- Ensure that back-office processes are engineered to support seamless customer journeys.
- Integrate digital principles across policies, strategies and services.
Data strategy and data insights:
- Data architecture: This enables councils to design the overall structure of its data assets to feed into a single, online, customer-facing portal.
- Data engineering: This helps to ensure that the technologies for gathering, processing, and delivering data, support services to access, input, and use data as intended.
- Data ethics: This enables councils to assess whether they are fair, transparent, and accountable in the way that they are using residents’ data.
- Data management: This enables councils to establish data management practices that support a consolidated view of resident information.
- Data modelling and design: This gives councils a blueprint for organising and understanding complex data, to enable its efficient storage, retrieval and analysis in service of an online portal.
- Information management: This supports councils to ensure that they are only collecting information which is relevant, correct, and valuable, and that unnecessary information is disposed of correctly.
Ensuring quality processes and outputs:
- Quality assurance: This helps to ensure that residents are receiving consistent, reliable, and high-quality services.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Information governance: This enables councils to obtain assurance that any risks to information from online services have been properly identified and managed.
- Information security: This enables the councils to choose the right security controls to protect residents’ data.
- Security architecture: This enables councils to ensure that security considerations are reflected in the initial specification and design of new or changing solutions.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- Process automation: This helps to ensure that resident communications triggered by a customer portal (such as status updates or acknowledgments) are automated and linked directly to back-end service data for real-time accuracy.
- Solution architecture: This enables councils to design solutions that consolidate resident communication channels and information access points.
- Systems integration and build: This helps to ensure that online systems are integrated properly with the council’s wider technology, data, and applications.
Understanding and meeting users' needs:
- Accessibility design: This enables councils to ensure that online services comply with accessibility standards, so that they are easy to use for everyone.
- Digital inclusion advocacy: This enables councils to promote accessibility and inclusive design at the start of a project, ensuring that self-service routes do not exclude residents who lack digital skills, hardware, or connectivity.
- User experience design: This ensures a seamless and user-friendly experience for residents accessing information and communicating with services.
- User research: This enables councils to understand what residents need from a service, and helps to ensure that the design of a new online service supports users to achieve their objectives.
Understanding what the council needs from technology:
- Business analysis: Analyse business needs and requirements to ensure effective integration of resident communication and information.
SO5: Improve data-driven decision making
- Maximise the value of data and information assets. Promote smart data utilisation, including “collect once, use many times”.
- Develop effective business intelligence. Leverage data for innovation, efficiency, and service improvement, designing services and making decisions based on evidence of outcomes.
- Facilitate effective and securing data-sharing and data integration between council areas and councils and partners, to enable collaborative service delivery and enhance outcomes.
- Use data and insights to proactively offer support to residents.
- Ensure data security, and compliance with data protection legislation and ethical considerations.
- Ensure transparency and accountability in the way that data is used.
Data strategy and data insights:
- Data analysis: This enables councils to utilise data analysis techniques to extract meaningful insights and patterns from available data.
- Data architecture: This enables councils to design the overall structure of its data assets in a way that supports business needs.
- Data engineering: This helps to ensure that the technologies for gathering, processing, and delivering data, support the services to access, input, and use data as intended.
- Data ethics: This enables councils to assess whether they are fair, transparent, and accountable in the way that they are using residents’ data.
- Data science: This enables councils to carry out complex analysis on large datasets.
- Data storytelling: This enables councils to translate the results of complex data analysis into compelling visual and narrative formats, helping senior leaders and members understand the "why" behind the data to influence strategic policy.
- Data management: This helps councils to develop and implement data management practices to ensure data is available and accessible for decision-making.
- Data modelling and design: This gives councils a blueprint for organising and understanding complex data.
- Data visualisation: This helps councils to make decisions on the basis of data, by displaying them in ways which are easy to understand.
- Information management: This supports councils to ensure that they are only collecting information which is relevant, correct, and valuable, and that unnecessary information is disposed of correctly.
- Machine learning: This enables councils to conduct sophisticated analyses with large quantities of data, to help make decisions.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- Enterprise and business architecture: This helps to ensure that the council’s data, applications, and technologies, and ways of working are set up in a way that supports the delivery of its business strategies.
- Solution Architecture: This helps the council to design solutions that support effective data collection, storage, and analysis.
- Systems integration and build: This helps to ensure that systems using data are properly integrated with one another and with the council’s wider processes and technologies.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- AI governance: This enables councils to ensure that when data is leveraged for innovation (such as machine learning or predictive analytics), it is done so in a way that is fair, transparent, and compliant with ethical standards.
- Information governance: This enables councils to understand what data it holds, have assurance that it’s being processed in compliance with legal obligations, and take steps to ensure that processes are robust enough for compliance to continue.
- Information security: This enables councils to understand the security implications of different ways of processing and storing data, and to choose appropriate controls to protect it.
Understanding what the council needs from technology:
- Research: This enables councils to articulate the questions which they are trying to answer, and to select appropriate methods for answering these questions.
SO6: Ensure continuous and strategically-informed improvement
- Maintain resilient, secure, and appropriate infrastructure.
- Review the use of legacy systems, including providing ongoing support or maintenance where needed.
- Find new ways of using technology, exploring opportunities for technical development and emerging technologies.
- Rapidly respond to changes in customer demand and market opportunities.
- Ensure that new innovations and improvements are introduced or expanded in a strategic way, focusing efforts on high-value projects.
- Evaluate, trial, and implement new technologies efficiently, based on user needs, performance, costs and technology.
- Challenge suppliers for functionality-rich, cost-effective, and customer-centric digital systems.
Managing projects and programmes:
- Delivery management: This enables councils to plan and execute complex digital transformations using structured methodologies, so that they can ensure projects deliver the intended strategic benefits and support continuous service improvement.
- Project Management: This enables councils to take a systematic approach to achieving specific objectives, and to establish the scope of work.
- Governance: This ensures that there is leadership, oversight, and overall direction for improvement programmes.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- Cyber incident response and recovery: This ensures that the council’s digital infrastructure is not only secure but resilient enough to evolve and adapt to sophisticated emerging threats as the technology estate improves.
- Cloud platforms and engineering: This enables councils to design and manage secure and resilient cloud infrastructure to ensure reliable service delivery and support modern ways of working.
Understanding and meeting users' needs:
- User experience evaluation: This enables councils to make continuous improvements to services based on user feedback.
- User research: This enables councils to maintain an understanding of users’ needs and identify new opportunities to meet those needs.
Understanding what the council needs from technology:
- Business analysis: This enables councils to maintain an ongoing understanding of business needs and opportunities for improvement.
- Business relationship management: This enables business areas to identify their respective and mutual objectives and ensure that solutions align with these objectives.
- Emerging technology monitoring: This enables councils to track and identify new tools, technologies, products, services, and techniques which could help to create efficiencies for services.
Innovation: This enables councils to identify ways to implement new and emerging technologies, products, services, methods, or techniques, so that the council can capture their benefits in practice. - Legacy system migration: This enables councils to systematically assess technical debt and create actionable migration roadmaps, ensuring that legacy systems are replaced before they become a risk to service continuity.
- Strategic planning: This enables councils to create a systematic approach to achieving their objectives.
- Supplier management: This enables councils to collaborate effectively with suppliers, to identify solutions which help the council to solve its problems or exploit opportunities.
