Full report
Background
In March 2024, the Local Government Association conducted a consultation, in the form of a short survey, to gather views on its recently published draft Cyber, Digital, Data and Technology (CDDaT) skills framework for local government (the ‘skills framework’). The purpose of the consultation was to ensure that the skills framework met the needs and expectations of councils, and to assess levels of interest in future developments of the framework.
Key findings
Responses were received from just 10 per cent of councils, which may reflect the level of awareness of the skills framework among councils. As such, the results of the survey should not be taken to be more widely representative of the views of all councils. Rather, they are a snapshot of the views of this particular group of respondents.
Most respondents thought the skills framework was useful for:
- ‘Identifying which skills are needed or missing to deliver your services’ strategic digitalisation objectives (55 per cent to a great extent and 35 per cent to a moderate extent).
- ‘Developing a better understanding of CDDaT skills in general’ (52 per cent to a great extent and 42 per cent to a moderate extent).
- ‘Developing a better understanding of the CDDaT skills needed to deliver your service’s strategic objectives’ (52 per cent to a great extent and 42 per cent to a moderate extent).
The additional features most respondents would find useful were ‘training and qualification pathways for each skillset’ (61 per cent) and ‘describing skills in levels from basic to advanced’ (58 per cent).
Almost all respondents said that they would find ‘a practical guide to using this framework for workforce planning’ very useful (65 per cent) or fairly useful (32 per cent). Similar proportions thought ‘a learning pathway toolkit’ would be very useful (61 per cent) or fairly useful (32 per cent).
The most common ways respondents thought they would use the skills framework were to conduct skills audits or maturity assessments and to help draw up job descriptions.
Over half of respondents (52 per cent) thought that the proposed strategic objectives were appropriate for digitalisation in councils to a great extent while 45 per cent thought so to a moderate extent.
The proposed strategic objectives aligned with 43 per cent of respondent council’s strategic objectives to a great extent, and to a moderate extent for a further 43 per cent.
All respondents thought that the skills listed in the framework reflected the CDDaT skills which are most useful and relevant to achieving councils’ digitalisation objectives (75 per cent to a great extent and 25 per cent to a moderate extent).