Back in June, William Barker from DCLG was our very first guest author on the blog - he's back with an update on the Grey Cells project.
Top down thinking and decision making no longer delivers the range of services that communities want. Open Policy Making is about broadening the range of people we engage with, using the latest tools and techniques and taking a more agile and iterative approach.
DCLG’s "Grey Cells" Open Policy Making Initiative working with the Transformation Network has been joining-up the "grey cells" of user experience, innovation, new thinking and service transformation – using a people and places centred approach to explore how digital technology and approaches can make a positive difference.
We have been looking at the following issues:
Digital Inclusion – Helping understand the key steps that places need to take to help people become more confident online , DCLG has been running <a href="
With the recent publication of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Strategy, the DCLG Local Digital Campaign hosted a special workshop bringing together cross-government policy makers, practitioners and partners to examine the lessons and opportunities arising from digital inclusion pilot projects.
With the recent publication of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Strategy, the DCLG Local Digital Campaign hosted a special workshop bringing together cross-government policy makers, practitioners and partners to examine the lessons and opportunities arising from digital inclusion pilot projects.
With the recent publication of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Strategy, the DCLG Local Digital Campaign hosted a special workshop bringing together cross-government policy makers, practitioners and partners to examine the lessons and opportunities arising from digital inclusion pilot projects.
https://storify.com/CommunitiesUK/local-digital-campaign-digital-inclusion-workshop">Policy into Practice workshops and developing a policy makers digital inclusion policy checklist around how digital inclusion should be at the heart of local service delivery and transformation.
#Better Services - Grey Cells has been gathering the evidence on how digital approaches can help transform services and transform lives. The Grey Cells connections database highlights over 300 local case studies of how places have engaged with local people around service re-design and digital delivery.
Elders as Assets - Smarter working and digital solutions can help to transform older people's lives. DCLG and Government Office for Science hosted a "Digital Connectivity for Older People" strategic roundtable to help develop a Grey Cells-resource pack that provides links to place-based initiatives from combatting isolation, to safety in the home, online support for dementia sufferers and their carers and tracker for local support services.
Digitalising Government – the Transformation Challenge Panel report highlighted the need for rapid digitisation to underpin service transformation. In response the Grey Cells wrote a keynote blog on digitising government and the opportunities for better local services which provides a link to draft Digital Connectivity blueprint a new open policy making tool, developed by Grey Cells team, to help wider open policy making around what it is required to support digital delivery, design, data analytics and thinking around devolution to improve services and solutions.
William Barker is Head of Technology Strategy and Digital Futures at DCLG; he Visiting Fellow at Brunel University looking at the wider implications of digital government for policymakers and practitioners.
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