Theme 1 - Digital Thurrock
We will create a connected place where technology supports and enables – bringing people together, driving economic growth, improving the quality of life, and contributing to Thurrock being a digitally connected place where residents and businesses can thrive.
The outcome aims of this workstream are that:
- more people in Thurrock have better access to information via technology
- Thurrock has a digitally capable population who can access the jobs of tomorrow and employers can access a locally grown, technology-savvy workforce
- Thurrock develops a vibrant digital business sector that contributes to the economic growth of the borough
- businesses choose to stay and grow in Thurrock
- new developments are designed for a digital future
To do this we will:
- deliver a council-wide transformation programme enabled by technology to meet our customer needs through User-Centred Design and a Human Learning Systems approach
- support services, existing community groups and strategic partners to put digital enablement and skills where people can find them easily
- support development of assistive technology to improve the quality of life for our older and more vulnerable customers and leverage the benefits of AI (Artificial Intelligence)
- review our websites, making them more accessible where appropriate
- review all current digital services, technologies and platforms giving us the solid-data and platform we need to plan effectively for future service provision
- improve the connectivity and access to the internet by deploying enabling technologies such as a new WAN, 5G, LoRa WAN and public access Wi-Fi
- develop ways to improve the management of public assets for services such as smart parking, smart benches, and digital signage
- improve our use of data to provide more intelligent analytics to better predict needs and requirements for social care, health, housing, and planning
- support technology delivery for integrated medical centres
- support delivery of new digital services to improve customer and user experience
- design new developments and infrastructure to encompass digital technologies by default
- develop new testing regimes to ensure that contractors charged with designing software deliver on design specifications, and user-friendliness is verified through 'mystery shopper' style exercises.
Digital Thurrock – progress so far:
- successfully secured £4m of Government funding to deliver a Local Full Fibre Network, significantly improving access to the internet for Thurrock and surrounding areas. We have also secured a further £2.5m to increase the coverage across Essex
- implemented a £400k technology modernisation programme at all our libraries. As a result, people can access our services via tablet kiosks, access the internet, undertake personal computing and printing, attend coding clubs with the introduction to IT taster sessions
- hosted the GovRoam service, enabling other local authorities in Essex to work seamlessly at other Essex sites