Digital Glasgow – Exemplar Blueprint for Growing a Local Digital Economy

Glasgow offers an exemplar of how regional digital strategies form the component parts of an overall Digital Nation program.

In their online report Scotland’s largest city has published its first digital plan since 2018, with a focus on enabling citizens to get the most out of tech, rather than on major reform schemes.

The six-year strategy is aimed at triggering organisational change to balance the benefits of digital with people’s digital rights. The council says that, unlike its previous strategy, “it is not a technology strategy, and cannot be delivered by technology alone”.

Localizing a Digital Nation Action Plan

This approach is important because while Central Government can define the high level policy programs, for example an ambition for the UK to lead in AI, the practical ‘rubber meets the road’ execution occurs at a very local level, and to this end local government also needs policy blueprints to work from.

Glasgow offers such a blueprint, with their strategy articulating three core missions of:

• A Fair and Empowered Digital Society, to be achieved through goals including i) Improve Digital Inclusion and Equality, ii) Build Confidence and Trust in Digital Services and iii) Increase Involvement and Participation.
• An Inclusive Digital Economy, where citizens are equipped with digital skills through working with education partners, and with goals to: i) Improve the Availability, Capacity, and Quality of Digital Connectivity, ii) Develop the pipeline of digital skills, providing opportunities for all and iii) Improve opportunities for Glasgow’s tech ecosystem.
• Deliver Sustainable and Innovative Digital Public Services, the principle use of IT by the council to deliver online services, with goals to i) Improve the efficiency, resilience, and agility of our operations, ii) Improve the Customer Experience of our Services, and iii) Redesign services to improve outcomes for our citizens and communities.

There is then an accompanying Action Plan for each mission, and case study examples of projects to deliver on these goals, such as a Glasgow Code Learning and economic industry innovation programs, such as a Telecomms Unit.

The essential dynamic that this program demonstrates is that the council’s Digital Government strategy builds on a foundation of it’s own IT systems being used to deliver the core online services, but expands well beyond this to address the whole scope of the local digital economy, from skills for local residents through efforts to grow it’s technology sector.

Glasgow City councillor Paul Leinster said: “The new Digital Glasgow Strategy recognises the increased role that digital technology and services will play in the future, and sets out the key actions to deliver the key priorities of the strategy. These priorities include not only the delivery of innovative digital public services that bring an improved experience for all those who receive them; but also make our digital economy more inclusive, to increase opportunities and develop skills; and to encourage and enable greater digital inclusion, participation and confidence.”