North Yorkshire Digital Strategy

About the Strategy

This plan sets out the digital strategy for North Yorkshire, it gives clear direction as to how North Yorkshire will become a smart county. It is a response to the massive changes as the ‘Digital Revolution’ accelerates and impacts on the county, our citizens and businesses in fundamental ways.

This strategy will focus on five core objectives:

• Thinking and Working Smarter: Accelerating digital transformation in the public sector
• Digital and Smart Communities: Invest in our communities to develop sustainable neighbourhoods
• Skills for a Digital Age: Collaborate with partners to  grow digital skills and talent to harness the opportunities offered by the digital world
• Connected North Yorkshire: Enabling the county to be better connected
• Smart Businesses and Growth: North Yorkshire is digitally enabled to be the catalyst for economic growth

What will success look like?

The citizen of the future will be able to access the services they need through the most appropriate channel. Routine transactions will be conducted via self-service and customers will have the choice of having their own public service account. They will be supported by public sector staff who have access to and are able to use technology to find the information they need, supported by streamlined processes and new ways of working. Technology will be harnessed to automate as much routine and transactional activity as possible, allowing staff to focus on actions that add value to North Yorkshire and its residents. Working and living in a smart county where connectivity is the norm through a combination of public sector points of access and public services Wi-Fi. Citizens and businesses will have access to high speed, broadband across the county, supported by a strong culture of digital skills.

Vision - “To become a smart County that uses technology in our operations and service delivery to improve the outcomes and the lives of the people we serve”

Objective	Thinking and Working Smarter Accelerating digital transformation in the public sector	Digital and Smart Communities Invest in our communities to develop sustainable neighbourhoods	Skills for a Digital Age Collaborate with partners to  grow digital skills and talent to harness the opportunities offered by the digital world	Connected North Yorkshire Enabling the county to be better connected	Smart Businesses and Growth North Yorkshire is digitally enabled to be the catalyst for economic growth
Key actions	Services are accessible 24/7 Use customer data and intelligence to re-design services Stimulate innovation and collaboration through open data and information sharing initiatives Use mobile & remote working technologies	• Enable all to get the most out of the available technology • Support communities and vulnerable groups who find accessing our services difficult • Ensuring efficient & accessible face to face provision to council services • Deliver SMART projects to provide more efficient services	Developing the digital capability and skills of pupils, students, workforces and the community Promoting a digital culture Encourage digital thinking Create partnerships with business / other public sector organisations to learn from best practices.	Improved access to broadband coverage Improved broadband speeds especially those in rural areas Improved access to free public Wi-Fi Increased access to 3, 4G and 5G networks Incorporate new technologies as they emerge	Invest in modern technology to create jobs and stimulate economic growth Help transform sectors with digital knowledge Utilise improving digital infrastructure within the county to improve tourism within North Yorkshire
What will success look like	Improved customer experience & decision making Digitally enabled products and services Delivery of value for money services by “getting it right first time” Improved services and delivering cost savings	Vulnerable residents have the ability to enhance their digital skills and confidence Communities can access social, medical and remote care technology allowing greater independence Close the digital divide	Digitally skilled young people to prevent a future skills gap Improved future employability and a talent pool upon which local businesses can draw upon Digitally skilled communities Digital workforce and culture deeply embedded	All businesses and communities have the ability to access high-quality broadband so that they can enjoy the same social, economic & environmental benefits available to others in other parts of the country	Increased economic growth Digital businesses invest in North Yorkshire Location based data and services promote tourism, local businesses and attractions

Our Principles

Person centred digital change

Many organisations have been designed to reflect internal structures and reflect processes that have built up over time. We will change this by putting our customers at the centre of the way we work. We will put ourselves in the customer's shoes and re-imagine services around them, using digital tools to make their experience of interacting with us smoother and quicker. We will develop relationships with our customers where they feel confident that the feedback they provide will be acted upon.

Digital by Default

Many of the services we provide are physical products such as recycling collections or care for vulnerable adults. These may not be digital products but the processes that enable someone to receive these services can become digital to the fullest possible extent. To ensure we are digital by default our services will be designed to be as digital and automated as possible. 

However we do recognise that not everyone is able to access services digitally. This may be because of financial constraints or because they do not have the skills. We are committed to ensuring services will be, where appropriate, digital by design but include options to enable customers who require help to access services in traditional ways.

Safe and secure access

Cyber crime is a global problem. It is usually carried out over the Internet and can take many forms. Information security and protecting privacy are key foundations for ensuring the success and sustainability of our digital developments. We will ensure that our customers, citizens, businesses and our own organsaition are safe by: 

• education and awareness for staff
• invest in our security measures
• compliance with security and data protection legal and regulatory standards
• hold accurate and up to date information
• improve our day to day management of data
• ensure our online services are trusted and protect the identifies of the citizens and businesses using them

Research and Innovation

We will constantly assess ourselves to ensure that innovation takes place through the provision of more-effective products, processes, services and technologies. We will try new things and not be afraid to fail. We will learn from the things that we do. We will fail fast and fail forward.

Data and Analytics

“To help the organisation understand the value of it’s data, embrace a data-driven culture; and to provide data solutions that drive evidence based decision making ”

Empower people to make the right decisions at the right time using the right information

• accessible, available and accurate so everyone can intelligently analyse and interrogate. Using Natural Language to bridge the technical skill barrier
• disrupt the current way we capture data to be a more value-based discussion on how we design service and business process so that we can reduce waste
• the right tools, skills and professional networks in place to support analytics in the business as well as further develop analytic capability in the centre

Be a modern county, and use data collaboratively so people can make the best choices regardless where information may reside

• Working more closely with partners, so that we may jointly gain insight have a more informed approach thinking agnostic of partnership boundaries
• Using standards, we promote frictionless sharing with more effort on analysis than curation
• Be more open and transparent so we can foster public confidence in how we’re using and sharing data
• We work with our partners on collaborative analyses, setting up networks where our scarce data science resource can work on cross partner challenges

Data is used innovatively and sensitively; using analytics and data science to support improvements in service

• working ethically, seeking guidance from academics and partners and acting openly and transparently
• creating a data science centre of excellence, with the business and technical teams to establish and support a methodology from which complex analyses can be performed
• to identify and drive innovative data solutions to situations within the business area – focussing on more efficient evidence gathering, automated decision making, data driven automation and improving customer interaction

Internet User Classification

The 2018 Internet User Classification (IUC) is a classification that describes how people living in different parts of Great Britain interact with the Internet. Engagement with the Internet has an important influence on the take-up of digital services provided by the public sector. Understanding this geography is critically important to mitigate digital inequality, and the IUC for North Yorkshire will provide a means of targeting interventions necessary to ensure smooth transitions to digital service use at the local level. Internet user classification dashboard.

e-Cultural Creators

High levels of internet engagement, particularly regarding social networks, communication, streaming and gaming, but relatively low levels of online shopping, beside groceries 

e-Professionals

High levels of internet engagement, and comprises fairly young populations of urban professionals, typically aged between 25 and 34. They are experienced users and engage with the internet daily and in a variety of settings.

e-Veterans

Affluent families, usually located within low-density suburbs, with populations mainly middle-aged and highly qualified professionals. Higher levels of engagement for information seeking, online services and shopping, less for social networks or gaming. 

Youthful Urban Fringe

Reside at the edge of city centres and deprived inner city areas, ethnically diverse, young, large student and informal household population, access via mobile devices. High levels of internet engagement are average overall, with high levels of social media usage.

e-Rational

Utilitarian's Comprising mainly rural/semi rural areas with higher than average retired populations, constrained by poor infrastructure. Users undertake online shopping, the internet is uses as a utility rather than a conduct for entertainment 

e-Mainstream

Exhibit typical internet user characteristics in heterogeneous neighbourhoods at the periphery of urban areas or in transitional neighbourhoods.

Passive and uncommitted users

Limited or no interaction with the internet. They tend to reside outside city centres and close to the suburbs  or semi-rural areas. Higher levels of employment in semi skilled occupations.

Digital Seniors

Typically retired and relatively affluent. Average use of the internet, typically using a personal computer at home. Despite being infrequent users, they are adept enough to use the internet for information seeking, financial services and online shopping.

Settled offline communities

Elderly in semi rural areas. They undertake only limited engagement with the internet, they may have only are access or indeed no access to it at all. 

e-Withdrawn

Least engaged with the internet. Deprived neighbourhoods of urban regions. Highest rate of unemployment and social housing. Lowest rates of engagement in terms of information seeking and financial services, as well as the lowest rate in terms of online access via mobile device.