Welcome to our new blog, we're excited to be able to share our work in Blackburn with Darwen with a wider audience. We want to do our work in the open in this way so that we can share and learn with others but also provide transparency around what we do, especially with our local residents, services and partners.

Our directorate was formed in Summer 2018 and brings together tech, project & change, training, information governance and business support, all in all around 130 team members. Over the past 12 months we've been busy restructuring the team, changing roles and recruiting new people to fill key areas. In February we signed up to the Local Government Digital Declaration, so it's fair to say it's a busy, challenging and exciting time to be here. 

Recently we've set out our vision and business plan in answer to the council's new corporate plan

Our Digital & Business Change business plan sets out 3 main areas;

1. Modern Council - This is about using our skills to facilitate service design, provide better technology, transform the residents online experience and link better with local partners like the NHS.

2. Connecting People & Places - We will increase Wi-Fi in our community buildings, coordinate digital skills offers for the public and develop and test a digital health & care hub model, starting in Blackburn Central Library.

3. Improving digital opportunities - This involves us working across public, private and charitable sectors to increase digital jobs, provide more opportunity to gain advanced digital skills and provide the right environment for existing businesses and new digital entrepreneurs to flourish. 

Work is already underway in all of these areas and our first major product has been a new council website launched in July this year. We've recently started to embed new Agile ways of working, with training for 15 of the team by the Government Digital Service. More of which will be covered on this site as we go.   

So that's an introduction to what we're doing, I hope you find interest in what we do.