Written Statement by , Cabinet Secretary for
Housing and Local Government
I am pleased to provide an update on
the Digital Health Action
Plan for the town and community council sector. This has
been a key initiative to strengthen the digital readiness of our
town and community council sector.
Over the past two years, the Digital Health Project Board,
chaired by One Voice Wales, has worked with partners to build
digital infrastructure, skills, and support for community and
town councils across Wales. The Welsh Government provided up to
£300,000 to support the board. I would like to thank the chair of
the board, Lyn Cadwallader (Chief Executive, One Voice Wales) for
his leadership. His report is attached. The report highlights
that building the digital readiness of the sector is a
work-in-progress and the two-year action plan played an important
part in adding pace and profile to digital working.
I welcome the activity so far which included tailored guidance,
support and training. The report reflects that the range of needs
across the sector is diverse. For some councils, there is a level
of digital readiness which means that guidance and training is
sufficient. For others, more tailored support is needed to build
understanding, capability, capacity and infrastructure.
Supporting this range of needs across over 700 councils is a
significant task. The report also reflects that becoming more
digitally ready is difficult, especially where users are far from
experts. I am grateful to the project board for being pragmatic
and agile enough to respond to the context of digital readiness
in the sector.
It is Councils' readiness to learn from, and work with, the
broader local government family that is important. The
Memorandum of Understanding signed between One Voice Wales and
the Welsh Local Government Association provides the right
platform to continue to support the digital development of
community and town councils.
I want to thank One Voice Wales for leading this important work,
and to all those involved in the progress made so far. I will
work with One Voice Wales to support and monitor the sector's
digital readiness for the benefit of their communities.
