Last updated: 14 Sep 2020

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NOTE: this isn’t a draft, rather it’s a living document that will evolve with our thinking. We welcome comments and suggestions for its improvement.

LOTI Year 2 Strategy

@LOTI_LDN

www.loti.london

#LOTI

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Video overview of LOTI’s Year 2 Plans

About this strategy

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This strategy is being written for two main reasons.

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First, to identify what we will work on.

We’re a collective of organisations with a certain set of skills, resources and influence.

We want to use those strengths to work on impactful, meaningful things. However, we can’t do everything, so we must be clear on what things we believe to be the most important.

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Second, to ensure we can clearly articulate the ‘why’ of our work.

Without a clear narrative, we can’t inspire people to act, influence those audiences whose support and engagement is vital for our success, or fulfil our commitment to being transparent about our work.

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We work in a constant cycle of testing, learning and adapting.

This should therefore be considered a living document.

We welcome comments and suggestions for its improvement.

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We’re LOTI: the London Office �of Technology and Innovation.

LOTI was established to help its member boroughs collaborate on projects that bring the best of digital, data and innovation to improve public services and outcomes for Londoners.

The LOTI team consists of Eddie Copeland (Director), Genta Hajri (Programme Manager) Onyeka Onyekwelu (Strategic Engagement Manager) and Jay Saggar (Data Projects Manager)

Team

LOTI was launched on 10 June 2019 at London Tech Week and started its formal operations on 15 July 2019.

Operations

We’re funded by our core membership of 19 London boroughs, the GLA and London Councils. You can find us at London Councils’ offices at 59 ½ Southwark Street.

Funding

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Loti Core Boroughs �Other London Boroughs

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Crown Copyright and Database right (2019). Ordnance Survey. 100032216 GLA

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• Barnet
• Brent 
• Camden
• Ealing
• Enfield
• Greenwich 
• Hackney 
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Havering
• Hounslow

• Kensington �and Chelsea
• Kingston
• Lambeth
• Newham 
• Southwark 
• Sutton
• Tower Hamlets 
• Waltham Forest
• Westminster

Borough members:

LOTI’s Membership

Vision

The change we want �to see in the world

LOTI wants to see a future where �London’s public sector organisations �can thrive in the digital era, achieving �their best for London’s residents.

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Mission

Our role in realising �that vision

LOTI’s mission is to deliver real-world outcomes for Londoners by making collaboration on digital, data and innovation projects frictionless for �our members.

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Approach

The way we work

We focus on real-world outcomes: We don’t use tech and data for their own sake. They’re means to an end, and it’s the ends that we care about.

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We work in the open: By sharing our documents and thinking publicly, we can be held accountable and get useful feedback that increases the impact of our work.

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We believe in trial and improvement: We consciously carve out time to reflect on our ways of working, trial new things and learn and improve as we go.

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LOTI work in Year 1

LOTI began work on 15 July 2019 with a remit to help boroughs bring the best of digital, data and innovation to improve public services for Londoners. Our annual report provides a full overview of Year 1.

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In summary, we focused on three core areas:

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1. Fixing the plumbing - addressing long term barriers in skills (setting up a digital apprenticeships scheme); tech procurement (releasing the City Tools database of technologies powering London’s public services); and data collaboration (harmonising information governance rules and processes and finding better ways to share data between boroughs).

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• Covid Crisis response - troubleshooting on technical and data issues; sharing critical datasets, and creating guidance on public engagement.

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• Internet of Things for smart street infrastructure - co-creating guidance on how to use IoT technologies in public settings to benefit all Londoners.

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These activities have laid the groundwork for an even more ambitious agenda in Year 2.

Prioritisation criteria

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As we plan our Year 2 activities, we want to ensure that our strategic priorities - and the projects within them - focus on areas where:

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1. The work matters - the intended outcome is important, meaningful and supports our strategic goals

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• It plays to our expertise - there’s a clear role for digital, data and/or innovation

• We have power to make progress - it’s within our sphere of influence to make change happen

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• There’s clear added value from collaboration - we fulfil LOTI’s primary purpose�
• It’s compatible with the financial reality our members face - we strive to develop financially sustainable models.

How we decide what to work on

LOTI work in Year 2

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Core Pillars

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We’ve identified three core pillars of work that we believe meet our prioritisation criteria and which directly build on the activities we started in our first year.

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• Covid crisis response will transition into Covid Recovery.

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• Fixing the plumbing will transition into Developing Capabilities.

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• IoT for smart street infrastructure will transition into Smarter London.

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The next slides highlight the reasons why we believe these areas are important and worthy of LOTI’s time and focus, and what we aim to achieve.

Core pillars of Year 2

LOTI’s Strategic Priorities

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Covid Recovery

Objective: To help boroughs deliver a strong recovery for residents, with a specific focus on supporting vulnerable residents whose needs have increased as a result of Covid.

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Why’s it important? Covid has been the single most disruptive factor for London in a generation. Boroughs are at the forefront of helping their residents manage the rapidly changing impacts on their personal and work lives. During the crisis period, they performed remarkably: adapting or creating new services within days, putting in place the infrastructure to support and feed thousands of shielded residents; and even taking their democratic functions online (to name just a few successes).

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Yet their work has only just begun. Boroughs are now moving into recovery mode, whilst wanting to be prepared in case of a second wave. The needs of their residents have grown exponentially - often within groups who never previously relied on council support. At the same time, Covid has created a £1.4bn funding gap for London local government. Against that backdrop, the future will not be about returning to business as usual. Innovation will be key.

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Why should LOTI work on this? Digital, data and innovation - our core areas of strength - have played a massive role in the crisis period and will be key to recovery. New and more experimental approaches will need to be developed to meet emerging needs. For all its disruption, recovery presents an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the way services are delivered, to whom and why. LOTI can help boroughs increase their capacity to innovate, and reduce the risk, time and cost of trialing new approaches by working together and sharing their experiments.

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While Covid has created many different challenges, LOTI’s founding mission was to use digital, data and innovation to improve services and outcomes for Londoners. We believe we can make the greatest strides towards that goal by focusing our work on helping boroughs understand which residents’ needs have grown and in what ways; develop effective and sustainable ways to respond to those needs; and head off new needs from emerging by promoting inclusion.

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Covid Recovery

Our work plan

We plan to conduct work to help boroughs identify resident needs; address the needs of specific groups and individuals; and promote inclusion. The following six projects have been proposed by LOTI boroughs to deliver on our objective, and will form our initial activities in this area.

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1. Improving the way data is exchanged between local authorities, public sector partners and the VCS
2. Sharing data between boroughs to support track and trace
3. Using Assistive Technologies to improve the lives of vulnerable residents
4. Building local resilience networks between residents and key workers
5. Supporting borough involvement in the digital inclusion strand of the London Recovery Taskforce
6. Creating a Community Engagement Playbook.

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Projects 1 and 6 are being funded by the MHCLG’s C-19 Digital Fund, with the rest currently being designed and funded by LOTI.

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We expect that each of these projects will be starting point of further work to tackle vulnerability and promote inclusion during Covid recovery.

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Developing Capabilities

Objective: To help boroughs identify, understand and develop their capabilities to act as truly digital organisations.

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Why’s it important? LOTI wants to see a future where London’s public sector organisations can thrive in the digital era, achieving their best for their residents. The Covid experience has highlighted that organisations need to be ready and able to adapt at great speed to unpredictable events and crises. Council leaders have seen first hand the pivotal role that data and technology play in making that possible. Covid has also placed a new urgency on the need to find more effective and financially sustainable ways of working. To not just survive but thrive in this environment and meet the expectations of their residents, boroughs need to be able to innovate - both individually and collectively - and make the smartest use of all the best tools and methods at their disposal. They must also invest in people, creating an indiscriminate workforce that values talent and welcomes diversity in all its forms.

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Why should LOTI work on this? Data, technology and innovation methods are among the most powerful set of tools and approaches available to organisations. In Year 1, we spent considerable time on ‘fixing the plumbing’; addressing long-term barriers that have held councils back from getting the best value from digital and data. But simply fixing what’s broken is not enough. We need to help our members plan for how to excel in future.

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London’s boroughs are at different stages of their digital development journey. By working and learning together we can help identify what great practice looks like and work to develop those capabilities. In many areas, those capabilities will be enhanced through collaboration. We can create better skills development opportunities for staff when we do so at scale. We can shape the technology market by speaking with a collective voice. And we can address issues that transcend borough boundaries by sharing and collaborating with data.

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Developing Capabilities

Our work plan

Our work will take place on three main fronts: Digital leadership and Skills, Innovation in Procurement and Data Collaboration. Initial projects ideas are outlined below:

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• Digital leadership and Skills - increasing the number of borough digital apprentices and helping them take the next steps in their career journey in local government; developing a data apprenticeships programme; co-creating a digital, data and innovation reference model to help boroughs understand where and how to develop their capabilities; supporting the career progression of middle-tier digital officers in London boroughs with a specific aim is to increase diversity and representation.
• Innovation in Procurement - building on the work of City Tools, our work will include: launching a new platform called Thirty3 which helps boroughs understand the technologies and contracts powering borough public services and makes new tender opportunities more visible to SMEs; commissioning expert guidance on how to bring more innovation into boroughs’ procurement processes.
• Data Collaboration - seeing through our work to tackle common barriers to data collaboration and work directly with boroughs to: implement and use the new digital DPIA tool we have co-created with Greater Manchester and other partners; use the London DataStore as boroughs’ default data sharing platform; conduct data collaboration products that directly improve public services.

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LOTI is currently working with its members to identify other specific measures that can be taken to fulfil our aspirations in this area.

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Smarter London

Objective: To help boroughs make informed decisions about when and how to use smart city approaches to improve services and create a better and more inclusive city. We also want to avoid the scenario where, through lack of coordination, boroughs replicate with new smart city technologies the same problems they experience with their legacy technologies.

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Why’s it important?

London boroughs are looking at the potential for smart technologies - deployed in public areas like high streets, parks and town squares - to improve their services, boost their economies and enhance the quality of life of their residents. Yet many feel they lack the evidence and guidance on how to do this well. They are also aware of risks. New technology infrastructure can present new cyber security threats. Data collection by sensors in public spaces presents ethical and data privacy challenges and raises concerns by members of the public. The novel nature of this use of technology can make it hard for boroughs to make informed decisions about their effectiveness and business case.

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Why should LOTI work on this?

Boroughs and their residents will fail to get the full benefits of smart city technologies if they work in isolation. Without the kind of coordinated approach LOTI can offer, councils may inadvertently recreate the same data silos that cause so many difficulties with their existing technologies. By working together to define common standards and common terms for suppliers, boroughs can avoid these pitfalls. As a relatively new area of activity for boroughs, working together through LOTI will also allow them to learn much faster in building business cases, resolving cyber security issues and influencing the supplier market. Borough commissioners have lots of questions about how to use smart city tech well. LOTI can take the burden off them by finding the best answers once on behalf of all.

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Most of all, LOTI’s focus on using technology and data to achieve real-world outcomes can help boroughs ensure that investments in smart city technologies make a meaningful difference to their residents and communities.

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Smarter London

Our work plan

Our work is likely to focus on two core areas:

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1. Standards - we’ll be working with partners from the National Cyber Security Centre, Centre for the Protection of Public Infrastructure, Smart London Team and London Datastore Team to help boroughs identify where standards in data, cybersecurity and process can deliver better results for Londoners.

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• Practice - we’ll help boroughs replicate successful smart city use cases proven elsewhere, and trial and share the results of their own pilots.

Our Methods

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LOTI’s Outcomes-Based Methodology

LOTI uses an outcomes-based methodology; an extension of the Design Council’s Double Diamond approach.

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It’s intended to ensure that all our projects - and especially those likely to have a strong technology or data element - focus firmly on achieving real-world outcomes.

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By starting with the end in mind, it also:

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• Makes it easier to understand what problems and solutions are relevant. Problems are those things that currently prevent the outcome from being achieved. Solutions are those things that enable the outcome. Put differently, in the absence of a desired outcome, everything and nothing is a problem, and everything and nothing is a solution.

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• Makes iterative design work. Modern digital projects seek to test, learn and adapt in rapid cycles. By starting with an outcome in mind, projects can ensure this is a process of trial and improvement (each change steers closer towards the desired outcome) rather than endless trial and error.

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The methodology additionally builds in explicit prompts to consider not just the technology and data elements of any problem or solution, but factors related to people, processes and conditions. This is in recognition that, while powerful, technology and data are rarely the entire answer.

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For more detail on how to use the outcomes-based methodology, see: https://loti.london/resources/loti-outcomes-based-methodology/

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LOTI Outcomes-Based Methodology

OUTCOMES

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What real-world outcomes do we want to enable?

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(This is not the solution, tech or data.

1 - Direct

Start here ↓

PROBLEM

What specific problems or barriers are preventing that desired outcome?

ACTIONS

“WHO could do WHAT differently if they

had better information?”

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What’s the intervention?

ENABLERS

Beyond the data, what else is needed to achieve our desired outcome?

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What other enablers need to be present?

OUTCOMES

“Which specific people do we want to be better off in which specific ways because we acted?”

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What are our desired outcomes?

Start here

INSIGHTS

“What would we need to see on a screen

to enable the action?”

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“What data is required to create that view?

Can we access and use it legally and ethically?”

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What’s the data product?

LOTI Data Projects Methodology

Our Budget

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How we are funded

LOTI is funded by its core members, comprising 17 boroughs, the GLA and London Councils.

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For our first three years of operation, our funding arrangements are as follows:

• Each borough pays an annual membership of £30,000+VAT.
• Where a shared IT service representing two councils joins LOTI with just one main representative, the annual charge is £22,500+VAT for each council.
• London Councils contributes £100k annually.
• The GLA contributes £100k annually, as per the terms of a grant agreement with London Councils.

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At the start of Year 2, this gave us an annual income of £650,000.

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LOTI 2020/21 Budget

Funding Principles

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Any project funded by LOTI must:

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1. Be aligned with our core objectives

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• Use LOTI’s outcomes-based methodology (or data or AT equivalents)

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• Be supported and delivered by at least two LOTI boroughs

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• Be replicable by other LOTI boroughs (designed with wider adoption in mind, based on common standards/principles)

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• Gift their outputs to LOTI for dissemination and maintenance

LOTI funding principles

Engagement

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Strategic Engagement

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Across all our work, we engage and directly work with colleagues from our 17 member boroughs, the GLA and London Councils.

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Above and beyond those working relationships, we intend to look outwards to other individuals and organisations who can help maximise the impact of our work.

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The following slides provide an initial set of ideas of key contacts:

• Whose previous work can inform our activities
• Who we wish to involve directly in our projects
• Who we wish to influence
• Who we should keep informed

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We welcome readers’ suggestions for additional relationships we should seek to establish.

Using engagement strategically

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Developing Capabilities

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Covid Recovery

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Smarter London