Third Sector Leeds, Forum Central and Voluntary Action Leeds are, today, releasing our short briefing paper on Community and Third Sector needs from Digital Transformation. The paper draws together feedback from our members and highlights digital priorities where we are working with our Council and Health colleagues to make progress. Rather than getting into any of the detail, this paper sets out what we see as the main areas we all need to focus on, these are:

  • Provision and translation of core activities – finding ways that enable the third sector to go further faster in developing digital and ‘hybrid’ services
  • Digital Integration – developing the service directories and other tools that enable citizens, third sector organisations and strategic partners (policy makers, funders and commissioners) to navigate our systems and third sector services
  • Data sharing – building integrated data platforms that are inclusive of key third sector partners
  • Digital inclusion – continuing to invest in work that helps citizens develop the tech skills and access the necessary hardware to engage with the digital world; and continuing to work with the third sector as a key partner in this work

In the coming years it will be increasingly important for third sector organisations to keep up with digital developments, in line with the needs of the people of Leeds. We will work closely with city partners, in pursuit of shared objectives, to ensure that new innovations are inclusive of the third sector. We know that discussions about digital are not for everyone, and the digital conversation is a broad and complex one, but it is an important conversation for the sector to have.  

We understand that the Leeds Digital Strategy will be published in the near future and we will be taking forward our work to influence the implementation of the strategy under the aforementioned four areas. 

We would like to facilitate a conversation with the third sector around the topics covered in the paper. If you’d like to be part of this discussion, please complete this form.