Below is the text of a recently approved grant fund application:

Proposed event: South Peer Group (and potential teacamps).

Description: The LocalGovDigital Peer Groups have been established to help local authorities get together regularly through the year and collaborate in discussing and implementing the Local Government Digital Service Standard (adapted from the GDS Digital Service Standard).

Currently these events are run by the organisers putting their hands in their pockets to buy refreshments as there is no funding. The London Group has also begun Teacamps, and the South Group is looking to do the same this year. We’ve recently introduced a speaker attending.

Initially this is a request for the South Group but the Peer Group network as a whole does require some financial help in running.

How much they want: £150.

What they would use the funding for:

  • Refreshments for South Peer Group sessions (4 x year)
  • Materials for meetings (pens, post-its, flipcharts etc)
  • Reimbursing speaker travel costs
  • Booking/reserving space in a Reading cafe for teacamps (? x year)

About them: Neil Lawrence is a Digital Development Manager for Oxford City Council. We want to support the LocalGov Digital network as it is the best mechanism for digital practitioners to network and collaborate. I run the South Peer Group and we’ve had two meetings so far. We’re currently discussing a teacamp format as an addition, but I’m concerned about the costs this could push onto me. We managed to get a great (local) speaker at our last event on the free, and are likely to have someone from GDS as our next speaker, but being able to offer a small contribution to someone would make me feel less like I’m sponging off their goodwill.