Digital Planning Improvement Fund (DPIF)

As part of the onboarding process you will attend onboarding calls (on Microsoft Teams) and take part in activities to begin you DPIF journey. Below you can find the list of onboarding calls with links to the recordings of previous sessions.

Onboarding calls:

• Welcome to Open Digital Planning (ODP): to learn more about the ODP Community and how you will get involved
• Welcome to Digital Planning Improvement Fund (DPIF): to understand the expectations of being part of the DPIF
• Tools 101: to learn about the tools we use in ODP and how you will use them. You can find information about these here.
• Data 101: to learn about data standards and the datasets you will be providing on the DPIF
• Onboarding drop-ins: short sessions during your first month on the programme to ask any questions
• Digital Planning Maturity Assessment (DPMA) support session: come along to ask any questions you have whilst you are completing your DPMA. You can find more information completing the DPMA here.
• Various weekly introductory learning session (101s)

Activities:

• Completing a DPMA
• Completing an Action Plan, following on from your DPMA

Once you have completed the onboarding activities and sessions you will begin business-as-usual activities, which can be found in the next section.

If you or any team members need access or need to be added to the system, please complete this form.

Once you have completed onboarding, you will begin business-as-usual sessions and activities. The expectation is that you complete your DPIF activities within 12 months of starting. The sessions and activities are:

• Attending your regular meetings (schedule available here)
• Working on improving and providing your data (guidance here)
• Delivering your action plan activities
• Monthly reporting on Delta and sharing monthnotes on Slack (guidance here). You will be contacted to let you know when you need to begin reporting and will continue reporting until your dataset work in complete.
• Attending ongoing learning and development opportunities (information here)
• Engaging with ODP Community (information below)

Community Managers share a Slack message on the DPIF Channel at the start of the week to summarise key activity happening that week - do take a look!

Planning data support

You will be provided with various support to complete the work on your datasets:

• Guidance on how to prepare and submit your datasets is available on check and provide planning data. Your first step should be to read through the guidance, which outlines the process in full.
• There are regular data drop-ins to support you on your journey where the Planning Data team will be present to answer any of your questions that are not covered in the guidance.
• You can ask other LPAs questions in the help-data-support channel.
• You can also email DigitalLand@communities.gov.uk 

We continuously improve the support we offer by working with LPAs, please get in touch to let us know issues you are facing.

Engaging with the ODP Community

Many LPAs tell us that one of the most valuable aspects of the programme is the opportunity to connect and collaborate with others who are facing similar challenges and exploring similar opportunities in digital planning. 

Visit this page to explore collaboration models and practical tips to help you work effectively with other LPAs.

We encourage the use of Slack to communicate with other LPAs and your Community Managers. 

In-person events

We host a series of events throughout the year, offering great opportunities to connect and collaborate with other LPAs working across ODP. Upcoming and past events can be found on the events page. You can use your DPIF funding to cover travel expenses.

Repeating the DPMA

After one year of completing your Digital Planning Maturity Assessment (DPMA), you’ll be asked to complete a second assessment. This follow‑up DPMA helps you review your progress, understand how your digital maturity has developed, and reflect on your performance over the past year. You will be contacted when it is time to start completing your second assessment.

Local Planning Authorities have flexibility in how they use their funding to improve digital and data maturity. The guidance below outlines what is eligible and what is not. If you’re considering using your funding for something not listed here, please get in touch with one of your community managers for support.

Eligible Funding Uses

You can use your funding to support work that contributes to long‑term digital improvement, including:

• A clearly defined set of digital improvement activities
• Training and development based on identified needs
• Bringing in people or expertise to deliver digital planning improvements
• Preparing for legislative changes and improved services 

Ineligible Funding Uses

Funding cannot be used for work that does not support sustainable digital transformation, such as:

• Speculative projects
• Projects involving current or potential software providers
• Software licences or subscriptions
• Software that solves a short-term problem but does not support your departments longer term digital journey
• Hardware purchases

The Digital Planning Improvement Fund is helping to transform planning processes across many local planning authorities.

To find out more take a look at the Westminster City Council,  Horsham District Council and East Cambridgeshire District Council case studies.

After joining Open Digital Planning, the councils:

• Completed comprehensive Digital Planning Maturity Assessments to identify strengths and improvement opportunities
• Made significant progress in harnessing their data more effectively
• Implemented digital solutions that have streamlined planning processes

Read their full case studies and others on our Open Digital Planning website. Why not share your progress in a case study to promote the journey you're on and inspire others. Speak to a community manager or share your details in this form.