Decision details

Officer decision to accept two Department for levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) digital funding streams, as follows;
1)DLUHC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) participation funding totalling £65,000. The Council was approached by DLUHC to participate in their local government CAF pilot work across twenty local authorities nationally. Our engagement was principally based upon previous successful digital engagement works with DLUHC.
2)A DLUHC Digital Planning Improvement funding totalling £100,000.
There is no accompanying report.
The DLUHC CAF pilot work is a modest additional resourcing extension to the already programmed (and resourced) cyber-security CAF governance challenge work that forms part of the Council’s annual cyber-security self-assessment review against a range of National Cyber security centre mandatory standards and best-practice.
The Council was approached by DLUHC to participate in their local government CAF pilot work with participation across twenty local authorities nationally. Our engagement was principally reputational and based upon previous successful digital engagement works with DLUHC.
The CAF cyber-security self-assessment is currently mandatory for critical national infrastructure providers and central government and is anticipated to become mandatory for local government within the medium-term.
The DLUHC digital improvement funding will part-fund a collaborative programme of works with other Essex local authority members of the Essex Digital Partnership (EDP). The programme is at the Phase One investigative/ feasibility stage with funding to be committed to the Phase two Delivery Phase.

Officer decision to accept two Department for levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) digital funding streams, as follows;
1)DLUHC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) participation funding totalling £65,000. The Council was approached by DLUHC to participate in their local government CAF pilot work across twenty local authorities nationally. Our engagement was principally based upon previous successful digital engagement works with DLUHC.
2)A DLUHC Digital Planning Improvement funding totalling £100,000.
The decision has been undertaken following the Council's established funding acceptance checks and procedures.

1)Cyber-security attack is a significant risk to the Council and the self-assessment pilot challenge work focusses on compliance with NCSC best-practices and security standards - doing nothing is not a viable governance nor security position hence a 2024 CAF review was already programmed and resourced.
2)Declining the CAF funding was clearly an option but was dismissed given the already programmed works and modest additional resourcing of pilot participation (and sharing feedback).
3)The Essex Digital Partnership (EDP) has been developing a programme of collaborative works for almost 12 months based upon a shared commitment/ resourcing approach. The Phase One ‘audit review works’ are being funded through existing budgets without commitment to Phase two delivery at this time. Once Phase Two is fully scoped/ costed and understood the Council (and other Essex partners) will decide a business-case rationale as to whether to proceed with Phase Two delivery. DLUHC funding will part-fund this phase hence there is no rationale for refusing this funding. However, and subject to Phase One feasibility study, the Council may decide that Phase two is not feasible and/or not financially viable given available budgets and resources.