A new group has come together to support Dorset’s vision to make the county a Digital Place and be at the front of digital change.

The Digital Place programme board will support the team at Dorset Council in its work to use emerging and new digital technologies to help create vibrant, safe, healthy and prosperous places that meet the current and future needs of communities, businesses and visitors.

Ian Girling, chief executive at Dorset Chamber of commerce and Industry, is one of the board members. He said: “I’m very excited about the things that this new board plans to achieve and I’m very pleased to be part of it.

“The work we are doing will help people use new technologies to make their lives easier and bring them new opportunities. We will also keep pushing for greater digital connectivity across Dorset which will lead to a whole range of benefits for anyone in Dorset including transforming public services and driving economic growth for the county. The opportunities for businesses are huge and this is very timely given the transformation we have seen in business models over the last 9 months.”

The board will make sure that as well as connectivity and infrastructure, Dorset residents will have the skills they need to be able to interact digitally and that businesses will therefore have access to people with the digital skills they need.

Cllr Peter Wharf, Deputy Leader of Dorset Council, also sits on the board. He said: “People are sometimes put off by the word digital, but it simply means using data and technology to improve people’s lives, listening to what they need and understanding their experience to design solutions.

“The most important thing is not the technology itself, but what we do with that technology and how we give everyone the skills they need to make the most of it.”

Some of the projects that the board will be looking at include developing a Dorset Skills Partnership, trialling the use of 5G in novel ways and projects to reduce the off-line population of Dorset, particularly through the use of volunteer digital champions to provide basic digital skills training.

Mr Girling added: “Everything will come together under digital leadership which will set the digital aspiration for Dorset and help us to increase the things we can do and create a truly digital culture.

“This will make a real difference to people’s lives and bring great benefits for anyone who lives and works in Dorset or who visits.”

The programme board is responsible for work such agreeing funding, making decisions over work programmes, being accountable for delivery of contracts and identifying further digital opportunities.

The board is made up of representatives from a number of Dorset organisations who are all working together including Dorset Council, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council, Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership, Dorset CCG, Dorset Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Dorset Parish and Town Councils.