The charity founded in 2001 procures, develops and delivers technology and educational content including broadband connections, filtering and safeguarding services, devices and software and licences.

LGfL started in London but is now a nationwide organisation winning multiple awards such as ERA Education Supplier of the Year (not for profit).

LGfL's origins can be traced to the late 1990s when local authorities in London combined to access government grants to provide broadband and digital services for schools.

LGfL's initial purpose was to leverage purchasing power in the provision of broadband and related digital services for all member schools.

[5] LGfL was one of 8 local authority led consortiums formed across the country in the late 1990s to access government grants with the aim of providing every school with broadband as part of the National Grid for Learning.

Though a local authority led approach proved useful in the early planning stages by 2000 it became clear that a corporate body in the form of a charitable trust would better serve the children and schools in London and in particular the roll out of the broadband and digital services.

To fund the project, Chief Executive Brian Durrant announced that surplus bandwidth would be sold off to other organisations, including non-educational ones.

[10] Dennis Stevenson, who had outlined a vision the use of IT in schools in his 1997 report 'Connecting the Learning Society', described the launch of the LGfL as a 'defining moment' in realising that dream.

[18] As part of the new contract with Virgin Media LGfL launched a national service for schools and Multi Academy Trusts called Trustnet.

The service proved popular and potential claims exceeded £40M a year by 2023 providing additional resources for schools, particularly in areas of social and economic deprivation.

[19] In 2016 John Jackson was appointed as CEO and focused on intensifying LGfL's "value-added" approach, bundling a wide range of additional services, product licences and content alongside Internet access.

[20] During COVID-19, the Department for Education (DfE) awarded a contract to train and support teachers across England to harness remote learning and make use of cloud platforms from Google and Microsoft.

[27] LGfL contributed to the development of DfE Guidance for Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)[28] and Tackling Extremism.

LGfL's research also found that there was significant risk of criminals recruiting young and vulnerable children by buying them food and gifts in local burger bars and take aways, known as Chicken Shop Grooming.

The executive board of trustees is composed of representative directors of children's services and local authority officers responsible for the implementation of ICT in schools.

[32] The inaugural Chief Executive of LGfL was Brian Durrant, who in July 2015 announced he would retire the following year and was succeeded as CEO by John Jackson.