Navigating the Future: Local Government Transformation

As gossip about s114s swirl, and the sector waits on tenterhooks to see which council might fail next, it is clear (and unsurprising) that the financial pressures on local government continue to be significant. Budgets are going down and cost pressures are going up, with the sector simultaneously facing high inflation and increasing demand, with reduced resilience to manage unexpected costs.

Alongside this pressure there is also opportunity; conversations continue about the new normal for the workforce in a post-pandemic world, and while there is significant debate about the ethics and applicability of AI, it is clear that there are digital solutions available now, that would have seemed like science fiction a decade ago.

This is the context for transformation programmes up and down the country – built on the promise of trying to deliver something better for your people, with less resource. Transformation is not a new concept in local government, but the scale of what might be possible seems greater than ever.

Expectations of Transformation

The risk of being left behind is greater too. The customers of the council are varied – residents, visitors, businesses, other part of the public sector and voluntary organisations all transact with local government, and also transact with a wide array of other organisations. And the majority of other organisations are now presenting an easy to use, digital first interface, in retail “frictionless shopping” has driven incredibly user-friendly, customer focussed experiences, which have simultaneously reduced the workforce and asset requirements of the sector. People’s expectations are set by the interactions they have in their daily lives, and many councils struggle to meet these expectations.

While technology is changing rapidly, technology alone won’t resolve the challenges that councils face, it can only ever been an enabler. Instead, the first step for councils needs to be understanding the patterns of interactions they have with their customers at a council wide level, and then investing in good user centred service and process design.

While local government is improving the data it has access to, decisions will often have to be made with imperfect data. This is a risk to be managed, but through doing the transformation there is an opportunity to reduce this risk in the future, through setting up the data collection, and data intelligence processes which will enable local government to measure and manage better in the future.

The case for change

Finally, to deliver transformation senior leadership, support and accountability are key, but so is the cross organisational buy-in to the changes that are being made. To achieve this the case for change needs to be clear. No council is perfect and we can all recognise how we can make things better for residents, more efficient, smarter – linking into that knowledge and utilising it is essential.