Local government in the digital space: Reflections from the LGA conference

In this article, Molly Gavriel, Senior Business Analyst at dxw, reflects on her highlights from the recent LGA conference, particularly around what local authorities are doing in the digital space. She explores some examples of technology-use, innovation and best practice to help us all learn more about the challenges and constraints. 

At the end of October, I attended the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate. The event was an opportunity to catch up with the work local authorities are doing in this space. I was interested to find out more about how local authorities are using technology, to hear examples of innovation and best practice and learn more about their challenges and constraints. This article reflects on three of the key digital themes from the conference:

1. Inclusion
2. Aritifical Intelligence
3. Skills 

Inclusion 

Despite the seemingly all-encompassing role of technology in our everyday lives, digital access is far from universal. The LGA conference provided a stark reminder of this fact. At a very basic level, research estimates that between 6% – 9% of UK households have no access to broadband internet. 

This poses a significant challenge to local authorities, who are increasingly delivering public services digitally. On an individual level, barriers to inclusion stop many local residents from accessing appropriate support and opportunities to participate in their community. Nationally, Good Things Foundation estimates that digital inclusion could lead to £1.4bn in productivity gains, with every £1 invested in digital access potentially generating £9 in returns. 

While a lack of digital skills and connectivity is often talked about in the context of older and rural populations, it was notable that the theme of digital access and inclusion was highlighted so clearly by representatives of a number of urban authorities – I attended sessions led by council leaders in Salford, Leeds and Greenwich. 

During a panel session on the topic of digital inclusion, Jason Tutin of 100% Digital Leeds succinctly summarised the issue as ‘digital inclusion is social inclusion’. Infrastructure must be built to support community access. Building this infrastructure is precisely what they are doing in Greenwich, through a partnership with ITS Technology Group to build collectively owned fibre infrastructure. The aim of this ambitious project is to empower the council and its residents with stable and affordable connectivity. 

Another theme that came up time and again was the role of technology in assisting and facilitating participation in democracy. With examples ranging from public consultations and events all the way through to home working and attending council meetings it is clear that the way we use technology has enormous potential to improve accessibility, but that doing so meaningfully will require taking a critical look at digital inclusion. 

Artificial Intelligence

It was of little surprise to see that AI was another cross-cutting theme. It was great to find out about so many ‘in flight’ projects where AI is starting to have a real impact on service design and delivery. 

Many of the fears we hear around the use of AI relate to AI being viewed as a ‘silver bullet’, enabling organisations to reduce costs by cutting jobs and ultimately replacing human interaction. 

In contrast, early indications of how local authorities are using AI are showing how the technology can actually strengthen human contact. North Yorkshire Council presented their approach to modernising case management in social care. By enhancing existing systems with AI and data visualisation, they aim to simplify case management processes and improve efficiency in data collection. By doing so, they want to enable social workers to better focus on tasks that require high levels of empathy and human interaction. One of the goals of this work is to reduce the pressures that they are seeing lead to burnout, and ensuring social workers can ‘fulfil the roles they signed up for’. 

Similarly, Barking and Dagenham Council showcased a project using AI to process case notes, to offer predictive insights and track risk trends over time. Like North Yorkshire, their objective was one that recognised the enormous strain frontline workers are under and aimed to use AI to alleviate these pressures. Both examples clearly demonstrated AI’s potential as a useful tool in making services more proactive. In Barking and Dagenham’s case, their use of an AI system helped them to deliver the Supporting Families program without creating unnecessary administrative burdens that would, ultimately, have compromised the borough’s ability to deliver face-to-face services. 

These two case studies highlight not only the innovative use of relatively new technologies but also the ability of local authority teams to use technology and data to gain valuable, actionable, insights into their work. It demonstrates the importance of local authorities in translating government policy into practice, and serves as a reminder to those of us working in sectors adjacent to local authorities just how important that local expertise can be in shaping delivery. 

But they also showed the complexity of the systems officers are asked to engage with, and the sheer volume of data that frontline workers are required to collect – not to mention the different formats they are required to collect it in. Many of the examples of AI in practice involve AI applications being used on top of these often clunky and outdated legacy systems. As a result, they act as a sticking plaster aimed at making those systems more usable. 

To some extent, this is unavoidable. But it also requires us to ask the question of what happens next, how longer-term change will be managed, and who will be there to manage it. And that ‘silver bullet’? We need to keep our eyes open to the trap of assuming that technology is more ‘cost-efficient’ than people and skills. As far as I’m aware, AI does not build, deploy or maintain itself. 

Skills

With this in mind, who is it that will be managing this work on behalf of local authorities? This theme was picked up by a number of sessions focused on digital and data skills within local government. Over the three days of the conference, we saw many excellent examples of strong digital and data skills. But it was also clear that this is about change management and that as part of any change project, teams increasingly need to ensure that everyone involved is digitally and data literate. 

The success of early AI pilots will likely depend on the ability of frontline staff to use this new technology, and to critically engage with it. As with any new tool or system, there’s an inevitable learning curve. With AI, there’s perhaps a greater risk for information to be misused or misinterpreted i.e. information looks correct, therefore, the reader assumes it is correct. 

Digital systems and services still require manual design, development, implementation and maintenance. Local authorities will require either the in-house capabilities to manage this work, or to have the skills to be able to carefully manage complex multi-agency relationships to ensure that short-term ambitions do not derail long-term sustainability. 

This pivot to working in a more digital environment was reflected on by INLOGOV in a presentation to the conference about “what does it mean to be a 21st Century Public Servant?” Their recent report on the topic revisited a 2014 study that looked at organisational development across local government. ‘Data curious and digitally comfortable’ and ‘a hybrid operator’ are two of the new characteristics that directly speak to this new environment. 

As an alumna of the NGDP, I was interested to hear about the graduate scheme’s recent rebrand and to reflect on how recruitment schemes might make the most of this need for digital skills. At a recent Data Bites event, Government Chief Data Officer Craig Sucking highlighted that the TechTrack apprenticeship scheme received 10k applicants in two weeks. If this can be used as a barometer of interest in digital government careers, that stat alone appears promising. 

Conclusion

Looking at the local government sector, one of the challenges that we perceive is the huge variety of approaches to technology. From the outside, it can be too easy to see this as a weakness. The LGA Conference was a reminder that this diversity can also be a strength. We saw how different local authorities had taken different approaches to similar problems, adapting for local priorities. The conference showcased the potential for individual solutions to common problems and the ability of local authorities to respond to local user needs in specific ways. 

In her keynote, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner closed the conference by highlighting ambitions to ‘rewire the state’ through devolution. Promising to end a funding model that pits local authorities against one another in competition, she emphasised a commitment to support ‘genuine collaboration’ between local and central government. 

Time will tell how successful we are in achieving this ambition. It’s going to take a fundamental mindset shift to support devolution and remove the habit of competition for funding, which too often incentivises working behind closed doors and covering up failure. ‘Re-wiring the state’ is a full change project in itself. But it’s clear that the opportunities to drive meaningful improvements for the sector are vast if we can get there.