Transformational local government
The aim of this paper is to trigger a conversation across local government about what ‘transformed local government’, supported by modern ICT, should look like.
Transformational Government identified the key challenges of
- Designing services around the citizen or business;
- Releasing efficiencies by standardisation, simplification and sharing; and
- Improving government’s professionalism in delivery of ICT–enabled change.
This paper builds on these challenges and places them in the context of local government, under three main headings:
- Engaging with citizens and communities – to design services around citizens and businesses you need to understand what they need, both from asking them directly, and from making the best possible use of the information we gather through service delivery. To close the loop, service users need to understand who is responsible for delivering the services they need, through clear accountability. So under this heading we have explored three themes: making local services more accountable, knowing our communities and giving local people more power;
- Reshaping service delivery – it is widely recognised that service delivery needs to be more joined up, so that service users get services that are more consistent, and less fragmented over time and between providers. And as ‘Transformational Government‘ emphasised, there must be scope for greater efficiency in service delivery through standardisation and sharing. It is perhaps less obvious how these drivers fit with providing service users with more choices. So the three themes explored under this heading are: increasing choice, joining up service provision, and achieving effectiveness and efficiency;
- Changing our organisations – finally ‘Transformational Government’ highlighted the need to get better at planning and managing ICT-enabled change. For local government some of the biggest challenges lie in finding both the money and the people to deliver the change, and then working out how to work effectively with your numerous service delivery partners, and last (but certainly not least) lie the challenges of changing the hearts and minds of your people. So the three themes explored under this heading are: finding the resources, getting the relationships right, and managing the change.
Colleagues across local government are invited to work through the document, taking stock of where you are now and getting ideas for where technology could help you arrive. We hope that it will also stimulate ideas about how central bodies can help transformation work in local government. Please provide those ideas and any other comments you have to the IT Strategy Project Team.
