Programme actions for local government

Our work in Local Government is part of the wider public sector programme at techUK, with the aim to deliver better public services through tech. 

The Local Government programme is focused on delivering value to techUK members through helping them develop their networks, markets and reduce business cost and risk:

Develop Networks

• techUK is the platform that connects tech companies of all sizes with each other and with Local Government.

  Issue: The local Government market is increasingly complex and fragmented; and often can be hard to navigate. Effective engagement between industry and councils is critical in overcoming the barriers to access and collaboration; and techUK is well placed to connect our members of all sizes to collaborate and drive innovation in the local Government market. 

  Required Outcome: techUK will be seen as the champion in growing the local government eco-system, bringing together regularly our large and smaller members to identify partners and help sessions. Our new entrants break into the market through our series of local govtech networking and briefing flagship Building the Smarter State conference will be the go to event that connects local government with the tech industry.

  Timescales: A regular programme throughout 2018 including:

  • Events in each quarter linking large and small techUK members to identify partnership opportunities; as well as briefing sessions demystifying local government to help new-entrants navigate the market.
  • In Q3 techUK’s annual Building the Smarter State conference will be the industry flagship event that connects senior civil servants with disruptive tech and the very best in emerging technologies our industry has to offer.

Develop Markets 

• techUK will work with Councils across the UK to create the environment that enables successful transformation and collaboration; working together to re-imagine local public services.

  Issue: Early and meaningful pre-procurement market engagement with industry is essential for councils in understanding the art of the possible and the enabling role tech can play in transforming services that are accessible to all citizens. There is huge opportunity for local government to harness innovative technology that will disrupt services for the better.

  Required Outcomes: techUK will be the platform for councils to test new ideas, experiment with innovation and connect with the wide breadth of industry to horizon scan what council and local services should look like in the future and also pro-actively undertake early and active pre-procurement market engagement.

  • Throughout 2018 techUK will work with local governments to help them horizon scan through our ‘art of the possible’ market engagement sessions whilst also enabling them to be market read for all the disruptive tech opportunities. This will include holding session in Q2 and Q4 on what future tech trends are and the technologies disrupting the market.
  • Working collaboratively across verticals and market programmes to produce a roadmap by Q4 on how tech has changed a pathway/led to an improved social outcome; which will also help inform councils of the innovations available.
  • Continue to work with members and local government on what the ‘Council of the Future’ vision is; regularly posting guest blogs on this looking at how services can be re-imaged through use of digital culminating in a campaign week in Q4.
  • Quarterly hold roundtables with councils and members on the enabling role tech can play in transforming a specific service area.
  • Working alongside SmarterUK, techUK will support the development of short paper around what a good ‘Digital Board’ looks like and a ‘Digital Maturity Framework’ for local authorities. This will focus on strengthening local authorities’ ability to approach the market, as well as identify, procure and implement technology and services that directly address their needs and objectives.

  Timescales: Throughout 2018 as key function of techUK as the platform connecting local Government and industry.

Reduce Business Cost and Risk

• techUK will campaign for smarter, outcome-focused procurement from local government.

  Issue: The complicated local Government procurement landscape can often lead to unnecessary duplication and is not conducive to the strategic priority of value for money. Furthermore, where effective centralised procurement frameworks do exist such as G-Cloud the market is not making optimum use of them. 

  Required Outcomes: techUK has a key role to help and support local government to understand the impact and transformative potential of technology and work with them to better articulate problem and where tech can enable an improved outcome based on citizen needs.

  Timescales: Throughout 2018 we will:

  • Working closely with the Central Government programme to implement the recommendations of its Procuring the Smarter State report through workshops, opinion pieces and briefings with the Cabinet Office and local government.
  • techUK to work with local Government to make them more informed and intelligent customers. Cyber security can often be an impediment to successful digital transformation and as such the Local Government programme will work closely with the Cyber Security programme to deliver a series of activities around building local cyber resilience.

• techUK to work with local government to unlock the benefits of data in service design and work with them to demystify the perceived challenges to data sharing.

  Issue: Effective data sharing enables smarter decision making; allows for resources to be better targeted and design of a predictive local public service. However, there is an aversion to data sharing at the local level. Absence of clear local data standards to drive adoption and compliance of secure data sharing internally and between public sector partners can also stifle innovation.

  Required Outcomes: techUK to be the ‘go-to’ for bringing together industry and local public services to overcome the obstacles to data sharing and help pave the way for improved multi-agency working. techUK to be the champion for open standards and interoperability.

  Timescales: In partnership with the Justice & Emergency Services Programme we will produce a ‘Multi-Agency’ paper in Q3 to identify best practice, tools and resources for creating an environment that supports and drives effective multi-agency collaboration.

  techUK will make the case for better data sharing and integration of services by championing open standards and interoperability.