Talking 5 with Local Public Services Member SCC
Each month, techUK's Associate Director for Local Public Services, Georgina Maratheftis, interviews a member active in the local government space about their vision for the future of local public services and where digital can make a real difference to people and society. This month we talk to Rebecca Tyler, Head of Local Government & Education at Specialist Computer Centres at SCC, about the greatest challenges, opportunities and future of local government digitisation.
Welcome Rebecca. Firstly, tell me more about you, your career and how you got to this position today?
I’ve worked in Public Sector technology for more than 30 years, and I’m as passionate about this space today as when I first started. Over my career I’ve led high performing teams, been recognised globally by major technology vendors for delivering meaningful outcomes & set up my own business, receiving investment to create a solution for the public sector.
For the past five years at SCC, I’ve had the privilege of leading our Local Government & Education business, supporting councils, schools and partners as they navigate huge change, rising expectations and increasing pressure. I lead a team of nine local government specialists, bringing over 50 years of combined public sector experience, with backgrounds spanning central government and bluelight services.
At SCC, our team's success is defined simply: provide digital services that empower local government to deliver efficient, resilient and financially sustainable public services.
You're a Birmingham based business, tell us more about the history of SCC?
SCC’s founding story begins in Birmingham in 1975, when Sir Peter Rigby founded Specialist Computer Recruitment (SCR) with just £2,000, supplying computer specialists to large organisations at a time when corporate IT departments were expanding around mainframe systems. The business became national within a year and international within three, creating the investment needed to evolve beyond recruitment into technology services.
SCC was then formally launched in September 1982 to help organisations integrate emerging personal computer technologies into their operations, marking the transition from supplying skills into delivering IT infrastructure and services.
Our commitment to the West Midlands where SCC was founded remains central to how we operate today. In 1992, Sir Peter Rigby established the Rigby Foundation to give back to the communities that supported the business’s growth, with funding now focused on improving education, skills and employment opportunities for young people across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands.
Today, SCC is one of Europe’s largest privately owned IT services providers. Built on decades of experience supporting central and local government, health, policing and education, SCC designs, integrates and manages secure, interoperable and vendorneutral technology that enable public sector organisations to modernise services, strengthen resilience and deliver meaningful transformation.
What is your vision for the future of local public services and places?
For me, the local government reorganisation represents a real inflection point. It creates the opportunity for councils to rethink how services work together, but lasting change will only come if the digital foundations underneath are right.
My vision is for local public services to be built on interoperable, standardised digital platforms: shared data standards, secure integration patterns and modular services that can be reused across functions and places. That’s what reduces duplication, gives staff better tools, and delivers services that feel simpler and more consistent for residents.
At SCC, this thinking underpins how we support local authorities through change. Strong digital, data and technology foundations, particularly around cyber resilience and CAF compliance, are essential to maintaining continuity during structural reform and enabling longterm service redesign.
Our role is to help councils modernise safely and sustainably, embedding security by design, protecting sovereign data, and creating a future where councils focus on outcomes, not infrastructure, powered by interoperable platforms and services designed once and delivered consistently.
What is the greatest opportunity for local government when it comes to digital?
The biggest opportunity is to break out of siloed digital delivery and make interoperable services the default. Too much council technology is still designed around departments, not people, which hardcodes duplication, friction and cost into services.
If councils invest in interoperable platforms, shared data, shared workflows, shared integration, they can design services once and reuse them everywhere. That’s what enables genuinely joined up services, faster change and better value for money.
AI and automation only matter when they sit on top of those foundations. SCC’s role is to help councils move away from fragmented solutions and build interoperable, secure foundations that enable digital investments to compound.
techUK - Transforming Public Services
techUK members are transforming public services in the UK. Our community help to shape a smarter, digitally empowered public sector.
techUK drives public sector digital transformation by uniting the public sector and tech industry. Through early market engagement, efficient procurement, and innovative technology adoption, we help to modernise legacy IT, and enable efficient, secure, and personalised services.
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