The New Digital Strategy: Smarter Public Services

1. Connected Councils –
a vision of digital
government
Tom Symons
@tomwsymons
30th June 2016

2. Investments - in early stage
companies, social enterprises and venture
intermediaries
Research & Analysis -
understanding how innovation happens and how
to support it
Innovation Skills –
supporting abilities to innovate via tools,
training, networks
Innovation Lab - supporting
innovation in governments, local authorities and
civil society

3. Digitisation of local government
is not about paying bills online.
It’s about working differently
with residents, business and
service providers to solve social
challenges.

4. Digitisation in the UK has been ad-hoc,
with little support from central
government

5. Summary of 2025 Vision
1. Seamless online services
2. Collaborative and preventative relational services
3. Ambitious place-shaping role
4. New ways of working and using resources

6. 1. Seamless online services
• Digital platforms enable residents and
businesses to access services and connect to
other users
• Personalised content (jobs, democracy alerts,
services); algorithms tailor language and
medium
• Fully digitised back office with all data shared

7. Personalised portals
enabling people to see transactions with all
services
Designing services for access
blend of offline and online touchpoints, smooth
pathways, jargon-free
Algorithmic content
using location data to provide hyperlocal
information about events, services

8. 2. Supporting relational services
• Self-management. Digital technology allows
people to manage their own conditions
• Social action. Greater reliance on people and
communities – and digital tools to incentivise
social action
• Prediction. Earlier intervention aided by
greater diagnostic and predictive tools, such
as predictive risk models

9. Encouraging social action
timebanking and other tools to incentivise
volunteering and mobilise local people
Predicting problems
and making timely
interventions
using data to spot anomolies,
indicators, and target interventions
Helping people manage
their conditions
tools to help people monitor their health,
draw on wider social support networks,
support carers, and change behaviour

10. 3. Place-shaping: local governance
and economic growth
• Procurement. Procurement platforms and
online exchanges have opened up public
procurement
• Business support. Councils offer analytical
and mapping tools to support local businesses
• Civic engagement. Councils engage citizens in
everyday decisions on budgeting, planning,
contract management

11. Driving economic growth
tools to open up public contracts, connect
businesses, map networks or plan start-ups
or expansions
Local governance
tools to inform and consult, involve and
collaborate, or engage people in deciding
how budgets are allocated

12. 4. Transforming how councils work
• Councils look like tech start-ups: lean, agile
and data-driven
• Large web of innovative partners; blurred
lines between insiders and outsiders (more
staff are freelance, part-time)
• Problem-solving. Multi-agency working norm;
use full toolbox of RCTs & experiments,
predictive algorithms, data analytics
• Sharing assets. Fluid use of public space, tech,
workforce; ready for sharing, reorganisation
or change

13. Skills for the digital age
bringing in external expertise, training up
staff, encouraging more flexible working
Smart use of data
sharing data with services and partners;
open data and innovation; performance
data and deep visibility; feedback loops
Sharing space and assets
cloud-based software, tools to help staff
work remotely and improve meetings;
digital platforms to share public space,
equipment

14. 1. Digitise transactional services and back
office by 2020
2. Define and continuously update data
standards
3. Create a market for new digital products
if not met by off the peg solutions
4. City regions establish Office of Data
Analytics

15. More info
http://www.nesta.org.uk
/publications/connected-
councils-digital-vision-
local-government-2025
Comments, questions?
Tom.symons@nesta.org.uk
@tomwsymons