There has been a shift towards more data-driven decision making within local authorities, fuelled by a desire to evolve them into ‘councils of the future’. Amongst council leaders, there is recognition of the need, and willingness, for their organisations to have a greater understanding of how citizens live to deliver services that better suit their needs.
Local authorities are already working smarter by using residency data to reduce backlogs and manage physical assets, such as scheduling routine building inspections and identifying abandoned vehicles. For this progress to continue, allowing them to achieve their ambitions of becoming councils of the future, they must first understand citizens of the future.
Yet, while the technology is available to make this possible, many councils cannot collect, organise or harness residency data effectively to generate actionable insights. Decades of mismanaged data and bolted-together software means local authorities do not have a clear picture of who their residents are. This impacts how services operate and long-term decision-making.
With the right guidance and solutions, councils, and other public sector bodies, can utilise digital transformation to create a unified view of their ‘customers’ – the citizens. By marrying technology with data insights, these organisations can not only better understand who their citizens are but also deliver more effective services now and in the future.
Who are your citizens?
The first step for councils, and other public sector bodies, to understand modern citizens is recognising who they are and who they may become. It has been widely reported that residents have a wide variety of needs, and the UK’s demographics are constantly changing. For example, services that older residents require and prioritise are different from what their grandchildren value. From issuing free bus passes and council tax bills, to maintaining recycling centres and playgrounds, local authorities have constant interactions with residents throughout the various stages of their lives.
While these recurring touchpoints may make it seem like councils have a good working knowledge of what their residents need, the reality can be quite different. Without the right information, local authorities may not be able to foresee necessary changes to their most used services. Anticipating the number of new school places required for next September is just as important as knowing how many garden waste bins need collecting every week. Adapting services like these in line with what citizens will need in the future is the ultimate goal, but that is only possible with the right insights and technology.
Data, along with the software and systems that manage it, has become pivotal to making councils more intuitive. What’s more, the prospect of further public sector cuts is increasing the pressure to deliver more cost-effective and efficient services.
Breaking down silos
Unfortunately, understanding citizens is difficult for many councils and other public sector bodies as they are struggling with fragmented, siloed data and outdated systems. While there has been a rise in the use of data-driven technologies, such as machine learning, in the last few years, it has become common for local authorities to either adopt new solutions with caution or bolt them on to existing systems, software or workflows. Too often, local authorities find technology to be a barrier to progression because they do not have in-house expertise to adopt solutions effectively.
Instead, over decades, councils have used a disjointed approach to data management. There may be inconsistencies in how data is collected and maintained across different departments within the same council, let alone across neighbouring councils. Various departments use different solutions, despite wanting to communicate with the same residents. For instance, some council departments may struggle with collating and accessing citizens’ data. Meanwhile, others may not update information often enough to create a clear picture of how the local population has changed.
This siloed approach leads to inconsistencies or mistakes.
Perhaps a recently divorced resident will successfully apply for a single person discount on their council tax bill, only to keep receiving letters addressed to their former partner about other council services. Data cleansing, breaking down these silos and unifying the use of technology is essential to overcome this challenge.
Long-term investment for long-term results
This lack of ownership, of both technology and data, has created an obscured or incomplete view of what councils’ residencies look like. Taking responsibility over how data is maintained and aligning strategies across departments will go a long way to resolving this issue. Last year, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government set out its foundations for effective data use, with an emphasis on making technology an enabler for improving services.
While changes require time and stakeholder engagement, strategic investment of resources – both human and financial – will generate worthwhile results. Once citizen data is clean and up to date, IT can then share it across departments for unilateral use and a holistic view.
For example, with the aim of enhancing efficiencies, Harrow Council undertook an ambitious project of abandoning a long legacy of ageing IT systems during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. With information held in a single on-premise data centre, the council took the decision to migrate all of the council’s infrastructure to the cloud while also upskilling its workforce. Through collaboration with technology partners, Harrow Council successfully migrated the frontline systems that deliver the day-to-day services its citizens depend on to the cloud. Digitisation is a long-term strategy that delivers long-term results.
How to become a council of the future
To truly build smarter councils, local authorities must embrace a holistic approach to data management and technology integration.
Understanding the citizen of the future means not only recognising their immediate needs but also anticipating how these needs will evolve. In turn, this approach also means appreciating that technology will evolve too. The journey towards becoming a council of the future is not without its challenges, but the rewards are worth the necessary investment.
Councils that invest in unified data systems today will be well-positioned to deliver more effective services, meet future demands, and build stronger, lasting connections with their citizens. By taking ownership of citizen information, breaking down departmental barriers, and investing strategically in the latest solutions, councils can begin to harness the power of data to drive more efficient, responsive, and personalised services.
- Digital Strategy
- People & Culture