Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities should create a fund to spur digital innovation within local government, says technology trade association techUK.
In its latest report, Local Public Services Innovation: Creating a catalyst for change, the industry body says there is pent up potential in local government, but it needs investment.
techUK calls on the Levelling Up department to fund what it called “untapped innovation within local government”.
Citing rising demand and expectations from the citizens that local government serves, the report states that “ongoing digital innovation is necessary to ensure the swift delivery of local public services. techUK recognises that local government has withstood a decade of public finance cuts, followed by the pandemic and now national and international supply chain issues.
The report says a Levelling Up innovation fund would “enable local authorities to experiment and take the risk to pilot new digital innovation” and says the fund should be managed by the Local Digital Collaboration Unit, which was formed in March.
Innovation essential
It adds that increased innovation in local government is essential following the digital transformation that increased in pace as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, calls for increased collaboration with industry and says the public sector needs to “rethink how they utilise procurement and market engagement”.
“To innovate, we need to collaborate across both the public sector and the supplier base,” said Georgina Maratheftis, associate director for local public services, techUK. As such, techUK is looking to increase market engagement with local authorities and calls for the formation of a local government Chief Digital Officers forum.
The report highlights that local governments “struggle to be fully empowered”, but there is a need for the public sector to use technology in “more agile ways” to develop new services that respond to the post-pandemic changes, such as remote working.
A new network is being created by techUK, which the industry group says will be a neutral forum for local government peers and an opportunity to network with suppliers.
