Image source: Mark Say
Interview: Mark Lumley, incoming president of Socitm, talks about changing mindsets and reasons to be ambitious in using digital in local services
IT specialists in the public sector have to change their mindset from being tech focused to people focused or they won’t be able to do their best for the public good.
It’s a message that Mark Lumley, incoming president of the Society of Innovation, Technology and Modernisation (Soctim) wants to keep high on the agenda for his year in the role.
He says the old mindset has acted as a restraint on a crucial journey in which IT teams have to become digital teams, focusing their efforts not just on maintaining networks, servers, devices and cyber security, but on how digital and data can provide better services for the public.
“That’s one of the things I’m keen on, that journey from being IT teams, keeping infrastructure safe, cyber security and so on, to being genuinely digital teams is really fascinating,” he says.
“There’s a bit of trust in there that we don’t have yet. There’s something about earning the trust around being able to deliver the corporate ambitions for transformation in the community, not just the techie bits.
“There’s a sort of branding problem with digital and IT. I don’t think people understand what digital means. That cultural change thing takes time.”
Intensifying the issues
Lumley – whose day job is director of digital and IT at the London Borough of Hounslow – says the issues are already to the forefront of Socitm’s activities, with programmes such as those for leadership training and empowering women in the sector, and that they are going to intensify with the launch of the new Inspire institute.
He also points to it becoming a co-signatory of the code of ethics produced by the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace), saying it relates to the efforts to embed digital understanding among senior leaders in local government.
The pressure on digital leaders in local services is stronger than ever, with increasing demands and no end in sight to the squeeze on finances. Lumley identifies two big areas in which they can make a difference in the short to medium term.
One is that there is still plenty more to be done in joining up data from different siloes, especially in health and social care.
“We’ve used the integrated care board in Hounslow to think about how we can use those to provide those services in more joined up ways,” he says. “It’s not just thinking about the Hounslow Council pound but that wider Hounslow public purse pound; it’s about using, joining up, maximising data, being as effective and efficient with it as possible.”
RPA expansion
The other is in stepping up the use of robotic process automation (RPA), which he describes as a “big piece”. Although it is now a fixture of local government there is still a lot more that could be done, especially as the technology has become more affordable.
“For us that’s massive. Making sure we are as efficient as possible, making sure we automate what we can automate, being efficient with the data and processes, able to then provide face-to-face services for the members of our community that needs them. It’s not a big cull on staffing but it’s important we focus those scarce resources where we need them.”
Beyond that, he says opportunities in the short term to explore the use of machine learning and AI, saying Hounslow has been using it in analytics and tidying up its Active Directory, and can see potential in working with healthcare colleagues.
“Then if you think about what you can do across massive data stores, using data to do predictive analytics to predict demand and be preventative in our approach, there’s a huge amount with massive cost savings.
“It’s an exciting area. Even things like embedding AI into things like Microsoft to automate mundane tasks.”
Internal priorities
As for Socitm’s organisational priorities for the coming 12 months, he refers to its previously announced plans to establish Inspire and set itself up as a charity, and where it can focus some of its skills building and thought leadership
“For me personally, embedding equality, diversity and inclusion is equally important, particularly with the rise of artificial intelligence. If we’re building the algorithms with AI we need to make sure we’re not building bias into it. For me, embedding that equality and diversity into our workforce is a real passion.
“Another thing is generally embedding the ethics into it. My policy theme over the past three years has been the responsible use of tech and data, really embedding the ethical thinking into it.
“We have a huge amount of research on the Socitim website, and making it practical and real becomes even more important with all this AI stuff coming out.”
Need for ambition
Inevitably, the financial pressures on local services will always threaten to limit the scope for what can be achieved in the sector, but Lumley says that, even in the current daunting outlook, it is important to remain ambitious.
“I think it’s essential we have big ambitions,” he says. “It’s essential that we continue to drive that innovation and forward thinking in our organisations.
“I think there will be more pressure to make sure our business case approach is robust. We’ve got to deliver on these things, and it’s important that we understand what we are going to do, how we are going to do it and that it’s resourced properly.
“But I think it’s essential to have that ambition otherwise you start to go backwards.”
