The Future Governance Forum thinktank has called for the creation of regional ‘centres for service innovation’ for local authorities to collaborate on digital issues.
It has published a report, Impactful Devolution 02: Local Government for the Digital Era, arguing that digital and data should play a much larger role in supporting public services, but also identifying a huge gap between central government, local government and the software market that is leading to fragmentation and duplication.
A result of this is that councils often waste spending and resources on repeating each other’s procurements and processes.
The report says a step towards filling the gap would be the creation of the centres for service innovation to promote more collaboration, generating and promoting new ideas that are best suited to different areas of the country.
Fragmentation and confusion
Robbie Bates, policy associate at the Future Governance Forum, said: “At the top of our recommendations is filling the ‘missing middle’ gap between central government, local government and the software market that is leading to unnecessary fragmentation, duplication and confusion.
“A new body is needed to fill the ‘missing middle’ by: bringing together councils to share common problems; developing technology; strengthening links with central government and the software market; and generating new ideas for different areas through regional centres for service innovation.
“It’s vital the national tech and AI reforms announced by the prime minister are complemented by new measures which lead to a local government digital revolution.”
The report also recommends the creation of structured pathways for digital workers to progress into leadership roles in local government over the next five years. This would help in tackling the shortage of digital skills in the sector.
Other priorities include: the development of a sector-wide workforce plan; more collective buying, sandboxing and shared procurement frameworks for councils to de-risk innovation and shape the software market; bringing together teams to develop appropriate digital service standards; and making data sharing and exchange a default with training, support and guidance.
