On the front line - Buckinghamshire County Council's Digital Chief, Matthew Cain
- Summary:
- Matthew Cain heads up a digital team at the heart of Buckinghamshire County Council. He writes for diginomica/government on the challenges facing local gov.
Forward thinking councils are taking advantage of the work of the Government Digital Service. Earlier this year, a group of local authorities agreed a digital service standard, and under the leadership of Local Gov Digital, established regional peer groups to help each other make digital services so good, people prefer to use them. Large authorities, like Kent County Council and Nottinghamshire, already follow design patterns of GOV.UK; and in Buckinghamshire, we believed there was strategic advantage in adopting the guiding principle: “it’s the GDS way until our users say it isn’t”.
The launch of the GOV.UK Verify pilots builds further collaboration. It’s not just about bolting on the ID assurance tool, but driving service redesign for parking permits and concessionary bus pass services. With some of the same suppliers, we are able to collaborate with peers across the country - whilst learning from the expertise and accessing the resources of GDS.
Central government legislation can stimulate further digitisation. The Care Act requirement for digital advice and guidance for adults in receipt of social care has led to a growth of user-centred services, whilst the special needs requirements to have a “local offer” for children and young people - mandates consultation with children and their families.
Break things
Yet at the current rate of progress it’s unlikely that any citizen will be able to access all their council’s services digitally. Too many councils have long term partnerships with providers who lack the contractual obligations, or possibly profit margins, to invest in a digital offering. Too many suppliers of key business applications in council tax, education, health and social care struggle to remodel their technology to support digital services. Too few localities have enough digital expertise to drive transformation from top to bottom. That's why we've invested the intellectual property from our digital exemplars in a Community Interest Company, to stimulate sharing.The challenge we face isn't primarily technical. Silicon Valley has already invented most of the solutions that could automate most local government services. Digital transformation is hard because it demands people change. Local government officers have already managed through almost a decade of cuts,seeing colleagues, services and residents experience the results. That change gets harder each month, as fewer people are asked to do more.
That's not a challenge that can be met by outsourcing a service, buying (another?) ‘single platform’ from a supplier or hoping GDS will ride to the rescue.
To meet this opportunity we - staff and residents - need to move fast and break things. We have to show that seamless digital services can trump organisational boundaries. We need to find new ways of collaborating across public services (and the supply chain). And we must demonstrate that local government has a wider value in our towns and cities; not just a provider of low cost transactions but an enabler of democratic discourse and community empowerment.
If we don't, the alternative may be too heavy to bear.