Local government reorganisation offers more places the chance to use digital to power services, save money and free up people to do the work that really matters, writes the chief executive of Socitm.
As my colleagues and I work with councils on local government reorganisation, four uncomfortable truths have surfaced:
- A lingering mindset of IT as a cost rather than a value driver
- Gaps in digital literacy at the most senior levels
- The absence of technical representation at the top table, meaning digital, data and technology (DDaT) is an after-thought instead of driving transformation
- A worrying dilution of colleague-led innovation.
Nadira Hussain, chief executive, Socitm
These are not minor issues. They’re structural barriers that directly impact LGR and the efficiencies and cost savings this massive shake-up could create.
With LGR, it’s not only the structures that have to merge. It’s the people and approaches that will build more robust foundations.
This means the consolidation of key systems, processes and tools to ensure that as far as possible, we’re able to leapfrog the legacy environments to create new organisations centred around the use and adoption of DDaT; more agile, responsive, accessible and resident-focused.
Is LGR our route to turning this around?
There are places where digital is already powering services, saving money and freeing up people to do the work that really matters.
LGR is offering us the chance to get this approach into many more places. With a digital mindset and an explorative and innovative culture as a given at the start of this process, we can start to think of what’s possible when we see IT not as a drain but a driver:
- Customer service that is always on, the equivalent of dozens of extra staff without the additional impact on the payroll
- Frontline teams no longer drowning in paperwork but using their skills on the complex cases that change lives
- Decisions guided by real-time data, so bins are collected on time and resources flow where they’re needed.
By repositioning DDaT as the vehicle for change, we can unlock these uncomfortable truths.
Digital literacy at the top
Ask yourself: do your senior leadership team and key politicians really have the digital knowledge it needs to make good decisions?
Whenever I’ve put that question to members, the answer is usually the same – a pause, then a reluctant, “probably not.”
And that’s the problem.
Too many leadership teams with support from their councillors are signing off on multi-million-pound digital investments without the ability to properly weigh the options, assess the risks or spot the opportunities.
They see technology as plumbing, not as the strategic driver for impactful change.
The result? Missed opportunities, unrealistic expectations, and costly mistakes that lead to a poor exploitation of systems, inadequate data insight and limited upskilling of the workforce and across communities.
What’s needed is a level of digital literacy that lets senior leaders understand what technology can really do, where the risks lie, and how it links to helping achieve their core objectives.
The government’s requirement for digital leaders on boards by 2026 is a step in the right direction, but doesn’t go far enough. Local public services need more than a token voice at the table.
LGR needs leaders who can engage, question and push for digital to unlock new ways of delivering more effective and responsive public services.
A seat at the table
Too often, senior IT leaders are tucked away under finance or corporate services – a legacy of when technology was mainly about keeping the lights on. Those days are gone.
Today, technology shapes strategy, service delivery and organisational capability.
LGR presents an opportunity for the IT leader to work with the senior leadership team – and across the region – to proactively define a target operating model for the newly formed unitary.
This requires a keen eye on how to move away from the legacy environment through the adoption of enterprise architecture, consolidation of applications and contracts, streamlining processes, analysis of digital and data maturity, and creating a more well-defined ecosystem.
When this happens, the conversation shifts:
- Investment discussions stop being about costs and start being about value
- Risks are weighed not just in financial terms but with cybersecurity and data resilience in mind
- Innovation gets designed in from the start, not bolted on at the end.
The wisdom of the workforce
One of the biggest blind spots in digital transformation is the assumption that innovation comes from the top. Bring in consultants, write a strategy, launch a programme: job done. Except it isn’t.
In reality, the mind with the problem often holds the solution.
In councils, that means your colleagues on the frontline. The people answering calls, wrestling with clunky systems, patching together workarounds just to keep services moving. They are sitting on a goldmine of ideas, if only we choose to listen to them.
When councils take this seriously, you see very different practices emerge:
- Innovation sessions where hierarchy melts away and ideas flow freely
- Digital champions are embedded in services to bridge operational knowledge and technological possibility
- Rapid prototyping is deployed turning ideas into working solutions in weeks, not years.
Bringing it all together
These four elements – digital as a value creator, digitally literate boards, technology leadership at the top table, and systematic listening to the workforce – don’t stand alone. They’re deeply interconnected and together define the culture needed to thrive when planning for reorganisation.
If we don’t get this right, right now, LGR will be yet another wasted opportunity.
The pockets of effective use of digital approaches will remain isolated and not sufficiently exploited to achieve progress at pace and at scale.
There are great examples where a culture, with innovation at its heart, combined with staff empowerment, result in better services for the people and places.
At Socitm, we are supporting this key activity.
From ‘as is’ assessments that show councils where they stand technically, their data maturity, skills assessments, through to leadership programmes built by the sector for the sector, and most importantly our community – a network of peers solving problems together.
It’s this combination of insight, capability and collaboration that turns digital from aspiration into impact. And it’s this combination that will make or break LGR.
Nadira Hussain, chief executive, Socitm