‘Local authorities can become the orchestrators of change’

An annual study from Socitm shines a light on the new, and familiar, tech trends currently shaping frontline public services. PublicTechnology talks to the sector body to find out more.

“Beyond borders.”

This is the strapline for Socitm’s annual Public Sector Digital Trends report, published earlier this year. The organisation’s director of policy and research Martin Ferguson tells PublicTechnology that the theme speaks to a “profound change” in the role of councils and other providers of local citizen services. This new remit – on which technology and data is a key influence – speaks to the need for public bodies to convene a broader range of stakeholders.

“The overriding theme… [was about] the idea of breaking through cultural, structural, administrative and organisational boundaries in a place – and the local authority being the orchestrator of change and transformation in that place. And achieving better social, economic, environmental outcomes for people and communities in their place,” Ferguson says.

The Socitm policy chief cites several examples of authorities – including those in Leeds, Norfolk, Lichfield, and Barking and Dagenham – that are exemplars of this new mindset.

“But then there are an awful lot – in particular district councils – who feel a bit left out and are not quite sure where to position themselves,” he adds.

Many have ambitions to be more innovative, but often feel “trapped” by the familiar pressures of rising demand for services and reduced funding to deliver them.

Socitm hopes to lend a helping hand to such authorities and their figureheads – beginning with the inclusion in this year’s trends report of 10 “key questions for public-sector leaders”. These are designed to prompt consideration about their “need to be looking outwards in reimagining services”, the report says.

Focus areas for 2025

Reimagining services
Cybersecurity
Harnessing data

The questions enquire about potential partnerships that would benefit citizens and the wider place served by a council, as well as whether existing tech infrastructure is “ready to harness AI, modern technology platforms, data, [and] operating models”.

Leaders are also encouraged to think about how they could “be more creative in hiring and keeping staff to address skills gaps and shortages”, and asked whether they are “harnessing place-based data insights”.

Also addressed is the issue of whether senior managers and members “have a vision for what your GenAI-enabled, place-based organisation looks like”, while leaders are further urged to consider “what steps are you taking to protect your place, organisation and systems from major external risks?”.

Ferguson says that the questions are intended to “enable senior leaders to focus their minds on the things that really matter in terms of harnessing digital, data, and technology – and the [supporting] culture – to make a change in their in their localities”.

On the question of skills – and the possibility of adopting more “creative” approaches to building them – he again points to Norfolk County Council and, in particular, its use of apprenticeships.

“What they’ve gone for is hiring people with the right kind of mindset – and with creativity, and the willingness to learn,” Ferguson says. “Our argument is that you can learn technical skills on the job or through training courses. But those skills depend upon you having the right kind of mindset to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. Norfolk’s approach recognises that… they can bring these people along and build their skill sets. They may well then get [hired] by the private sector. But, actually, that’s also all part of improving the economic wellbeing of their place.”

The 10 proposed areas for reflection speak to three core areas of focus for 2025 cited by the Socitm report: reimagined services, built on collaboration and new technology; cybersecurity and bolstering defences against new threats; and harnessing data to improve services.

While all three of these themes will be familiar to most observers, the membership body’s work to support the “reimagining” of services is becoming “much more focused now on the leadership issue at the local level – including political and senior leadership – and the engagement with citizens”, according to Ferguson (pictured right).

This public engagement ties in closely with the theme of making better use of data to support a more holistic approach to places, people and services, he says. As an example, he points to work undertaken by Socitm, in partnership with Impera Analytics, to support councils in implementing a ‘social progress index’ – a method for measuring whether citizens’ needs are being met.

Authorities that have already implemented their own such index include Lichfield District Council in Staffordshire. Ferguson claims that the authority’s work to gather, collate and interpret information on a range of issues – and how they interconnect.

“They’re really looking at… the relationship between health, education, housing and wellbeing, and being able to rethink where they target resources, for example, to address issues like children at risk and where those concentrations [of risk] are currently found,” Ferguson says. “These are the sorts of things that bring the whole concept of ‘reimagining services’ to life: that whole-system focus on achieving better outcomes across the spectrum… The government keeps going on and on about economic growth, but that is dependent on the local wellbeing of communities, good housing conditions, and health and education provision. It cannot be seen in isolation.”

Meanwhile the perennial issue of cybersecurity remains among the main focus areas of this year’s trends report as “the threats are becoming ever more pervasive – and skills are becoming increasingly difficult to access”, he adds.

A problem shared?
The 2025 edition of the Socitm report also provides a useful reminder of the speed of change of not only the cyber world, but the whole tech sector. This year, the 2,500-strong membership body revisited the previous six versions of its annual study to assess the “hits and misses” of trends identified in prior years.

This provides an “opportunity to draw lessons from the past”, Ferguson says – including in an area that has often been cited as a coming wave of transformation for public bodies.

“One of the issues in looking at the local government reform agenda now is ensuring that the opportunities with digital do not get treated as a kind of afterthought, and that they are front and centre of the thinking around an organisation and the way it operates.”

Martin Ferguson, Socitm

“Given the focus on local government reform at the moment, shared services is [an area] that is particularly pertinent –– and the difficulties that councils have had in actually bringing together a shared service proposition,” he adds. “It seems there have been some successes – and a lot of failed attempts, particularly in terms of the IT and digital underpinnings and infrastructure provision. For us, one of the issues in looking at the local government reform agenda now is ensuring that the opportunities with digital do not get treated as a kind of afterthought, and that they are front and centre of the thinking around an organisation and the way it operates.”

Having used its yearly research to flag up the opportunities for councils to increasingly look beyond their boundaries, Socitm intends to undertake a similar journey by expanding its reach outside of its local government heartland and attracting more members from the likes of the healthcare, education, and emergency services sectors – as well third-sector bodies that support the delivery of local public services. The tech-focused organisation also hopes to engage more with colleagues from policy, delivery, and senior leadership roles.

“It’s really about trying to reposition the whole profession as a critical stakeholder in the transformation of local public services,” Ferguson says.

Doing so will reinforce the public sector’s – invariably underappreciated – long-standing ability to take advantage of the major “opportunities for innovation” elucidated by the report.

“The sector has this image of not being innovative, and being risk averse… yet, particularly post-Covid, we’re seeing some great examples… of the ability of local government, with its partners, to innovate and do things quickly,” Ferguson adds. “And I think now there’s an opportunity to really build on that.”