Image source: Greater London Authority
London’s chief digital officer has raised a renewed call for a national digital service for local government.
Theo Blackwell has raised the issue in a blogpost, saying the next UK Government should consider expanding the remit of the Government Digital Service and the Central Digital and Data Office into a Government Digital Service Local (GDS-L).
This comes in response to a number of persistent challenges for local authorities in using digital technology and data, notably a gap in the quality of offerings to central and local government, a high degree of lock-in caused by legacy contracts, and a lack of coordination among councils in procurement.
These make it more difficult to join up on outcomes and missions and leads to services being fragmented and unsatisfactory.
Radical shift
“Addressing these challenges requires a radical shift towards integrating smaller, independent technology components or modules in a flexible manner to meet changing needs,” Blackwell said.
“This needs a coordinated national focus on governance, architecture, technology and leadership across the sector.
“Without a cohesive vision guiding the development, sharing, and procurement of technology infrastructure, local governments will continue to struggle to deliver user-centric services tailored to specific council or citizen needs.”
He said a GDS-L could focus on capability building through features such as a new common reference architecture for councils, a sandbox model to support innovation, and breaking down restrictive industry practices such as the reluctance to introduce free or low cost APIs.
This could provide benefits including agility and savings for councils, better services for citizens and a design funnel for central government initiatives.
Alignment with LGA and DLUHC
An initiative would have to align with work currently done by the Local Government Association and the Local Digital team in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
“Collaboration, not centralisation, would be the guiding principle, backed up by a refreshed Local Digital Declaration,” Blackwell said.
The idea for a body like GDS-L has been floated sporadically since soon after the creation of central government’s GDS in 2011. Past examples of senior officials in local authorities supporting the proposal have included Brighton and Hove City Council and Herefordshire Council.
So far, however, there has not been a coordinated initiative to create an organisation.
