Innovation and Efficiency

Re-energising citizen engagement

10.12.18: Could smart cities and social media be the perfect match? Simon Dennis, director of artificial intelligence and analytics innovation at SAS UK, reports.  Politics is a divisive issue and not simply from a philosophical standpoint....

Former Rochdale MYP wins prestigious 'Diana Award' for work with mental health and young people

29.11.18: Sarah Mahmood, aged 17, is the former Member of UK Youth Parliament for the borough of Rochdale and has been recognised by the Royal Family for her work during her year as MYP and has set a good example to her peers, whom she listened well to an...

Spending Review: Chances are you’ll have to get smarter with budget, but how?

05.11.18: PSE take a look at smarter, data-driven ways of working to improve value-based spending ahead of next year's Spending Review.  It’s been almost 10 years since austerity measures first scythed through the public sector. In that ti...

Councils face £30bn bill unless private firms act with ‘fairness and decency’

30.10.18: Councils could find themselves with a massive £30bn bill if private firms fail to improve how they deliver local services, according to a new report from Localis. The report, ‘Ethical Commercialism,’ found that moving all...

Councils get free access to satellite images and data from UK space programme

26.10.18: Councils are to be provided with free access to thousands of satellite images and radar data from satellites to help with planning and development projects. The UK Space Agency’s Space for Smarter Government Programme (SSGP) will give...

What cities should become

15.10.18: Tom Leaver, project manager at Future Cities Catapult, examines the rationale behind the creation of the City Data Sharing Toolkit, and explores how this is driving a seismic shift in how cities evolve into our data-rich future. We’re...

IfG: Unpopular funding reform decisions ahead as easiest council cuts have already been made

12.10.18: The easiest savings across the public sector have already been made and choices of where to cut corners are getting increasingly harder, meaning the government will soon have to face tough decisions on the future of public service financing. ...

London Councils award £47m boost to improve digital infrastructure

09.10.18: London Councils has awarded £47m to fund major projects to improve digital infrastructure in the capital. The £46.83m comes from the business rates retention scheme currently being piloted in London and will fund eight projects...

Tees Valley signs off £5m fund for ‘metals industry of the future’ years after SSI closure

28.09.18: A £4.6m investment which will bring a revolutionary metals project to the north east has been signed off by the mayor of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA). The investment will allow for the development and manufacturing of spe...

Social value in Greater Manchester: lessons learned

12.09.18: Peter Schofield, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) collaborative procurement programme manager, looks back at the region’s history of adopting social value policy and outlines what lessons his team has learned as a result. ...

Delivering the digital goods

28.08.18: Matt Prosser, Solace’s spokesperson for digital leadership and interim head of paid service at the Shadow Dorset Council, discusses the future of digital colocation between local authorities. Sitting around a table with some of the mo...

Delivering the digital goods

06.08.18: Matt Prosser, Solace’s spokesperson for digital leadership and interim head of paid service at the Shadow Dorset Council, discusses the future of digital colocation between local authorities. Sitting around a table with some of the mo...

Helping a city understand itself

06.08.18: SPONSORED INTERVIEW The urban landscape is changing. How can local authorities keep up with citizen behaviour? Stephen Leece, managing director at Citi Logik, tells PSE’s Luana Salles that big data might just be the solution. The w...

New £7.5m council fund to take digital innovation from ‘basement to boardroom’

05.07.18: The government has announced a £7.5m digital innovation fund to help councils transform their online services. The fund was announced at the LGA Conference in Birmingham yesterday by local government minister Rishi Sunak. BREAKIN...

Can data save the future of children?

02.07.18: Ingrid Koehler, service innovation lead at the LGiU, takes a look at the untapped potential for a digital, data-led transformation of children’s services, weighing this up with the potential risks and challenges local councils could face. ...