Innovation and Efficiency

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. ...

Stepping up to GovTech

02.07.18: Malcolm Harbour CBE, chair of the LGA working group on innovation in public procurement, gives us an update on the progress of the GovTech Catalyst challenges, and explains how successful projects will be rolled out. My last article in PSE...

Over £800m saved by councils sharing services

28.06.18: In a new analysis by the LGA, more than £800m of public money has been saved by councils sharing services. In its national shared services map, it shows that there are 555 separate shared services arrangements across England, providin...

Big Data analytics ‘critical’ to help councils keep up with changing citizen behaviour patterns

25.06.18: The way people are moving across a city is fundamentally and rapidly changing, but some local authorities are not moving quickly enough themselves in order to understand these different movement patterns. Councils are therefore missing out...

Can Intelligent Connectivity transform the public sector?

25.06.18: ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Danny Longbottom, director of local government & health at BT Business & Public Sector, reminds organisations that having the right tech in place will help save time and money in the long run – and Intellig...

Decisions, decisions

18.06.18: The true social value of procurement comes from asking challenging questions and thinking outside the box, argues Melissa Bell, sustainable procurement manager at the YPO. Everyone wants more for their money – and this is even more so...