19.06.17
Senior leaders as agents of digital transformation
Source: PSE Jun/Jul 17
As part of an investigation with the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), Cllr Theo Blackwell, Camden Council’s cabinet member for finance, technology & growth, considers the role that active senior leadership plays in digitally transforming councils.
Since 2010 Camden Council has been on a huge journey to understand the emerging benefits, opportunities and challenges to residents of the digital revolution. It is remarkable how in 2017, the budget we set is so much more reliant in almost every way on technology than the first budget I set seven years ago when I came into post: from our new ‘outcomes-based’ spending, to supporting online services, business intelligence, open data platforms and promoting growth and investing in the local tech sector.
Local authorities are currently responsible for £56bn of spending annually across 418 principal (unitary, upper and second-tier) councils in the UK, employing in excess of one million employees. They provide 80% of all local public services that citizens encounter, ranging from high-volume transactions to tailored support for individuals with complex or very high needs. Local authorities typically have more lines of business than most companies of equivalent size of turnover: a large council can have over 700 operations, many of which are underpinned by technology already.
Today, major public service reforms are being driven by factors such as overall budgetary restraint on councils from central government, a much more permissive pro-technology national policy setting (think Industrial and Digital Strategies), regional devolution and the development of intra-authority collaborative frameworks, better use of data and new common standards. All of these are driving authorities to consider how they provide services cheaper and better, as well as using the huge amount of data councils store to deliver services more effectively.
Together with the LGiU, we wanted to consider the role active senior leadership plays in transforming councils. We set out to investigate for the first time the attitudes and perceptions of local elected representatives on digital technology, governance and leadership in their authorities. With data gathered from over 808 councillors across England, our report, ‘The Start of the Possible’, gives a unique insight into digital leadership and the potential sleeping giant that local public services represent both for reform and the growth of markets for solutions to public service challenges.
Outlook on technology, automation and big data
Overall, our research found that local councillors reflect the populations they serve – they are not ‘digital dinosaurs’. Whether veteran or first-term, metropolitan or district, leadership or non-executive, they generally hold strong and positive views about technology, automation and big data and how public services can benefit from them.
The majority of councillors, who we dubbed ‘digital enthusiasts’, held strongly positive views about digital progress, but a minority (‘digital sceptics’), usually non-executive councillors, held negative views or remained to be convinced of these benefits. The digital leadership challenge is how to engage with this latter group while supporting the former.
Current leadership
Digital is not usually led by the very top decision-makers in local councils, confirming our suspicion that there is a leadership deficit which hampers organisational change. Most currently express digital transformation plans through one or more means, primarily through a customer service, transformation strategy or the corporate plan. A significant cohort said they didn’t know or didn’t have a plan.
This poses a number of immediate questions: is it acceptable for organisations as large and complex as councils not to have a big vision about how they collect and use data, promote innovation and develop the skills of their workforce? As Janet Hughes from digital leadership practitioners Doteveryone said, “it’s acceptable for leaders to say they don’t understand technology, but not when it comes to finance – why?”.
Digital exclusion
Tackling digital exclusion is still the number one issue now and for the future, and connectivity also remains a big concern for more rural councils. For a small and vociferous cohort, digital exclusion and the fear of the digital divide is a major issue. While this challenge does not stop change, in a political environment demanding further compromise than originally anticipated it may impede progress or slow the pace of change.
Exclusion constitutes a major digital leadership issue, not just a practical ‘channel shift’ concern. Digital leaders need to identify the nature and extent of this challenge in their local authorities developing further interventions of the kind seen in Croydon and Lewisham by Doteveryone and the Good Things Foundation, or a public scrutiny of the kind undertaken by London Borough of Ealing.
Access to public data
Finally, the big question of access to public data was addressed. Data are in many ways the raw material of innovation – being able collect and share data consistently and securely allows authorities to work together better and be more adaptable. The successful adoption of private sector innovations in the public sector (e.g. advanced data analytics, design-led innovation) has involved closer collaboration with technology firms.
The ability of councils to innovate will increasingly depend on the terms of their relationship with the tech sector, posing questions about access to public data, privacy and the sharing of information in its various forms. Councillors are quite evenly split on the private sector using public data, even with appropriate safeguards. Digital enthusiasts (net +34%) and leaders and cabinet members (net +18%) take a more positive view.
Councillors were evenly split on the advisability of the private sector using public data (even with appropriate safeguards) to solve problems. Councillors who were more positive about digital services (digital enthusiasts), leaders and cabinet members responding to our survey took a much more positive view on use of data, while those who held a more negative view (digital sceptics) strongly disagree. The clear divide between these two camps is food for thought on how the politics of data use are negotiated for senior leaders in the future.
Digital devolution
There is clear backing for digital to be included in thinking around devolution. Local councillors of all levels of experience, seniority and outlook on technology overwhelmingly think local public services do not currently share information effectively. They strongly agreed that councils should procure technology functions together and strongly support better co-ordination of digital transformation through devolution and multi-authority or regional chief digital officers (CDOs).
There was a thirst for councillors to be better supported to understand more about technology and transformation in all its forms. One approach focused on identifying needs and developing leadership support is the Scottish government’s Digital Champions Development programme. Aimed at chief executive and director level, public sector organisations are able to understand the role that digital technologies can play in helping transform their organisations.
While the role of a CDO provides a pivot for strategic integration, in reality finding local public service CDOs expert in technology service transformation, data and leadership is likely to be a near impossible task.
In practice, the focus should not be reliant on one individual to modernise all technology, data and delivery but on the assembly of digital teams under effective leadership. Scotland, Manchester and now London have taken steps to secure a ‘digital devolution’ programme of team-based work starting with discovery missions around existing tech procurement, legacy systems, common and open data standards.
There is much more to explore in more in-depth research, but in order to address the co-ordination deficit local, regional and central government must invest together and co-ordinate digital leadership at a senior officer and councillor level so that, at the very least, there can be a framework that enables multi-council procurement and better data-sharing across public services.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The ‘State of the Possible’ report can be accessed at:
W: www.lgiu.org.uk/report/start-of-the-possible