Open access local government – digitalization of services

Date: 26 and 27 November 2020

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From typewriters to smart phones, technology has always played a vital role in the way local government manages its business. As councils face the twin challenges of decreasing funding and increasing demand, they have found new ways of utilising technology to deliver services more effectively and enable their staff work in new ways, increasing productivity and reducing costs. Councils are continuing to lead in using technology and digital tools and approaches to improve citizen service and overcome the challenges they face. As local government’s roles and responsibilities continue to develop, with increased emphasis on community facilitation and support, commissioning and market making, communications, branding and quality assurance, such tools are likely to become ever more important.

Every local authority should have a digital strategy. Moreover, it believes that such a strategy should be fully integrated into existing business plans to signpost how to maximise the use, and realise the benefits, of digital technology. This approach follows the lead taken by the private sector, and aligns local authorities to central government, where all departments are mandated to have a digital strategy. While still early days, there is ample evidence that a broad and deep digital strategy can deliver real business benefits.  It should explain how a local authority can become a digital authority, how it should exploit digital technology across all citizen and business engagement channels, and how that same technology can transform towns, cities and regions into digital communities.