📄 Balancing ambition and caution in LGR

Chatting with Clare this morning about all things digital and local government reorganisation, I came to the conclusion that it really is all a balancing act. The risks of things going wrong are huge, and the importance of being ‘safe and legal’ is vital… but at the same time this is a generational opportunity for positive change and genuine transformation that must not be wasted.

So I think the answer for leaders going into this is: be ambitious, but be aware of the minefield you are working in. Be realistic about what can be achieved in what timescale, but absolutely make sure that at the right points in your roadmap (which ought to span a decade, if we are being honest) radical reform is on the agenda.

A couple of ideas on what that looks like. One of those inflection points is right at the beginning, when the business case is being put together and the design of the new organisation is being thought about. This is a moment for radicalism, for the new council to be infused with digital-age principles: responsive, user-centred, flexible, a positive actor within a wider system, preventative, relational, etc.

Do not, whatever you do, factor in any short term savings around digital and IT – it ain’t happening.

But when planning for day 1, I’d be cautious. Get everyone on the same Microsoft tenancy so you can at least all talk to each other. Having a single finance system will make managing budgets a hell of a lot easier. Make sure the basics of security are in the right place. A single website front end would be nice. I think that’s enough to be getting on with. Extend all the contracts that all the original councils had with existing suppliers – they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Beyond day 1, we can start being radical again. Set out a realistic roadmap for the next 5 years or so, identifying the major service areas for redesign. This cannot, must not, just involve aggregating everyone onto a single system, but is the opportunity for ground up, blank sheet of paper style transformation, with the right technology a key part of making it happen. Don’t take on too much – even with a big team, these could take multiple years to complete.

From that point, iteratively keep circling around, don’t take on too much, manage expectations that real transformation is hard work, takes time, but is worth it. Each service area will be reached, at the right point in time, and until then, services must do the best they can with what they have – it’s worked oki-ish for the last 20 years, it can keep going another 5. Best not to rush, take the time and do it properly.

As I said at the beginning, keep in mind: we have to be ambitious, but those landmines are everywhere. Think about where you are treading, don’t be hasty. This is an amazing opportunity, so let’s not cock it up.


This was originally posted on LinkedIn, saved here for posterity.

Legends of low code panel recording

This Tuesday Nick and I ran the legends of low code panel session, and much fun was had, and great learning shared.

I was joined by:

  • Kev Rowe, Croydon Council
  • Craig Barker, Cumbria County Council
  • Clare Evans, Tewkesbury Borough Council
  • Lee Gallagher, Hertsmere Council

Check out the video recording above, to hear about

  • the great low code projects all the councils have been working on
  • the cultural changes that went alongside the technology switch
  • the downsides of using low code and how to overcome them
  • who is best placed to become a low code developer in your organisation

Hope it’s useful!

LocalGovCamp Yorkshire and Humber

All Aboard the Great Yorkshire & Humber LocalGovCamp Train!

Departing from: The National Railway Museum in York (only 2hrs from London)

Departure date: Saturday 12 June 2010

For tickets and more information: www.localgovcamp-yh.co.uk

This first LocalGovCamp under the new Coalition Government will undoubtedly see some big issues debated, not least the future of local government itself.

The landscape has changed considerably since Dave organised the first event in Birmingham last June and our focus is now firmly on achieving more with less, or even less with less. So what of technology, social media, co-design and citizen participation? What about new ways of working enabled by technology and what of our digital future and vision?

If these questions are of interest, or you have some of your own, hop on the train and join in the debate in beautiful York. Bring an open mind, some passion and some ideas to share and explore. Bring a sense of fun too, it is a Saturday after all.

LocalGovCamp Yorkshire & Humber will also feature short parallel work streams for elected members on the use of social media, sessions being led by colleagues from Kirklees with input from Cllr Tim Cheetham (Barnsley), Cllr Simon Cooke (Bradford) and Ingrid Koehler (IDeA & Connected Councillor Programme).

If you work in local government perhaps you can ensure your Democratic Services colleagues inform your elected members of this opportunity.

The event is FREE for all to attend and as a bonus we’ll be having a World Cup themed after party to celebrate (we hope) victory for England in their first match!

You can book your tickets now: www.localgovcamp-yh.eventbrite.com

Twitter: @localgovcampYH and #LGCYH

UKGovCamp group: http://www.ukgovcamp.com/groups/yorkshire-and-the-humber-localgovcamp/

See you in York – WooooOOOoooWooooOOOooo!

OpenSpaceDevon

Carl Haggerty has launched a great initiative down in Devon:

Carl writes:

It would be great to get public sector professionals, voluntary organisations and business people involved in these areas all together and working through some of these issues and topics – Basically, i’d imagine the event to involve anyone who has an interest and passion to improve public services in general.

This is an interesting idea, and one I’m totally in agreement with. Take the format used by LocalGovCamp and other unconferences, but make it all about the geographical area. Bring together public, third and private sectors to thrash out new ways of doing things, and hopefully spark the enthusiasm needed for some of the organisational battles required to get stuff moving.

Just the sort of event I was thinking about when I wrote this post after the Lincoln LocalGovCamp.

So if you are in Devon, or just interested, pop along to the network Carl has created and join in the discussions!

Councillor 2.0

Just popped up on the Gallomanor blog – Cllr 2.0:

The Ministry of Justice Innovations Fund II approved a bid from Gallomanor and Norfolk County Council to help set this record straight.  We’re filming a group of six Norfolk County Councillors as we train them on how to blog.  The film along with a introductory booklet will be distributed to public sector organisations to help them convince their decision makers, their civic leaders that using the internet and blogging in particular are good communication tools.  We’ll also be setting up a series of Q&A session with local bloggers for the first 25 local authorities wanting to run them.

Great stuff! And perfect for my Public Sector Social Media meet on the 26th Feb. I have emailed Shane at Gallomanor to see if he and maybe someone from Norfolk CC can come along and chat to us about the project, which has its own blog (of course!) at http://cllr2pointzero.wordpress.com/.

Andrew Brown is also involved in Cllr 2.0, whose blog I have been subscribed to for a while now.

Another good example of councillors blogging is at Chester City Council, with their Chesterblogs project. I had emailed their generic web team address about this, and whether they would like to be involved, but sadly never heard anything back.