How can local authorities share resources & work together?
Details
Hundreds of councils across the country are struggling to meet rising expectations and increasing demand on their services. Coordinating the COVID-19 response has made scarce resources even more difficult to manage and better digital services are in high demand. There is a growing need for local authorities to innovate together and share the outputs – research, design patterns, prototypes, platforms, software.
Tonight, we’ll be talking about how local authorities can work together to create digital services that can be shared, reused, and maintained to meet the needs of users across the country. We will begin with three short talks (10 minutes each) to get inspired:
May-N Leow, Head of Local Digital Collaboration Unit at MHCLG, will present what their team has been doing to encourage collaboration between local authorities during the COVID-19 crisis;
Ben Unsworth, Head of Digital at Buckinghamshire Council, will share his experience of managing the digital needs of teams across five councils merging into a single unitary authority while responding to the pandemic;
Martyn Evans, Head of Product at Unboxed, will talk about different models of reusing software in the public sector, such as the open-source Petitions service, initially built for the UK Government and Parliament then reused for Jersey and Wales, or the LoGov community interest company that enables local authorities to share investment in bigger builds.
We will then proceed with a workshop to explore barriers, enablers, and opportunities to enhance collaboration between local authorities. We’ll aim for practical steps that the councils can take to share resources more efficiently and ensure that good practices emerging from the current crisis can be amplified into the future.