Local digital leaders must connect devolution and deliver reorganisation benefits, Localis study advises
Newly-created English unitary councils should give digital leaders a seat at the top table for council decision-making to deliver the dividends of local government reorganisation – or risk derailing the agenda for devolution and public service reform, a study published today by the think-tank Localis has argued.
Commissioned by global Software as a Service (SaaS) company TechnologyOne, the new Localis report entitled “Connected devolution: – digital systems for successful, holistic reorganisation” makes a series of policy recommendations to central government, strategic combined authorities as well as existing and new local unitary councils, on how to deliver a digital devolution dividend from the overhaul of local government structures.
According to Localis, the policy goal of creating fewer and larger councils is a social as well as structural challenge for local government in seeking to secure a safe and legally compliant ‘day one’ for the councils forged from local government reorganisation.
Among the key findings uncovered in the ‘Connected Devolution’ study, Localis found:
- Sub-optimal digital readiness at the local level. The aggregate digital readiness of English local government is held back by pervasive legacy dependency, fragmentation, supplier lock-in, and constrained finances. While national digital ‘rails’ provide useful precedents, they are fundamentally incomplete for the comprehensive integration demands of LGR.
- Capacity as the binding constraint. The overarching limiting factor is organisational capacity, with only approximately two percent of local authority headcount in digital/data-adjacent roles, significantly frustrating LGR systems integration. This necessitates ring-fenced skills funding and professionalisation against frameworks like the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.
- The central role of governance and leadership. LGR outcomes hinge on the new operating model and how decision-making powers are allocated across the merging entities. Leaders must align political and executive sponsors behind an interface-first vision and adopt a ‘rails-first, interface-led’ strategy to guide convergence. Effective governance must embed cyber and data ethics from the outset.
- The potential of data integration for prevention. Integrated services become deliverable when data from multiple independent organisations is consolidated into a single, jointly governed analytics “spine”. This is necessary to enable truly preventative services and complex cross-agency care planning.
- The importance of commercial strategy and risk mitigation. New strategic authorities can leverage their aggregated demand to overcome legacy supplier lock-in and fragmented purchasing. Commercial strategy must actively reduce legacy risk by mandating exit plans, ensuring data portability in open formats, and requiring open, documented API access without prohibitive fees.
- Collaboration as the operating context. Regional collaboration is no longer optional but must be the fundamental operating context for LGR success, utilizing archetypes like networked administrative organisations or community product consortia to pool expertise and standardise assets across local boundaries.
Report author and Localis senior researcher, Callin McLinden, said: “LGR and the wider push towards a new map of devolution represents a critical moment: if digital systems integration is approached correctly, with realistic multi-year timelines, empowered digital leadership, and disciplined commercial strategy, new local and strategic authorities can solidify their resilience and achieve the promised efficiencies.
“Otherwise, the fragmentation and cost of legacy systems will simply be rearranged, leading to the under-cooked delivery of public service reform, with the negative potential to undermine and frustrate the devolution agenda and the future of local government thereafter.”
Emma Foy, Local Government Lead, TechonologyOne said: “This report underlines what we see every day working with councils across the country: digital foundations determine the success or failure of reorganisation. The authorities that standardise on modern, interoperable cloud platforms, rather than trying to stitch together legacy systems, are the ones best placed to deliver real savings, resilience and better services.
“TechnologyOne has supported many councils through this kind of transformation, and we know that with the right digital leadership and the right technology choices, new unitaries can move quickly, reduce risk and build services that are truly future-proof.”