Digital Centre of Government Parliamentary Review

The Local Government Association (LGA) recognises the transformative potential of the government's digital agenda to revolutionise public service delivery and therefore welcomes the establishment of a central hub for digital transformation. We particularly commend the appointment of Theo Blackwell, London's Chief Digital Officer, to the Government Digital Service, and his leadership of a dedicated initiative focused on integrating local government.

• Meaningful integration of local government: The LGA welcomes the integration of local government into the new Digital Centre of Government. The LGA has long called for local government to be recognised as a vital part of the public sector innovation ecosystem and is enthusiastic about he opportunities for shared learning across the public sector. This integration should involve active participation in strategic decision-making and product development, guaranteeing that local and regional nuances are reflected in the Centre's initiatives
• Fixing the foundations: Despite the potential positive impact of 'kickstarter' projects, the Digital Centre of Government's focus should be on resolving the fundamental obstacles to digital transformation in local government: market shaping, digital skills, data sharing and interoperability, and digital inclusion.
• Digital inclusion and connectivity: To ensure equitable access to the benefits of the Digital Centre and the critical role that councils play as leaders of place, the LGA urges the prioritisation of digital inclusion capacity within councils and local government’s role to be properly considered in nationwide connectivity initiatives. This focus will empower all citizens to participate in the digital age and prevent further marginalisation.
• Establish a dedicated Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT): The LGA advocates for the creation of a Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT) within its structure. This sector-led initiative would serve as a crucial bridge between local government and the Digital Centre, guaranteeing that local and regional perspectives are not only captured but also actively supported with targeted resources and capacity.

The LGA is the national voice of local government. We are a politically led, cross-party membership organisation, representing English councils. Our role is to support, promote and improve local government, and raise national awareness of the work of councils. Our ultimate ambition is to support councils to deliver local solutions to national problems. 

The State of Digital Government Review identified deep systemic challenges: institutionalised fragmentation, persistent legacy, cyber and resilience risk; siloed data, under-digitisation; inconsistent leadership; a skills shortfall; diffuse buying power and outdated funding models.

The systemic change outlined in the Blueprint proposed a ‘digital-first operating model’ where digital leadership skills are essential for senior leaders, services are redesigned, and digital and data infrastructure is shared to meet common needs. Digital inclusion is centred on ensuring that as many people as possible can access digital public services. 

The digital landscape of government is undergoing significant transformation, the LGA has consistently championed the crucial role of local government within the public sector innovation ecosystem. We've been working closely with DSIT on the State of Digital Government Review and the development of the Blueprint to ensure that local government needs and priorities are integrated. 

The LGA welcomes the 29 mentions of local government in the State of Digital Government Review, which indicates an intention for engagement and collaboration. We particularly welcome the secondment to Government Digital Service of Theo Blackwell, Chief Digital Officer for London, to lead a local government integration sprint which demonstrates a commitment to integration of local government. This approach is supporting the communication of the digital centre vision to councils.

Local Government is a vital part of the public sector innovation ecosystem however requires significant investment to innovate, particularly to address legacy system debt, build staff capabilities, and strengthen data foundations, enabling continued digital technology adoption and AI exploration. Local government is often poorly understood and has specific challenges that are not mirrored in Whitehall or other parts of the public sector. 

Further engagement with the sector must be led by local government and showcase innovation and good practice from councils across England. The LGA’s ongoing engagement with the sector demonstrates that innovation is happening in councils of all types and tiers throughout the country. 

• What benefits will a digital centre deliver to the UK economy?
• How effectively has the vision for a digital centre been communicated?

The UK government is right to champion digital transformation. It has the power to revolutionise public services, making them more efficient, user-friendly, and ultimately, more effective in improving lives. The move towards working across the public sector is a significant opportunity. Prioritising digital technology has the potential to empower communities and drive economic growth, aligning with the government’s agenda for public sector reform.

In the Blueprint, DSIT laid out a six-point plan for government digital reform expanding the focus for the whole public sector, facilitating senior ministerial sponsorship, bringing together specialist digital, data and AI skills into the centre of digital government in the Government Digital Service, and a commitment to fixing systemic blocks such as designing funding models for digital delivery in the upcoming spending review and opportunities within the Procurement Act 2023. 

Councils have a unique position within the public sector technological eco-system where – whilst holding information on every resident, exchanging data with nearly every branch of government, and enabling the economy in the places they serve – they have a pivotal role in driving forward technological progress in every part of the country to support the progress towards the Blueprint’s outcomes. Local government has a key role to play in delivering the blueprint and driving innovative procurement through the Procurement Act 2023. Meaningful integration and continuous involvement of the sector into the Digital Centre from the outset will lead to better outcomes for all citizens. 

However, the Digital Centre of Government will not deliver for citizens if digital inclusion and connectivity are not prioritised by the Centre from the outset. Nation-wide connectivity and digital inclusion initiatives will enable digitally empowered communities, and ensure that all communities will be able to avail of the opportunities digital transformation provides. Current connectivity strategies often falter due to a disconnect between national objectives and local realities. This misalignment can lead to misplaced priorities, implementation delays, and ultimately, a failure to meet the diverse needs of communities nationwide.

Beyond connectivity, it is crucial to address the critical issue of digital inclusion. While providing access to broadband and mobile networks is essential, it is not enough. Efforts must also be made to overcome affordability barriers, tackle digital skills gaps, and ensure online services are accessible to all, regardless of age, disability, or digital literacy. The Government, through the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), must invest in local capacity and collaboration. By strategically allocating resources and supporting local authorities as leaders of place, the Government can bridge the digital divide, stimulate local economies, and ensure equitable access to essential digital infrastructure.

The LGA believes that a dedicated, sector-led Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT) within the Local Government Association (LGA) is crucial to the delivery of the Blueprint’s ambitions. This locally embedded, centrally supported approach will ensure the digital centre effectively and efficiently serves citizens across England.

• Are there any areas of the public sector that are particularly suited to or in need of digital transformation?
• Has DSIT identified the right areas of public services with its initial five ‘kickstarter’ tests and products?
• How should DSIT measure and evaluate the success of the digital centre?

The priorities for the Digital Centre of Government should be to strengthen the foundations for digital transformation across the public sector.

Prototyping and scaling of digital tools 

Local government is actively engaging with the AI incubator, i.AI, and piloting tools such as the transcription platform 'Minute'. i.AI presented to 140 councils at the LGA’s AI practitioners’ network on 22 January to introduce the tools available, and the LGA looks forward to working collaboratively with the i.AI to facilitate local government pilot cohorts, drive productivity gains for the sector, and deliver cost savings for councils. However, the digital centre must ensure local authorities have early access to the full range of i.AI tools, actively shaping their development through participation in the pipeline and rapid prototyping. This is vital not only for councils to acquire AI and digital solutions at the best value for public money, but also to guarantee these centrally developed tools effectively meet local needs and can be scaled across local government.

In addition, there must be more opportunities for market shaping and pre-procurement engagement between the public sector and innovators, to ensure that those in local government have access and knowledge of cutting-edge innovations. At the LGA, we piloted a Tech Innovation Showcase where we showcased SME solutions against challenge statements submitted by local government to facilitate more use case learning exchange between SMEs and councils, and to support local government’s key role in fostering SME markets. 

Market shaping

A fundamental challenge across local government's digital and technology landscape is the market concentration of systems underpinning vital services. These include adult and children's social care case management, electoral software, revenue and benefits systems, and planning back-office systems. While each of England's 317 councils operates independently, their fragmented technology purchasing hinders collective bargaining for better prices, value, or innovation. The digital centre should address this key issue and provide support and mitigation strategies.

Councils have varying levels of capacity and expertise in council procurement, legal and IT teams. Some councils have dedicated IT procurement specialists who can negotiate effectively, while others have small procurement and IT teams who may lack the capacity and capabilities to negotiate with global companies, resulting in a significant power imbalance and less buying power. Council legal teams may also be overstretched, and councils choose to purchase through frameworks such as Gcloud as the contract work is already done. 

Local Government requires a market shaping function that could be established for the public sector. This function will analyse technology markets, facilitate collective bargaining, and enable councils to collectively procure products and services, addressing market failures and improving value for money. This approach will foster innovative procurement practices that promote localised economic growth and productivity. This would save public funds and foster collaboration between councils, and local government with other parts of the public sector. This could also ensure strong cyber security; data protection and ethical standards are created at a sector level. 

Data sharing and interoperability 

Councils face challenges in effectively utilising their data due to quality issues, availability limitations, and difficulties in sharing data with other organisations. These challenges stem from data silos, varying data formats, conflicting data sharing interpretations, and differing risk appetites among departments. There’s also limited adoption of data standards in systems by suppliers which acts as a further barrier. This fragmented data landscape hinders AI adoption by impeding the development and deployment of AI solutions, potentially leading to duplicated efforts and increased costs.

The LGA supports the ambitions of the National Data Library. Councils are often described as ‘data rich and insight poor’ organisations holding data on every resident in the UK in the delivery of vital public services, but often data is stuck behind legacy systems that aren’t interoperable with other council systems and/or not easy to access; or the foundations are not strong enough for sharing. The LGA welcomes the Government’s proposed strategic initiatives for making public sector data use work better across the public sector and economy. As data-rich environments, local government must play a key role in these discussions, and public trust must be paramount throughout. Local government needs support in addressing data foundations, and shared data standards across the public sector and technology suppliers are key to these discussions.

Streamlining data sharing and use across government is crucial. Data fuels our digital technologies, and in the case of AI, it's essential for training models. Data is therefore fundamental to the Digital Centre's success. The LGA supports a 'digital backbone' across the public sector, as data and systems interoperability is key to realising the opportunities of digital transformation. Councils interact with and share data with nearly every government department and a wide range of public sector bodies as they deliver over 800 services to residents. This makes councils essential to joining up public services and strengthening data and digital infrastructure. We must consider how data can be more easily reused to create smarter, more responsive local public services. Prioritising legal gateways and providing capacity and support for data-sharing agreements between local government and other public sector bodies is essential.

The digital centre should explore developing, supporting and incentivising an agreed set of data standards in order to increase the flow of data between government departments and local government.

Digital inclusion

Digital inclusion is the ability of individuals and communities to access, use and benefit from digital technologies. Local Government plays a key role in driving digitally enabled communities, to ensure that all residents possess the essential basic digital skills and knowledge and have access to reliable and affordable internet connectivity and devices. This is crucial in today's increasingly digital society where accessing essential services like banking, participating in democratic processes, applying for jobs, and receiving benefits increasingly relies on digital and online platforms. Digital skills, equipment and reliable digital connectivity are crucial to enable people to fully participate in society, particularly digitally enabled services and the economy. 

Individuals must be able to access the internet whilst also having the motivation, confidence, and skills to thrive online. Better connectivity is a vital driver for connecting underserved communities and ensuring that everyone can benefit from digital transformation. The digital centre must ensure it meets the needs of all citizens and focus on core elements such as connectivity and basic digital skills for all. 

Local authorities know their communities best and have the responsibilities, relationships, and assets to play a key role in encouraging all residents to get online and attain the digital skills needed to thrive. However, many local authorities have no staff members dedicated to digital inclusion. Councils require capacity and there are many examples of where dedicated digital inclusion officers and teams can have a multiplier effect - effectively leveraging industry partnerships for additional support and leading place-based interventions across industry, academia and the voluntary and community sector for the benefit of the community. 

Kickstarter projects 

A beta GOV.UK app and GOV.UK wallet

The LGA acknowledges Government's initiative to consolidate public services into a unified app-based hub. This aligns with a significant challenge faced by many councils: establishing a single, accessible point of contact for residents. The LGA believes the development of this app offers valuable learning opportunities for local authorities, potentially accelerating the sector's goal of creating efficient and effective digital front doors. However, this potential can only be realised through early and meaningful integration of councils needs and a developed understanding of key challenges.

Our engagement with the sector consistently highlights the creation of a seamless digital front door as a key priority. The LGA’s Technology Innovation Showcase identified the digital front door as a critical area for AI and smart technology deployment in local government. Many councils are currently implementing 'MyAccount' platforms, aiming to unify customer contact systems and achieve a comprehensive view of citizen interactions. These platforms seek to provide a central portal for residents, facilitating online service applications, reducing call centre demand, improving resident experience, and managing increasing service pressures. Yet, achieving interoperability between back-office systems remains a persistent hurdle due to legacy infrastructure, API limitations, and the absence of standardised data protocols.

Regarding the GOV.UK Wallet, the LGA strongly supports the development of a national digital identity solution, recognising its long-overdue necessity for modern public services. Local government has been actively involved in discussions surrounding the rollout of One Login for several years.

Crucially, the Government must integrate local government perspectives and the realities of local service delivery into the implementation of the Wallet. It is essential to acknowledge that not all residents possess the means to access this technology. Careful consideration must be given to how citizens without photographic ID or a digital footprint will be identified, ensuring they are not disadvantaged, especially when the Wallet serves as proof of service eligibility. Furthermore, to ensure public trust, there must be a priority on absolute transparency about how sensitive data is handled, stored, and controlled.

Collaborations with organisations across the public sector, supporting the government’s goal to Get Britain Working

As custodians of public health, councils are vital partners alongside the NHS in the government's ambition to improve long-term health condition management and boost workforce participation. The LGA welcomes digital developments that support councils in enhancing resident health, and strongly advocates for their inclusion in all such initiatives.

Councils are actively exploring digital technologies to manage long-term health conditions and disabilities, utilising predictive analytics for preventative care and early detection, and expanding Technology Enabled Care (TEC) within social care for early intervention. These initiatives, alongside AI-driven personalised public health messaging trials such as smoking cessation, offer valuable insights into technology's supportive role in wellbeing and health management. Importantly, councils, in partnership with Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), possess a wealth of public health expertise and are actively working to improve community health and manage long-term illness, closely aligning with the government’s ‘Get Britain Working’ ambitions. Therefore, increased collaboration between local and central government, incorporating the knowledge of councils and ICBs, alongside further investment, is essential to scale these solutions, achieve national benefits, and realise the government's ambitions.

While digital tools offer valuable potential, it's crucial to acknowledge that councils possess a range of established and effective resources that are currently underutilised due to funding constraints. Programmes like social prescribing and active wellbeing initiatives, which can significantly improve the lives of individuals with long-term health conditions or disabilities, have experienced funding reductions, leaving councils unable to meet demand. Therefore, a comprehensive strategy is needed, one that combines digital innovation with the full utilisation of existing council expertise and resources to ensure future success.

Pilot of GOV.UK chat

Many councils are already using chatbots and AI chatbots in their customer service, offering potential learning opportunities for the central government's gov.uk chat rollout. Research indicates 15 per cent of council UK and Ireland are utilising front facing chatbots. Many more councils are piloting these technologies across service delivery and customer service centres. For example, Peterborough City Council has successfully implemented "Geraldine", an AI chatbot providing internal advice to care workers in adult social care. South Cambridgeshire District Council has developed and is piloting "Sam" to triage customer queries. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the digital centre should explore these existing local innovations to identify best practices and inform the development of GOV.UK chat.

Launching a new AI accelerator upskilling programme

The LGA welcomes the Kickstarter project's focus on developing digital skills. Councils are experiencing significant digital skills gaps within their workforces. FutureDotNow research suggests that 59 per cent of the workforce can't perform all basic digital tasks, and 8 per cent can't perform any. In a workforce of 1.4 million, this means 112,000 people lack any digital skills, and 826,000 need more training. While a training programme to help digital professionals become machine learning engineers is valuable and relevant to some councils, there's a greater need for training in core digital foundation skills, which are currently lacking across the sector.

Launching a new cross-government vulnerability scanning service

Additionally, the LGA welcomes a focus on vulnerability scanning and the development of a central approach to building more centralised cyber resilience. Over the last 6 years, the LGA has worked closely with the Government Security Group and MHCLG to promote cyber security and resilience across local government and wants to ensure this relationship continues. The LGA is strongly supportive of the Government Cyber Security Strategy (GCSS) and believes this, if properly implemented with local government priorities understood and integrated, can be a key driver in improving the cyber resilience of the UK. The LGA supports a more coordinated effort to address risk, including a cross-public sector vulnerability scanning service, and has been working closely with other lead government departments to address supply chain risk when a council is impacted by an incident. Supply chain risk remains a key area for local government and consideration should be given to how key suppliers are integrated into the cross-government vulnerability scanning service. 

Local government Kickstarters

Given the specific service areas that local government delivers, the LGA would welcome future Kickstarters focused on service areas such as planning, housing, and social care housed within the Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT).

The LGCDT would be the perfect vehicle to facilitate local government kickstarter tests. The LGCDT will empower local authorities to harness the potential of digital technology, driving innovation, improving efficiency, and enhancing service delivery for communities across the UK. It will serve as a collaborative hub for local authorities, central government, industry experts, and community stakeholders to address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the digital age. By fostering knowledge sharing, co-creating solutions, and driving collective action, the LGCDT will enable local authorities to overcome shared challenges and unlock new opportunities.

• Are there any case studies that the committee should consider as part of its inquiry?
• What lessons do previous and contemporary digital transformation initiatives offer for the digital centre?
• What can the UK learn from other countries’ efforts?

Local government case studies

Local government is at the forefront of digital innovation. This can be evidenced in councils' continued adoption of AI. Our updated survey indicated that there is a positive outlook on AI adoption within the sector, with 91 per cent of respondents indicating they are either using AI or exploring its potential. Only 9 per cent had not begun exploring AI capabilities. This strong interest suggests a sector receptive to innovation and eager to leverage AI and other digital technologies to improve service delivery.

Councils are innovatively exploring various applications for AI across different service areas, including but not limited to:

• public-facing chatbots, for example in contact centres
• AI assistants for caseworkers, for example in social care or housing
• Analysis of complex qualitative data, for example, planning consultation responses
• generative AI tools for translation services and creating easy read documents
• predictive analytics for falls prevention and homelessness prevention
• cleaning datasets and removing duplicates
• AI-enabled sensors in housing to reduce damp and mould
• HMO fraud analysis
• FOI requests.

Many of these examples are captured on our AI case study bank which now houses 20 innovative case studies from councils across England. The case studies evidence the safe and responsible deployment of AI in local government covering key aspects such as risk assessment, AI policies and procedures and governance. The case study bank also evidences how widely local government is exploring AI from adults and children’s social care to road management. 

Local government is a trailblazer not only in emerging technologies like AI, but also in the broader application of technology and digital systems. Given that the majority of local government services rely on digital technology, the sector possesses a wealth of experience in using, developing, and adapting technology to ensure its effectiveness.

However, as outlined in the LGA’s State of Digital Local Government Review, local government experiences significant barriers that must be addressed if the sector is able to avail of the same transformation opportunities as other parts of the UK public sector. The Digital Centre should conduct a comprehensive review of existing legacy technology estates across local government that can act as barriers to transformation and work closely with the sector on a remediation plan. The Digital Centre should also continue to work closely with the LGA to understand what learning for the wider public sector can be gleaned from the experiences of local government. Many of the Digital Centre's workstreams are already being explored at the local level, offering valuable shared learning opportunities.

• What technical and policy expertise does DSIT need to deliver the digital centre?
• Are the technological solutions required for the digital centre already used by government and other public bodies? If not, are they available or in development?
• How should DSIT and other public bodies leverage reforms to public procurement to deliver and operate the digital centre?

The LGA welcomes the Government Digital Service's work on defining the role of local government in the new Digital Centre. We look forward to the dedicated sprint focused on developing collaboration and innovation strategies with local government to realise the Digital Blueprint's vision for citizens and public servants. Effective communication of the vision to local government practitioners is crucial to ensure their full engagement with this new approach.

Access to technologists

Recognising the unique challenges within local government, comprising 317 constitutionally independent organisations operating as a sector, support must be tailored and delivered via a centralised mechanism. This support should be comprehensive, encompassing financial investment in technology, skills development, and critically access to independent technologists. This access, separate from supplier influence, could be facilitated through initiatives such as the Incubator for AI (i.AI). Given the varying digital maturity of local authorities, the resulting digital and data fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, duplicated efforts, inconsistent citizen services, and reduced productivity. Therefore, sustained access to independent technologist support is paramount, addressing capacity and capability gaps and enabling collaborative design pilots across councils to test solution scalability.

Additionally, the adoption of open source solutions offer significant potential, however councils need practical support to effectively implement and scale them. Providing access to skilled technologists would accelerate adoption and create a replicable model for leveraging cost-effective technologies.

Procurement processes, skills and capacity 

Digital transformation and technology implementation require a holistic approach, including an examination of existing market dynamics and government technology procurement practices. The LGA supports the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence. Local government, in the £121 billion spent every year, has a significant role to play in fostering SME markets – as we demonstrated through our Technology Innovation Showcase.

The Procurement Act 2023 provides a unique opportunity to foster the work of SMEs and work preventatively on market concentration. This legislation introduces measures to streamline procurement for smaller businesses and enhance transparency through the development of a central digital platform. This platform presents a valuable opportunity to develop and integrate assurance measures centrally, potentially through collaboration with the new Procurement Review Unit (PRU).  

Additionally, the Procurement Act 2023 introduces new mechanisms, such as the Competitive Flexible Procedure (CFP), enabling innovative digital technology procurement. The CFP offers significant potential to transform UK public procurement and aligns with strategies like the AI Opportunities Action Plan, which emphasises multi-stage procurements for complex and emerging technologies. However, limited guidance on effectively using the CFP hinders its potential. The digital centre should address this gap and promote the CFP's role in procuring emerging technology solutions engaging with organisations such as IPEC and InnovateUK who are already exploring potential uses of the CFP in government.

• How can DSIT address these barriers?
• What infrastructure and regulation is required to make the government “more digital”?

Meaningful engagement with local government practitioners

The Digital Centre's success hinges on its ability to engage and collaborate with all levels of government, particularly local government. Without local government's buy-in and active participation, the Digital Centre's initiatives risk failure. The Digital Centre must support local government in navigating the digital age, ensuring equitable access to resources compared to central government. This will lead to improved outcomes for the citizens we collectively serve.

The Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT), with support from the Digital Centre, is well-placed to ensure local government needs are met and continue to be central in delivering the blueprint’s vision.

Partnership working

At the core of the Digital Centre's operations should be partnership working, not only across government but also with a range of public and private sector stakeholders. Local government is uniquely positioned to forge partnerships at the local and regional level with businesses, universities, public sector bodies, and non-profit organisations. Where there is digital inclusion staff capacity in local government, we see councils who are able to leverage and coordinate support across industry, academia and the voluntary and community sector in their council area. More information on the multiplier effect of digital inclusion capacity is available on the LGA website. 

Within the AI space we have seen councils form strong partnerships with academic institutions to leverage the potential of AI. Recent examples illustrate the potential of such partnerships, particularly in the realm of AI. For instance, Hertfordshire County Council, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool (UoL)and technology company Robotiz3d, developed an innovative AI-powered solution for road maintenance. By combining Robotiz3d's and UoL’s AI and robotics expertise with the Council's knowledge of highway assets, they created a robotic AI system to identify and repair road defects.

Similarly, Manchester City Council partnered with Manchester Metropolitan University to engage the public in AI discussions. Through roadshow events and people's panel sessions, the council gathered valuable insights to inform its AI strategy and service development.

Local government has a strong track record of successful partnerships at local and regional levels, collaborating with both public and private sector organisations. The digital centre of government should leverage these existing partnerships and encourage further collaboration at local and regional levels to maximise digital capacity and capability.

Digital skills

Local government is plagued by skills shortages across its digital workforce, as referenced in our State of Digital Local Government submission. At one level, fixing this problem needs better diagnostic tools, more digital training and learning communities, and an improved proposition for attracting and retaining digital staff. 

Councils are experiencing challenges with capacity in digital technology in IT staff and highly technical staff. Both recruiting and retaining IT and technical staff is challenging due to private sector pay competition. Approximately 18 per cent of IT posts in councils across England were vacant as of 1 October 2023, and around a third of all responding councils said the vacancy they had found most difficult to fill in the last three years was for a technical /operational /architectural officer. On average, local authority IT teams had a turnover of approximately 9.8 per cent with 70 per cent of respondents saying that the main reason employees were leaving was more pay, while 51 per cent cited better career opportunities and 42 per cent due to retirement. Similarly, across the public sector, councils find challenges with the lack of career opportunities, pathways, and appropriate pay structures for technical staff in comparison with managerial staff in local government.

Equipping government staff with basic digital skills and building internal IT capacity are crucial for the digital centre's success. Attracting and retaining skilled talent, reducing reliance on outsourced staff, is essential.

General readiness for continued emerging technology adoption

While local government rapidly adopts emerging technology, supporting elements like policies, procedures, data, culture, and workforce development lag behind. Dedicated support is crucial to ensure councils are ready for ongoing technology adoption and can adopt it safely and ethically. As stated elsewhere, there is a need to address the foundational barriers that local government experiences in digital transformation, such as the costs of cloud adoption and addressing legacy systems. 

Within our AI survey conducted last year, it revealed a mixed state of readiness for continued AI adoption. All respondents were asked to indicate how ready, if at all, their council was to adopt or to continue to adopt AI in terms of their council’s culture, workforce, technology, data, and policies and procedures to support the safe and secure deployment of AI. Technology (e.g., infrastructure, software, cloud) was the area most respondents felt ready with just over half (53 per cent) indicating they were very or fairly ready, 45 per cent felt their institutional culture (e.g. leadership, receptivity to change) was very or 22 fairly ready while 36 per cent identified policies and procedures (e.g. governance frameworks and risk management) as an area where they were very or fairly ready. Data (e.g., availability quality, storage) and workforce (e.g., skills, knowledge, expertise) were the areas where the fewest number of respondents felt very or fairly ready with 28 and 20 per cent selecting these options.

This state of readiness closely aligned with the key barriers to AI adoption. The five biggest barriers to deploying AI identified by respondents were lack of funding (64 per cent), lack of staff capabilities (53 per cent), lack of staff capacity (50 per cent), lack of sufficient governance (including AI policy) and lack of clear use cases (41 per cent each). These barriers that councils face must be considered by the digital centre.