On Wednesday 11th September, as the digital lead for Local Government at Starfish Search, Rosalind Lambert had the pleasure of attending Reimagining London’s Public Services with Tech, Data & Innovation at the IET. It was an incredible event with Eddie Copeland, Director at LOTI, as key speaker.
Eddie gave a great lecture on the future of Local Government and how using data and technology to innovate we can really improve lives of our communities, as long as the people, the users, are taken along on this journey. Tech is not just a waving a magical wand and implementing a new system, especially where digital poverty exists. We need to be able to firstly lift our communities out digital poverty before innovation can truly happen. Additionally, it is important that Borough’s work together, sharing ideas, data, costs and innovations as the solutions affect all Londoner’s as relatively few citizens live and work in one Borough and this is where LOTI has its maximum impact.
That said, innovation and the art of imagination of what we can do has started to have positive returns. The South London Partnership is using IOT sensors for preventative measures for flooding, RBKC are using generative AI to assess and prioritise resident spotted graffiti for cleaning, Brent is starting to use AI to write up case notes in social care freeing up valuable time, and Harrow is using a visual AI tool to reconcile advertising hoardings with business rates, resulting in capturing lost revenue. Outside of London Swindon has reduced its translation costs by 99% through using Google Translate and has increased public engagement by being able to communicate in citizen’s native language.
Against a background of cost cutting there are some great ideas and innovations taking place not only in the capital with this month Sunderland City Council’s Digital Inclusion Programme winning the Community Improvement Award at the Connected Britain Awards. Sunderland have helped over 200,000 residents’ access vital digital services and have doubled full-fibre connectivity across Sunderland in just 12 months. Long may it continue.
Should you wish to have a chat about your digital transformation journey, please contact the team at info@starfishsearch.com.