Better data use hailed as way of making councils more efficient

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Two trends affecting local authorities and other public sector bodies have been notable in recent years; the growing availability of technology and the need to keep everything functioning despite cuts to government grants.

Blogging for the Guardian, cabinet member for finance at the London Borough of Camden Theo Blackwell said the best way forward is to make the most of the data revolution, as this is a very effective way of becoming more efficient and achieving the challenge of doing as many things while having less money.

Mr Blackwell noted that budget cuts have focused minds, with the borough adopting an approach used by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg in creating a "geek squad" to handle data better and convert this into service delivery.

Discussing how Camden has created its own group of specialists in this area, he explained the rationale behind the move. "Local authorities do more than emptying the bins and cleaning the streets and the bulk of our budgets are devoted not to pavements, but to taking care of vulnerable families, older people in care and the public health of our citizens," he said.

"This area involves the collection of vast amounts of data, in often confusing formats. But what we know about our borough's 230,000 residents is staggering.

"Contained in our servers is information about the payment of council tax; the number of seizures; repairs done to pavements; incidence and location of dog mess; truancy; food safety; planning consents; injunctions against tenants."

Summarising the need to capture and make the most of big data, Mr Blackwell said the team of technology experts will undoubtedly have a key role to play. "Geeks know we won't get through a decade of budget cuts of this scale without a new approach, but realise that it isn't just austerity which is happening to public services – it is the digital revolution."

Noting how the council has already worked with think-tank the Big Innovation Centre (BIC) and others to work out how best to use data to make services more cost-efficient, Mr Blackwell said the use of more data has helped with forward planning to the point where 27 priority areas of spending in the budget – such as poverty, childcare and housing – are now being treated as investment areas, with defined measures of success for each.

Among the benefits of this will be the opportunity to examine whether or not these initiatives are bearing fruit. Where they are not, sending can be curbed and shifted to other areas where it is proving more beneficial.

Indeed, the plan – which was launched last year – has already undergone its first annual review, where the available data has been used to show how the information has been put to use to assess progress towards the 27 goals. Data on the council's performance will also be regularly updated online.

The event involving the BIC last year – described as a "hack" day – was the first annual event to help the local authority to work out ways of using its data better. The second will see members of the public being allowed to contribute their own thoughts to the process.

To do all this will require considerable back-up to the council's data systems, of course. As well as making large quantities of information available instantly, this will also need to be well protected, a move that could be achieved through the use of remote data storage facilities. Items of paperwork from the council's postbag – be it council tax forms, planning applications or any other physical information – can be digitised and stored in a form that is both accessible and safe, in the event that problems such as fire and flood at council offices should occur.

Local authorities like Camden are far from alone in the public sector in highlighting the potential benefits of using data more and in smarter ways. In a report published in September, Think Tank the Policy Exchange said central government could also cut costs with a shift to paperless offices, having the capacity to save Whitehall as much as £70 billion by 2020.

It identified the Crown Prosecution Service and the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority as bodies whose cost base could be curbed by cutting out the large amount of paper documentation they issue.

According to the latest ICAEW/Grant Thornton UK Business Confidence Monitor, UK business optimism is now at a ten-year high and the British economy is set to be the strongest-performing in the advanced industrialised world by the end of 2013

Storetec News/Blogs “http://www.storetec.net/news-blog/better-data-use-hailed-as-way-of-making-councils-more-efficient”. Better data use hailed as way of making councils more efficient.

November 12, 2013. Storetec.