Posted by:
Kannan Jayaraman
Publish Date:
17 Aug, 2021
Last month, I attended the Local Government Strategy Forum at Heythrop Park with some of my colleagues at Invenio. The event welcomed over 200 delegates of varied positions and agendas, gathering and collaborating on new ways of working and fresh ideas to assist them in enhancing services and processes in their respective councils.
I personally learnt a great deal as we begin to emerge from the COVID pandemic, now more than ever it’s clear to me that local authorities need to be thinking innovatively, creatively and ambitiously about the difference they can make to people’s lives. It’s time to act now, as fundamental decisions must be taken to empower authorities and deliver better ways to reach and support citizens, while levelling up working practices.
It was fundamentally recognised that better social inclusion and business processes will play an integral role in support of social and economic recovery of the whole county as we move out of the pandemic.
Key themes:
As part of the transformation to economic and social recovery it’s clear now is the time to act on new and collaborative digital strategies setting the vision for change, a new set of values, and an ambition to use digital to create connected and inclusive communities - these must be innovative and digitally optimised services. This approach will help deliver better agile working practices and community engagement for the benefit of employees, employers, and citizens.
Working with this mission in mind, collaboration across the local regions will deliver insight-driven decision-making that enables innovation and efficiencies to improve outcomes for residents by:
• Providing practical and actionable insights
• Promoting an insight-driven approach to how they work
• Partnering in solution development
• Shaping their community and place-based approach
I also learnt from one of my local authorities that during the pandemic, environmental issues have increased where waste management has seen an unprecedented increase in tonnage and collection. Therefore, it’s all our responsibility to deliver education and biodiversity protection initiatives to play a pivotal role in environmental management, including regulation. As such local councils are faced with the challenge of pursuing initiatives to reduce their environmental footprint such as waste and biodiversity protection initiatives. Whilst technology can assist, it’s time to act new methods of working, providing actionable insight by shaping communities through education, at the same time deploying new ways of collaborative working.
So, what does all this mean? Lockdown has changed how we live and work. Working routines will never go back to normal; this must be accepted if we are going to collaborate and deliver better more agile solutions, employ newer more modern digital technology and strategies, better leadership, a new vision, and outcomes for the community.