While in many ways the world has stood still for the past 20 or so months, technology has accelerated beyond belief. No more so than in the public sector.

And it’s taken a big cultural shift. With taxpayers’ money under their control and budgets tightening year on year, local authorities naturally take a risk averse approach to any major, wholesale changes.

But out of necessity, the pandemic has forced them to be much more reactive. They’ve become smarter, more agile, both in terms of how they work internally and the services they provide to the public.

Harnessing the power of Zoom

Although many of us have felt the drain of ‘Zoom fatigue’ from time to time these past months, video conferencing technologies have allowed more people to contribute to council meetings and the democratic process.

Eddie Copeland, Director of the London Office of Technology and Innovation (Loti), says it’s meant councils can attract a “different type of demographic, recognising not everyone can turn up to the town hall. There is so much more we could do there, using digital tools to give citizens a voice in their local recovery.”

As the government continues to reject calls to introduce laws to make Zoom council meetings permanent, Eddie is concerned momentum will fall by the wayside.

Keeping an open dialogue with local residents and giving them more ways to contribute will be key to helping districts recover and prosper. Take away that diversity of thought and the jigsaw of what’s important to people becomes much trickier to unlock.

The cloud computing conundrum

Public sector organisations have become much more open to cloud technology – UKCloud conducted a survey on over 300 public sector organisations and found 87.2% agreed that they would move their IT to the cloud if the right software was available.

Cloud solutions mean businesses don’t have to be shackled to their premises hardware and can go fully remote. They can be much more flexible and increase collaboration, while only having to rely on a single source for any maintenance or updates.

However, when organisations have been wedded to their IT systems for such a long time, it can be hard to take that final leap of faith. But cloud computing doesn’t necessarily mean ripping out everything and starting from scratch.

Matt Birtwistle and Michael Lonnon, Public Sector Lead and Industry Marketing Lead of HSO, say cloud solutions can complement what businesses already have in place.

‘Cloud-based applications, in particular, can be a great way to repurpose and refresh legacy systems and, in turn, embed new ways of working.’ It would seem there still needs to be education around these technologies, so local authorities can get a clearer idea of the benefits to the organisation and how the solution can fit in with how they need to use it.

Alexa looking out for loved ones

Tech in the public services is so often about finding cheaper, more efficient ways to problem solve, and freeing staff up to deal with issues that are much more important. A great example of this is how Sunderland City Council has been using Alexa-style tech to stop elderly residents going into assisted accommodation earlier than they need to.

Chief Executive Patrick Melia explains: “Over 1,500 homes across the city now have assistive technology. You can do push notices to alert someone to take their medicine, or there are sensors in the home so the family will get an alert that the family member has put a kettle on, so they are up in the morning or whatever it is,”

It gives families that extra assurance knowing their loved ones have that added layer of automated protection, while the resident can preserve more of their independence.

Cyber risk has never been greater

But as tech gets more sophisticated, so do the criminals waiting in the shadows to take advantage of the chinks in an organisation’s defences. It has never been more important for public services to make sure their systems are properly monitored and governed by IT, risk and cyber security professionals.

We have partnered with Pen Underwriting on their cyber insurance product, and we would be happy to talk you through the scope of cover in more detail. For more information, you can get in touch with us at: contact@rmpartners.co.uk.

Published date: 11th January  2022

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