UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
Laying the foundations for better local public services
Every council in the country is required to process Revenue and Benefits data, either in-house or using an outsourced model. This discovery explores if there’s a need to build a new IT platform for local government and how it can be done.
The project aims to explore an open source cost-effective solution that puts the user at the ‘heart’ of the process and is delivered in a user-centred and Agile way.
‘Processing revenues and benefits data’ discovery is awarded £71,000 from the Local Digital Fund.
The project team of the ‘Processing revenues and benefits data’ discovery deliver the agreed outputs, published openly on the Local Digital website.
The research provides a clear explanation of the national picture and sets the context for this work being done. The provided project timeline with detailed activities is a useful asset to any other council wanting to take part in the project or undertake a similar project.
The user research report has clear findings and provides information on the potential use of government platforms and issues faced by users. 96 people from 21 local authorities took part in their research, which is a fairly representative sample of the local government sector. Little information is given on the methods used in the research which was carried out via a survey, workshops and interviews, or who participated in the research. This information would add further rigour to the research and would enable other councils to replicate the research in their own councils by making use of the templates.
The produced business case provides a comprehensive explanation of non financial benefits as well as costs. Providing more evidence driven figures and a value for money analysis would add a level of robustness to the business case. The report considers the current costs and opportunities, supplementing it with quantitative details on the scale of the problem or the size of the opportunity would make a more compelling case for change.
The recommendations report contains a clear plan for taking the project forward, which includes growing a community of interest and ensuring that local government user needs are met. This should be helpful to any other council or organisation looking to follow the project in the future.
The report contains technical feasibility discovery work about implementing an open source system. It contains a high level overview of a systems architecture and how the system could be rolled out and supported. This type of research provides additional support to the feasibility of this work.
