Local authorities are rethinking how they deliver services in a digital world.
At the centre of that transformation often sits the council website – usually the first point of contact between citizens and the many teams that sit behind it. It’s more than just a digital noticeboard; it’s the front door to an organisation that provides hundreds of vital services every day.
Getting that front door right matters, but the real test of digital transformation lies in what happens beyond it. Behind every online form, every payment portal, every request logged by a resident, there’s a complex web of systems, workflows and governance processes that need to work together. For local authorities, aligning those systems and making them talk to each other is where the real challenge – and opportunity – begins.
The work involved can be painstaking. I often describe it as unravelling a long piece of string or a tightly wound ball of elastic bands. Tug on one part and others start to shift. Change of this scale isn’t a quick project that ends once the new system is switched on. It’s a process of continual improvement that demands patience, collaboration and cultural change.
There’s a natural desire in any organisation to reach a point where things are “done”. But transformation doesn’t stand still. Most of us don’t even notice when the applications we use every day quietly update or change their layout overnight. That constant evolution is what people now expect from all services – including those provided by the public sector.
For local government, this shift is happening at a time of financial constraint and rising demand. Budgets are stretched, yet the expectations of citizens continue to grow. People want public services to be as simple, responsive and transparent as the ones they use in their private lives. Meeting those expectations isn’t just about technology; it’s about rethinking the way councils operate.
That starts with understanding users. Too often, public services have been shaped around internal processes rather than around the people they serve. The assumption can be that residents don’t want to engage, or that they already know how the system works. But when councils talk directly with users – as Neath Port Talbot Council and Caerphilly County Borough Council, for example, have done – they uncover valuable insight into what works and what doesn’t. Simple changes, such as keeping residents informed about the progress of an enquiry, can have a big impact on satisfaction and trust.
The same thinking applies behind the scenes. When a resident updates their details, they shouldn’t have to repeat the same information to five different departments. Integrated systems should do that work automatically. Building those connections is complex, but it’s fundamental to a modern, data-driven public service.
To make this possible, every part of a council needs to see digital as part of its core responsibility. IT can no longer sit solely in the back office. Just as no leader today could say they don’t understand finance or people management, the phrase “I’m not very techy” can’t stand in an organisation that’s serious about transformation.
At Perago, we’ve seen how change takes hold when councils start by asking the right questions: What do we know? What don’t we know? How do we find out? By combining data-driven insights with user-centred design, it becomes possible to create services that are simpler, faster and more effective, not just for citizens, but for the people delivering them.
Transformation is never easy. It demands new skills, new ways of working and, often, a shift in mindset. But the councils that embrace it are showing that meaningful, sustainable change is possible and that digital can be a catalyst for better decision-making, greater efficiency and stronger connections with the communities they serve.
Digital transformation isn’t about reaching the end of a journey; it’s about building the capability to keep improving, together, one step at a time.
Tim Daley talks about this and more in the Business News Wales Government & Not for Profit podcast. Listen here
