Government-as-a-platform can be tweaked for local government use, says Socitm

A savvy approach to common digital components could change the way local councils and the wider public sector delivers services

The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) has published guidelines on how government-as-a-platform (GaaP) could be extended beyond Whitehall to local councils and public services.

Developed by the Government Digital Service (GDS), government-as-a-platform is a core part of the government's ‘digital by default' doctrine. It aims to establish a strategy whereby digital public services are built out of common components, rather than assembled from bespoke systems.

Through this approach the Cabinet Office and GDS hope to boost the adoption of digital services in central government, which work across government and enable more data sharing and interoperability between Whitehall departments, thereby making government more efficient and cost effective.

In Socitm's The Local Digital Coalition: a key step to the future delivery of joined up and digital local public services briefing, it sets out guidance on how GaaP digital services such as Gov.uk Verify, Pay and Notify could be used in the delivery of local public services.

By adopting GaaP services and the doctrine behind it, Martin Ferguson, director of policy and research at Socitm, said that local governments would be able to create public services that are more convenient, user-friendly and cost effective than their current bespoke systems.

"From a central-local public service perspective, successful channel shift to online is crucial to achieving savings required by the austerity programme, as well as bringing the full spectrum of public services into the modern digital age," he said. "Reusability of well-designed, fit-for-purpose service platforms is critical to realising this vision on a big scale."

The briefing notes that while these services are mostly in their infancy, they have been designed to meet the needs of central government, but with some tweaking could benefit the wider public sector.

"Because these services are currently being developed exclusively to meet central government needs, additional work is needed to make them suitable for application across the wider sphere of public services," Socitm said.

There is also the issue of addressing who pays for the use of these services, according to Socitm, with bureaucratic cross charging between departments currently holding back GaaP service adoption.

Currently, Whitehall departments do not have to pay for Notify, which enables public service providers to inform their users about changes to their service eligibility and the status of outstanding service requests, because it falls within a pre-determined allowance.

The briefing details how local governments and wider public sector organisations will need to work out whether their potential GaaP service usage would be subsidised by GDS through a usage allowance.

Furthermore, Socitm outlined other problems that need to be addressed, such as children and the elderly finding it hard to get digital identity authentication under Verify's current operating arrangements.

Socitm will look to address such issues in the coming months by posing questions directly to the government and GDS.

While Socitm is highlighting the need for digital transformation in the public sector to be extended beyond Whitehall and large organisations like the NHS, some local government's are not waiting around and are already taking matters into their own hands.

Peterborough City Council, for example, has become a figurehead for local councils overhauling their legacy IT infrastructure to become more efficient through the use of digital and cloud services. Its latest move has involved adopting Google Apps for Work to encourage more flexible and remote working.