Local councils are failing to adopt open standards, report
Local authorities still don't use common components or open source despite - or perhaps because of - increased strictures
Local authorities are failing to adopt open standards in IT despite increased financial pressures and heightened demand for digital services.
A series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 430 borough, district and city authorities in the UK by digital experience firm Acquia has found minimal uptake of open technologies and standards at this level of government.
Government guidance is for service teams to use common components and open standards where possible, to avoid wasted effort on problems that have already been solved and to save resources. Public sector bodies are also encouraged to share any solutions developed by in-house teams.
"Open standards help services to work consistently - so you'll spend less time trying to make systems talk to each other. And they help you to avoid getting locked into a particular supplier or technology - so when things change, you can change your approach," official guidance says.
Government, analysts and open tech advocates have been offering similar advice for more than a decade, and while there has been some moving away from overreliance on single suppliers, the pace has been glacial.
Seventy-eight per cent of the 134 local councils responding to the FOI question 'What percentage of your components are standard government technology components?', replied 'none'.
Furthermore, when asked whether their website is 'designed using open standards for government', only 38 per cent responded positively; and among councils that develop their own software just 11 per cent open sourced it so it could be shared.
Councils would no doubt argue that at a time of increased pressure and budget cuts they lack capacity and are too busy firefighting to change practices.
But with local authorities facing a £3.09 billion funding black hole, according to Unison, these pressures will only increase, even as the pandemic eases.
"Taking an open approach - whether by leveraging open source components or standards, or making code open - will allow councils to harness expertise from other developers, maximise efficiencies and accelerate digital transformation goals," said Tom Bianchi, Europe CMO of Acquia - which submitted the FOI requests.
"Yet despite these clear advantages, it's concerning that so few have embraced open practices. As the pandemic continues and people increasingly demand digital services, councils must urgently rethink their digital strategies to ensure they can continue to support residents in the most effective and efficient way possible."