Why collaboration will lead digitally ambitious councils to success

People only notice an income management system when it’s not working.

Either payments get taken, or they don't. Any delay or technical issue with those payments can have a serious impact on peoples' lives. And as a council that is always looking for new ways to provide a seamless digital experience for local people, we saw an opportunity to improve the service we provide.

Through an initial application to the Local Digital Fund, the team here at Barnsley Council received funding to explore the value of creating an income management and ePayment system not just for ourselves, but for use across local government. The discovery exercise, facilitated by our digital partner DXW, involved a series of group workshops, interviews and surveys with six other local authorities.

We learned that the current income management system (IMS) market is largely dominated by two suppliers, and there was considerable appetite for an alternative product. Armed with that knowledge, we decided to build our own IMS, working in partnership with these other digitally ambitious councils. The IMS is now moving to beta phase, and the project team have released the open source code publicly - we are now calling on other councils to participate in the testing.

We hadn't run a project like this before, so here's a look at the steps we've taken so far and what the process taught us about the art of working in collaboration for the common good.

Understanding the market

While collaborating with the other councils during the discovery process, we realised there was a huge gap in the market for a system like the one we wanted to build. Councils up and down the country were struggling with the costs and lack of choice and often ended up trapped in long contracts with little alternative. This led to a frustrating situation for many, where services didn't match the evolving needs of the council, but they had no choice but to carry on using them.

We wanted to do something about that and decided to make Barnsley's IMS something every council can use. We knew we would need to build in more functionality to meet a wider range of needs, and had the end goal of making it open source. We've ended up collaborating to build an IMS that has been created by local government, for local government, and haven't looked back.

Benefiting others with your work

Our Local Gov IMS was built to help the smooth running of payment processes in any council, making sure the flow of payments to and from citizens and around the council is seamless and efficient.

A launch of an early version of the IMS at Barnsley saw staff time freed up to focus on other priorities, no longer hindered by an outdated system. The service is easy to use, with no need to copy information multiple times or travel between several screens to complete a transaction. One of the key drivers in making the system public was knowing that this will benefit so many other councils, too.

We've expanded our knowledge base by working with other councils. Our initial discovery showed us just how important a spirit of collaboration is. We've built up a community of councils willing to work together to build the services we all need.

We hope this is an approach that others can follow for a whole range of different services. Work with other councils, even in the earliest stages. Build your solution, with the help of a digital partner. Then - most importantly - don't hide it away. Tell others about your work. Make your code available for other public sector decision-makers and do-ers to see, take, and personalise for their own council's needs.

Working in the open

At the start, we were pretty new to working in the open. But we set off with the firm belief that creating services that other councils can benefit from is the right thing to do. It allows the public sector as a whole to get better at delivering for the people we serve. By investing and working together, we're able to show the true sum of our parts.

The challenges we faced in making this happen are not unique. From finance to time constraints, skill and personnel shortages, and getting buy-in from decision-makers - there's a whole raft of hurdles that councils face. So knowing that there is a shared knowledge base, and a blueprint for success, is an immense benefit.

Willpower and digital know-how

We're glad to have worked with our delivery partner, and several councils in partnership, who together provided a solid foundation for the new service.

Without sharing best practice, how can real progress be made? Public services serve the common good, so it follows that they should be created for the common good. There's no sense in keeping your digital solutions a secret. Collaborating isn't easy, but it's the right thing to do.