Local councils across England are under pressure to deliver high-quality services in the face of rising demand and limited resources. At the same time, new technologies like AI and smart systems offer opportunities to do things differently and better.
The Local Government Association (LGA) recognised that many councils lack the support and clarity needed to identify practical use cases of AI and smart technology and can struggle when navigating where to start. The LGA launched the Technology Innovation Showcase to help councils overcome this barrier. By surfacing high-potential solutions to real-world challenges and demonstrating how innovative technologies can improve service delivery, efficiency, and resident engagement.
This work formed part of the LGA’s Cyber, Digital and Technology programme, which supports councils to make effective use of digital tools and innovation as part of their wider transformation. A key goal of the programme is to encourage greater collaboration between councils, helping them share insights and approaches to common challenges.
The first step was to source challenge statements from local council officers across England based on their real-world experiences of where technology could make the biggest impact. A user-friendly submission form, direct outreach, various communication channels, and a dedicated workshop facilitated the collection of over 100 challenges from numerous councils, representing a wide spectrum of geographical locations and council types.
These submissions were then grouped and prioritised by a variety of experts and stakeholders, leading to the selection of four key challenges:
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These challenge statements were then issued to the market of startups and scaleups. We employed a proactive market engagement strategy to attract the very best AI and Smart Technology vendors, resulting in over 70 applications. After a rigorous selection process, three companies per challenge were selected to take part in a Showcase event.
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We also provided the participating startups with bespoke support so that they could effectively engage with the councils who had submitted the challenges and would be present at the Showcase event.
At the Showcase, we were joined by over 100 in-person attendees and over 180 online attendees, with councils from every part of the country participating. The event provided a valuable platform, featuring introductions to each of the challenges by the council officers who had shaped them, engaging expert panels who questioned vendors and discussed the merits of AI, and 12 successful vendor presentations.
The interactive format, including these presentations and a series of keynote speakers from local government leaders, the Ada Lovelace Institute, and No. 10 Downing Street’s data science team, fostered meaningful conversations and knowledge sharing. Following the Showcase, several participating vendors reported multiple new conversations with local councils opening as a direct result.
The Showcase received exceptional feedback from local council officers who attended. 81% said that the insights they got from the Showcase would be used as part of their work within their council. Meanwhile 92% specified they would continue exploring the presented or similar solutions for their council’s challenges.
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Reach out to the team
Helping three councils to analyse their unstructured financial data to optimise spend, drive collaboration and measure sustainability performance
Supporting to the European Commission to foster the digitisation of the public sector by convening the European GovTech ecosystem
Partnering with DCMS to operate the UK’s first Safety Tech Challenge Fund - a groundbreaking grant programme aimed at empowering safety tech innovation to enhance child online safety
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Partnering with AWS to design and execute a healthcare-focused accelerator which supported 12 startups to advance their growth in the UK public sector
Partnering with AWS to design and execute a defence-focused startup & SME accelerator aimed at supporting the development of dual-use solutions for the UK Ministry of Defence
Working with the Cambridge City Council (CCC) to build a clear, actionable digital transformation strategy to ultimately serve its communities
Working with DLUHC over a 3-year period to conduct a robust, research-driven evaluation of 60+ local government digitalisation programmes
Working with BEIS to enhance user engagement with digital services to drive its Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) initiative
Engaging startups to pilot innovative solutions aimed at helping us achieve NetZero
Partnering with the Local Government Association (LGA) to build a practical, user-friendly guide to help local councils put digitalisation into practice
Developing learning materials to embed cyber resilience into local government supply chains
Partnering with the Department for Health & Social Care and NHSX to launch the UK’s flagship COVID-19 challenge programme as a tool for rapidly scaling new technologies which could help address key priorities during the health crisis
A challenge programme to develop and test novel solutions that can support prison leavers as they re-enter society, and contribute to breaking the cycle of reoffending.
In 2020 PUBLIC worked with the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) to assess barriers preventing procurement collaboration between London boroughs.
The GovTech-Program Denmark was established to foster even stronger collaboration between public authorities and tech companies with innovative solutions to public sector challenges.
