Could Local Government become a 'Platform for' rather than a 'Provider of' resident services?
What do we mean by a platform service in this context?
Platforms are most commonly talked in the context of digital businesses such as Instagram, Amazon and Ebay. Essentially they provide the technology platform for others to communicate or trade on. Bar providing this platform they actually do very little if any of the content and services offered. The user value is in the ecosystem that organically grows from the availability of such a platform. Ebay would not be unique and as successful if only they themselves listed items for sale.
However these types of platform aren't just an online recent phenomenon. A physical business that creates a similar ecosystem would be a department store, such as Selfridges, that has designed itself as a retail platform for other successful businesses to sell their products. They use their trusted brand, buildings and digital infrastructure to attract and support those retailers. They offer scalable space so small innovative businesses can compete alongside large mainstream brands. And critically they only sell products themselves where there is no other business that could deliver the same offering.
So how does all this apply to Local Government? What if they could redesign themselves as a platform for service delivery rather than do most of it themselves? Using the Selfridges model they could use their trusted brand and buildings to support partners deliver services out to residents and businesses, then deliver the core services that only they can.
To do this effectively we would need a platform strategy that incorporated buildings, commissioning/trading, data and digital platform approaches.
Public Value
Government can deliver value to the public in many ways however services, outcomes and trust are three of the most influential areas that define the value add to our residents.
Value created by services for residents
It is becoming increasing rare that councils have the unique responsibility to deliver a service without an option to outsource the responsibility to external ‘paid for’ market offering. Market dynamics also dictate where there is an opportunity there should also be competition incentivising innovation within that service area, offering value added benefits.
User satisfaction is usually shaped by:
Customer service: How people are treated and communicated with ranks only just behind quality and price of product in determining their satisfaction.
Information: The information that is made available about the services people receive helps set expectations around that service provision and thus measure their satisfaction against those expectations.
Choice: there is some evidence that enhanced levels of choice can boost user satisfaction even if it does not have a discernible impact on service outcomes.
Fairness: residents value the service received by others as well as the service they themselves benefit from. Establishing the appropriate terms of access for services will be an important factor in satisfaction levels.
Value of outcomes
Outcomes are distinct from services but are seen as a critical measure of a governments success. An outcome of safer streets could come from a number of services successfully delivering their distinct part towards it, likewise a reduction in safety could impact the perceived value with all services despite it only being due to the poor delivery of one of them. What complicates things further is that public value can and is derived as a joint effort between residents and government. Government alone cannot deliver lower crime however when making judgments about public value derived from outcomes in many cases the public still overestimates what government can and cannot do.
Value of trust
Trust is a major factor in deriving public value. Local government organisations act as a steward for allocation of public funds, the trust to do this correctly is at the heart of their relationship with residents and businesses. Being open, fair and democratic in everything they do increases confidence in our decision-making skills.
Using a platform and data to increase perception of Public Value
Making sure that services, bound together to deliver a common outcome, can work together seamlessly in the leanest possible way requires a detailed understanding of the public bodies business architecture and data flows. Once we understand this we can build a platform that supports outcome focused service delivery whether is by them, or their partners.
One of the major challenges most county councils face is the lack of knowledge within our customer community of the number and scale of services they deliver across the county. The remit of the County Council is so vast that the scope of their work is a difficult thing to remember even for staff. Understanding and publishing the outcomes they are looking to achieve and the services they deliver to meet them provides information and transparency to residents. This would give a higher level of visibility of their activities and allow residents, businesses and staff to understand the things they do that provide value. This would also force them as an organisation to take stock of how they’re delivering on them. Doing this will have the knock on effect of allowing them and their potential partners to see where they are delivering value and where there might be opportunities for others to deliver better for less.
Opening up performance data is a great informational tool for their customers and potential partners but opening up their delivery data in a wider context could see some of our duties and powers being delivered by a third parties that they have no relationship with. One example could be the power they have to provide transport timetable information. If they opened up real time data in an accessible format the app development community would likely build a public transport journey planner without any additional investment from the County Council. If they added highways data to the same place an app could be developed that showed roadworks and gritting activities. Add in traffic information and we end up with a pretty comprehensive journey planner for the county; an app developers dream. They will have supported residents travel simply by opening up data sets.
One of the benefits in taking a platform approach for the delivery of services is that so long as the 3rd party is providing value to their customers the County Council will have little need to intervene in the process it uses to deliver that value. This coupled with the publishing of performance data encourages innovation within the third party who will want to stay the best and continue to deliver the service on their behalf.
