This is a post about an Old Testament prophet, but it’s not about theology.
It’s also a post about local government, but it’s not about a local Government Digital Service (GDS).
Last week I sat and watched as one of my colleagues showed off government’s digital wares. Not wares built in the GDS offices in Holborn but the work of people elsewhere in government. It’s going on in almost every department. It’s happening across the country. And it’s happening at pace.
It’s a great party. But it’s invite only, and local government hasn’t been included on the guest list.
And it doesn’t look like local government is going to organise one itself.
There’s a consensus that a radically different approach to local government IT/digital delivery is not just a nice to have but something of an immediate imperative and there’s been a lot of debate about what that might look like and who might start that fire.