Technology and data

The potential of technology as an enabler to improve productivity and the quality of services for residents is a massive opportunity for the new council. We are beginning work to move from four different sets of systems used by the four legacy councils to creating integrated systems that work for Cumberland. Accordingly, technology is one of the three themes of our Transformation Plan.

Data

The Council holds a wealth of data on residents that interact with our services. We are moving towards an insight-driven approach which is critical to the development of the Pre-Front Door and Front Door and understand what our residents need at an early stage. As part of our Pre-Front Door and Front Door work, we will have:

• an integrated view of the resident to bring together data sources and support a better understanding of an individual or household’s situation
• facilitate improved decision-making by using data and predictive analytics to understand risk factors which lead to an individual reaching ‘crisis point’
• frontline officers to have access to the insight they need to make intelligence-led decisions by improving how data is used in local commissioning.

Within the next few months, the Council will be obtaining a complete understanding of the current data landscape, the optimal future state and the roadmap to achieve this.

Pre-Front Door, Front Door and Technology

Core to our operating model is implementing the Pre-Front Door and Front Door model, enabled by strong technology infrastructure as set out in our emerging IT vision, strategy, and enterprise architecture approach. This will be achieved through a prevention pathway, supporting as many residents as possible through self-serve, but also providing a proportionate telephony and face-to-face offer. 

We are working with our strategic partner, EY, to progress automation opportunities within key service areas such as revenue and benefits and customer services to realise financial opportunities and deliver more effective and efficient opportunities. We know intelligent automation can deliver financial benefits, and we will be validating benefits and a prioritisation mechanism to identify top opportunities to be delivered. By December, we will scale-up up to 10 key service opportunities in relation to intelligent automation.

To realise this, we are implementing a new prevention-focussed service to drive better demand reduction and ensure that customers have queries resolved at the earliest point possible. We are committed to implementing this through cultural change, embedding our values and new ways of working. This is a sustainable change for the future; we will roll-out our Community Hubs model soon, which will re-frame our relationship with communities to ensure that more services are visible and available in the community. This will empower communities, improve outcomes, harness our community and partner infrastructure where appropriate, and also ensure that it reduces demand on council services in the longer-term. It will also ensure we better utilise our assets, and rationalise assets linked to our wider Asset Management Strategy.

Our Pre-Front Door approach is anticipated to save £5 million in the next three financial years. In the short-term, benefits will be realised through staffing, property-related spend and third-party contract spend. Where achieved previously, we can see that it delivers significant financial benefits. 

We will ensure alignment of projects through the establishment of a Design Authority within the council, which will bolster and support existing robust governance through our Assurance and Efficiency Delivery Board and our Strategic Programme Panel which acts as the gatekeeper across the organisation to ensure strategic alignment and a robust approach towards delivering financial savings as agreed by Full Council.