Spotlight on Alison Young, techUK
techUK’s Local Public Services head explains why collaboration and technology innovation are more essential than ever for local government achieving long-term savings and delivering citizen-centric services
Ahead of the MLL SEG IT Strategy Summit taking place in Brighton on 7th November, we caught up with TechUK’s Alison Young, Associate Director, Local Public Services. Alison will be leading the interactive workshop session, an open forum for public sector leaders focused on the technologies and change management issues they are concerned about the most. These include, for example, managing the risks of growing cyber threat, maximising resources with limited budgets, and the realities of leveraging new technologies such as AI, the IoT and zero trust networking.
Read on to find out more about techUK’s mission and Alison’s role to help local authorities and NHS organisations deliver public services as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.
First of all, please tell us more about techUK and its mission
techUK is the UK’s technology trade association which brings together people, companies and organisations to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve. With over 1,000 members (the majority of which are SMEs) across the UK, techUK creates a network for innovation and collaboration across business, government and stakeholders to provide a better future for people, society, the economy and the planet. By providing expertise and insight, we support our members, partners and stakeholders as they prepare the UK for what comes next in a constantly changing world.
What is your role?
I am the Associate Director Local Public Services, which is one of techUK’s market facing programmes (of which there are 21). Through this programme, we bring together companies large and small with local authorities to find solutions that improve outcomes for citizens and help create thriving, productive and safer places for all. Local government can be a complex market, that is why we help members to navigate it and champion the innovations that can create truly digital local public services and outcomes.
Why is it more important than ever for local authorities and the NHS to be adopting the latest IT and Network technologies?
With constrained budgets but more people than ever relying on local public services, such as health and social care (and many more), technology can be a way to create long-term savings and efficiencies and deliver citizen-centric services.
How can we work together to make digital transformation and within this, the procurement process, as seamless as possible?
I believe there is a strong role for more collaboration and partnership between the public sector and industry to help enable digital transformation and there is hope that the procurement act (which is now scheduled for February 2025), will also enable this, as it promises to create a simpler and more flexible commercial system, open up the market to new entrants such as small businesses and social enterprises, and embed transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle. So, this should be important for the tech and innovation eco-system and working with the local government eco-system.
There’s great excitement in the market about the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) – how do you see these impacting on the public sector and the many and varied services it provides?
These technologies can help enable better public and local public services and we do see a lot of great uses cases for using IoT for local public services, like for example in monitoring damp in homes or systems to monitor healthy aging solutions, and there are many use cases for AI (from better use of data at a local level, to customer service tools) but I think that there does need to be more work to help people understand the technologies, especially AI. There can be a lack of understanding of AI, what it is and how it’s used, for example, around transparency: AI systems should be transparent, and their data usage and processing methods and individuals have the right to know how and why decisions are made based on their data.
The UK is in a place where it can position itself as a global leader in AI, through research, development and deployment, as it can play a central role in the global AI conversation and debate by shaping international governance and regulation structures. There is a role for industry, central Government, local Government and regulators in the UK to work together to tackle the barriers to AI adoption. These include: Data quality, Trust in AI, Organisation culture, Compute infrastructure, AI skills.
Finally, what are the key messages you’re planning to deliver to public sector delegates at the IT Strategy Summit – South?
Collaboration between local government and industry: We want to work with local government to understand what their challenges are. We can help convene and bring together stakeholders from across the eco-system who can work with them to deliver public services. We also want to look at how technology can provide solutions which can create efficiencies and costs savings.
Whether you’re striving to invigorate, expand or streamline the services that your local authority or NHS organisation provides, or simply want to explore future possibilities, join us at The IT Strategy Summit – South. Discuss and share service delivery challenges and the potential solutions informally with your peers, and gain practical insights into affordable, yet transformational technologies from business leaders across AI, the IoT and IT Network Communications.