Digital transformation in public services: 5 lessons from Ealing Council and North London NHS Foundation Trust

Unblocking digital transformation can improve operations in public services – and ultimately better serve the taxpayer. So what can leaders do to drive their digital transformation approach forward?

We recently held a virtual roundtable with representatives from local authorities and the NHS to discuss methods for unlocking success in digital transformation.

We heard from Sarah Wilkins(opens new window), CDIO for North London NHS Foundation Trust, Tony Clements(opens new window), CEO at Ealing Council, and Euan Blair(opens new window), Founder & CEO at Multiverse, on how data and AI strategies can help overcome digital challenges and deliver a seamless service to local communities.

If you’re short on time, these are our five takeaways from the session:

Collaboration is critical for NHS Trusts and local government. It helps continue service between health and social care, resulting in the best patient outcomes.

Tony already has ideas about how to bridge the data divide using AI. He said: “We're in a trial cohort at the moment of designing a generative AI tool that takes social workers’ notes and relational data, turning them into formats that work for clinicians.”

He hopes to remove technology boundaries between the NHS and councils, creating a robust and personalised approach to care.

Sarah told us how the Trust supports collaboration by participating in schemes like the London Care Record. The system shares patient data across organisations to support integrated care.

Gradually, greater collaboration helps to bridge professional, cultural and informational gaps between public services – all to provide better outcomes for local communities.

Public sector bodies have the opportunity to better integrate data into workflows – helping drive greater productivity and improve decision-making.

Sarah explained: “We’re drowning in data, but we weren’t always using it intelligently, to generate the insights that we need.” To develop the skills to use data more strategically, the Trust partnered with Multiverse to start a Digital Academy, funded by the Apprenticeship Levy.

Today, clinical teams can use their caseload management tool, MaST, to identify patients at risk of going into crisis. It helps them allocate resources accordingly and reduce hospital admissions.

Ealing Council is also taking action to improve its digital transformation approach by enrolling 45 employees in a data academy, with the hope of expanding the partnership further.

Tony says the area is ripe for collaboration: “There's a real opportunity to combine NHS and wider local authority data so that we can move away from some of those lag indicators and move towards earlier predictions.” For example, the team has started using predictive analytics to predict which residents might enter into adult social care soon.

Teams are also integrating AI into workflows to boost productivity in the public sector.

At Ealing Council, teams use a tool called Magic Notes to minimise the administrative workload associated with adult social work. AI also helps to identify the need for practical interventions - if a final assessment doesn’t match the evidence, the system flags discrepancies for Ealing’s social workers to review.

Tony told us: “The more we can get our social workers doing what they do best, which is working in people’s homes on the things that matter to them, the better.”

Despite some initial scepticism, teams now understand that AI can have significant benefits for their own workloads. Sarah told us: “It's about removing that admin burden from clinicians and freeing them up to work to the top of their licence – and do the things that only they can do as clinicians.

“It helps them focus their attention on the caseload that’s most in need, and give those patients better outcomes.”

Sarah and Tony both highlighted the critical role of upskilling to build data literacy. Training enables learners to better interpret data and apply it to decision-making around service design.

Alongside formalized learning, Tony stressed the importance of a distributed model for the training and adoption of new data and AI tools. He explained: “I'm not a chief exec that's going to come in with a centralised transformation program designed in the back room by a bunch of consultants. Our approach is to put tools directly into people's hands and to establish those use cases through practice.”

He explained: “We’ve been experimenting with Microsoft Copilot, with 300 of our staff initially given licences, to use in the ways that they feel best work for their area of business. We’re bringing that together in what we've called our centre of excellence – where staff learn from each other how they’re using the new tool, and then spread that knowledge and skills laterally, as much as top down.”

Euan agreed with the two-pronged approach, accounting for both tech and skills: “If we want to benefit from the huge potential technology offers, we have to train and skill the incumbent workforce. Tech tooling can create huge amounts of value, but only if it's implemented and people understand it.”

The panel spoke about the importance of building a future-ready workforce and a culture of continuous learning. But to build that foundation, you need buy-in at all seniority levels.

Sarah stressed the importance of bringing end-users along for the journey, demonstrating the value of digital skills and systems. She said: “It really is about empowering all levels of the organization. It can't just be top down, or you meet resistance.”

Executive sponsorship for change initiatives is essential. As Euan put it: “You need clear sponsorship from the business at the leadership level across technology and data. If it ends up being an HR and L&D effort only, then it often ends up not fully delivering everything it can.”

For Tony, it’s about change leadership and managing a gradual process: “You can't always get enough buy-in. So sometimes, you've just got to take a moment, be conscious that you are probably pushing the organization a bit further than it's ready for, and then be prepared to pick up the pieces.”

Digital transformation in public services isn’t just about investing in new technology – people and skills are critical to success. To learn how to boost productivity, deliver better outcomes for communities, and create new opportunities through data and AI skills, speak to our specialist team.