Kensington & Chelsea: personalising public services to tackle digital exclusion

Faced with digital exclusion and diverse needs, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s (RBKC) new Chief Digital Information Officer, Darren Mann, has been leading the organisational shift from shared IT services to a sovereign Digital, Data and Technology function.

Responding to these local pressures, RBKC’s 2023 Digital Strategy has been designed to foster an integrated and open-data sharing environment that supports personalised and accessible resident services.

Although RBKC ranks among the top 10 per cent of UK local economies, it contains pockets of high deprivation and ethnic diversity that the former shared IT service could not adequately address.

The newfound digital autonomy has empowered Mann, as the Council’s new transformation specialist, to foster an approach informed by a rich understanding of local resident data that he described as “distinctly Kensington and Chelsea.”

Eighteen months into this transition, the function has made significant strides in its sustainability ambitions, reconfiguring its technology estate through cloud service transformation and achieving a 24 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas consumption.

Mann aims to extend this 25 per cent reduction ambition into the next 12 months, focusing on channelling this newly independent and agile infrastructure to make the Borough safer and fairer, starting with greater digital inclusivity.

Bridging the digital divide

To address digital accessibility imbalances among RBKC's residents, Mann has developed a two-pronged approach that enhances residents' digital skills and ensures that services are personalised and user-friendly. Maintaining the human touch of local government, Mann’s team has been conducting community outreach with digitally excluded residents through dedicated drop-in hours in the Borough's libraries.

This in-person support has helped “meet residents where they’re at,” guiding them through the steps of engaging with online services, both from RBKC and broader public sector services, ensuring they have the skills to thrive in a digital world. Parallel to this initiative, RBKC has distributed hardware through the Good Things Foundation, matching resident upskilling with physical device accessibility, thus lowering the barriers to entry.

Personalising public services

In tandem with traditional interaction aimed at supporting digitally excluded residents, the Council is mandated to create more personalised and responsive services.

“We‘re using AI-driven data linkage to connect our CRM with our resident-facing platforms in a more intelligent way. Bridging these data-rich platforms has allowed us to create a more integrated view of the RBKC resident.”

While residents must have the skills to engage with digital services, Mann’s team also adapts digital services to minimise barriers for all community members.

Interacting with the borough community, both directly and through RBKC’s outreach partnerships, has informed the foundation for RBKC’s new digital strategy.

Mirroring the Council’s AI-driven integrative approach to understanding resident needs, the Council has incorporated professional experience into informing RBKC’s digital strategy.

Mann highlighted, “IT functions are rarely resident-facing and so earning the leadership buy-in to incorporate technological advances into the ambition for service excellence requires cooperation from across the service directorates.”

In RBKC’s case, its digital strategy board is chaired by a director outside the IT or enabling services function, placing resident needs at the centre of decision-making. This cooperation allows Mann’s technical expertise to support, rather than dictate, RBKC’s strategy.

Balancing local needs & strategic oversight

Amidst the shift towards user-centric design and personalised service enabled by the sovereign IT function, Mann recognises the need to balance dedication to the unique and diverse Borough needs with strategic oversight across London boroughs.

Advocating for an open data sharing and learning culture between London’s boroughs, Mann noted, “One of the things I love about working in local government is that I’m not competing with my neighbouring boroughs. We can share best practices and trace commonalities between our needs. We must work together to ensure that we’re able to share data seamlessly in line with interborough migration so that no one's needs are left behind.”

This journey towards digital sovereignty exemplifies the integration of technological advancements with human-centred governance, balancing responsiveness to local needs with strategic transformation for a greener, safer, and fairer Kensington and Chelsea.