LocalGov Patterns

Building a shared service pattern library for local government

Building on the central government work to create lists of services and service patterns, we’ve been thinking a lot about how service patterns should work for local government.

Millions of people use local services every day. But these services are often designed and implemented differently. This means that the user experience can be hugely inconsistent across local government.

Today we’ve launched LocalGov Patterns, a project to build a shared library of service patterns for local government. And we need your help to make it happen.

Designing service patterns for local government

We’ve been working with Essex County Council (ECC) to map their services to identify and understand common service patterns. So far, we’ve identified around 150 services for residents. Services like ‘registering a birth’ or ‘applying for a school place’ to ‘reporting a flood’.

Today, in partnership with ECC, we’re sharing this work openly as the starting point for LocalGov Patterns.

We now have an understanding of what things look like within one county council. But in order to build on this work, we now need input from other local authorities. We believe that there’s a massive opportunity to expand this project by collaborating and sharing knowledge across the country.

Get involved

There’s a massive opportunity to expand this project by collaborating and sharing knowledge with every local authority in the country. The more information contributed, the better our collective understanding of underlying service patterns will be across local government.

The priority right now is information gathering. We need as much input as possible, from as many local authority sources as possible, to build up our knowledge base. We’re asking anyone involved in delivering or managing local authority services to share their knowledge with us. Let us know about the services you offer, the steps they include and the life events people need help with.

Visit LocalGov Patterns to contribute and to learn more about the project.

We’ll be adding to this from our work with Stockport Council and Hackney Council, and beyond we’re keen to bring this approach to the health and other sectors too, so watch this space.