Dave Briggs' other blog

Gavin Beckett – Harnessing the changing landscape of local government to create internet era organisations: Effective responses to complex, long-standing social challenges need to be co-designed and co-produced with people and community organisations that grow from the ground up. Modern councils need new capabilities that enable them to work well with a constellation of partners, ... Keep reading

Richard Pope – Preventative healthcare: designing for the service loop: # – micropost 23148 Katherine Wastell – Every organisation has some madness: If everyone spots the problems but no one takes responsibility, things will only get worse. Accountability is the difference between taking a step forward and staying stuck. It takes one brave team to ... Keep reading

Dafydd Singleton – User needs for data standards. # – micropost 23142 Dafydd Vaughan – The bridge to nowhere: Why your ‘Target Architecture’ won’t ever deliver: I’ve lost count of the number of Technical Design Authority meetings I’ve sat in, watching smart people tie themselves in knots over a diagram. We’d debate whether a proposed ... Keep reading

Ash Mann – The discipline of focus, what makes a digital strategy work: Good digital strategies aren’t long documents or laundry lists. They’re about ruthless focus – choosing a clear direction and sticking to it, even if that means letting go of attractive ideas. (via Neilly) # – micropost 23134 Digital identity and the UK ... Keep reading

Set up a new council on localgov.blog today! Looking forward to seeing what they post. # – micropost 23129 Some useful links in Ben’s halloweeknote. # – micropost 23130 OpenQR.me – “Create beautiful QR codes instantly” (via Giles) # – micropost 23131 Created a little online community around Localise Live! last week, using Basecamp. It ... Keep reading

Find and reuse digital service elements is a website put together by some folk at the Ministry of Justice that signposts the user to examples of publicly available guidance and patterns for digital work. Am not entirely sure what I think about it. Obviously it’s a lovely thing to have done, and the world is ... Keep reading

Sarah and Carl are taking up the reigns of LocalGovDigital – a Slack-based networks of digital practitioners in local government, and I’m stepping down. I think they’ll do a great job and am really excited about what they will be able to achieve with the group – hopefully a lot more than I managed! # ... Keep reading

I enjoyed Scott Colfer’s reflections on writing and publishing his book. # – micropost 23105 Lloyd reports not getting a pingback from me when I linked to his blog. Am not surprised the micropost didn’t ping, but the daily note aggregated version is just a standard post and should have done. Will take a look ... Keep reading

I newslettered earlier. # – micropost 23087 i’ve been enjoying Lloyd’s recent ponderings about blogging. I’m also really enjoying the way this blog works these days, posting little nuggets that can get pulled into a aggregated post on a daily basis (or when I remember to hit the switch). Each of these ‘microposts’ exists as ... Keep reading

A roadmap for successful AI adoption in Higher Education, from dxw: Higher education institutions are actively experimenting with AI to improve operational efficiency, yet approaches vary significantly across the sector. Institutions face complex issues including output accuracy, data privacy, and academic integrity – with some organisations establishing centralized AI task forces while others maintain department-led ... Keep reading

Ouch: Europe’s largest city council delays fix to disastrous Oracle system once more: Elected representatives of Birmingham City Council’s audit committee vented their frustration this week after hearing that the rollout of the IMS – designed to replace the council’s banking reconciliation system (BRS), which went so badly wrong after the April 2022 go-live of ... Keep reading

Building understanding of software markets in local government from the Local Digital team: We’ve also identified through roundtable discussions and feedback from partners that managing effective procurements and successfully exiting technology contracts is a challenge, particularly where internal capacity or capability is limited. With local government reorganisation, new unitary authorities will need to consolidate systems, ... Keep reading

This is the content of the ‘article’ element of the email newsletter I sent last week. Publishing here for posterity. 2025 has been a pretty tumultuous year in local government digital, largely due to the impact of the Localism bill in late 2024 and the imminent (and indeed immanent) prospect of local government reorganisation. Following ... Keep reading

Giles Turnbull: The strategy is enquiry What I’m suggesting is a new approach for the times when there’s a perceived need for a document called a “strategy”. It shouldn’t be a document full of “we will”; it should be a website full of “what we’re learning”. Use it to demonstrate your institutional capability to test ... Keep reading

Have sent out my first newsletter on Email Octopus. It’s a nice system to use. # – micropost 23038 From daunting to demystified: The evolution of Service Assessments in DBT. # – micropost 23039

MacOS icon history. # – micropost 23027 The hidden fundamentals of digital transformation in healthcare: how to roll out nationally in a local system – by Jane Maber on the dxw blog: There’s no question that the technical challenge is real. Designing digital services that work for a national screening programme in a local environment ... Keep reading

Join me for a light-hearted hour of sharing challenges, ideas, and experience about innovating in local public services. Localise Live! takes place on the last Thursday of every month at 12pm until 1pm and is open to public sector people only. The sessions take place on Zoom, so make sure you have it downloaded and up ... Keep reading

Brent’s Innovation Journey: Building a ‘Base’ for Local Government Innovation by Ryan Hamilton on the LOTI blog: At Brent, we’ve been trying to rethink how we tackle problems in a way that makes ‘innovation’ not just a buzzword, but a practical, everyday reality in local government. That journey led us to something exciting: We will ... Keep reading

Am back from a wonderful week with the family in Suffolk. Some lovely days by the sea in Southwold and Aldeburgh, and a trip to the castle in Framlingham too.