Talking 5 with Local Public Services Member Tile Hill
Each month, techUK's Associate Director for Local Public Services, Georgina Maratheftis, interviews a member active in the local government space about their vision for the future of local public services and where digital can make a real difference to people and society. This month we talk with Laura Murphy, Senior Consultant at Tile Hill, about the role that digital plays in transforming the delivery of local public services and appointing the best talent to support this.
Welcome Laura. Firstly, tell me more about you, your career and how you got to this position today?
I was born and raised in Ireland. I arrived in London twenty years ago after Studying Law and French at University. New to London and still not sure what I wanted to do I seemed to just find recruitment and loved it both because of the complexity of the roles and the value that organizations put in having the right people appointed to deliver. My first two years as a consultant I worked across health and social care. From then on, I worked with a leading executive search firm specializing in local government recruitment at executive level but across People services where I worked with directors of Children services and Adults supporting them through inspections, building teams of resilience in what are one of the most demanding and admirable roles in our societies today. Throughout my time in this sector, I am in constant admiration of the work that councils do supporting their communities with often limited budgets and resource. I loved working with these senior leaders as the roles I appointed to were appointments that could make a real difference to the lives of users. After 10 years with this executive firm, I was keen for a new challenge, but my passion remained to work with local government hence I joined Tile Hill in 2022 to set up the interim leadership practice in Digital, Data and Technology. I work with councils to provide cross-government appointments in Digital, Data and Technology to build and manage services that positively affect the lives of millions of people. I joined Tile Hill because of the team and ethos they have built and their commitment to delivering outstanding services to local government and the wider public sector.
What is the greatest opportunity for local government when it comes to digital?
There are so many opportunities from Digital that local government can benefit from. It can improve the way councils deliver services to accommodate the needs of their residents and other community stakeholders. It can enable citizens to access the services they need quickly and at their own convenience, whilst also facilitating more efficient and effective administrative processes for council staff. Through transforming processes to more sophisticated solutions, digital transformation in local government will eliminate risk, drive efficiencies. Digital will be an enabler to local government and in doing so will enable people to deliver the services they are skilled to do eg social workers. Currently many public sector organizations struggle to know what data they have, how to use it, where it is sorted and how to protect it. Local governments are gathering a huge amount of customer information, buy the advantage of digital transformation is it develops a system for collecting the correct information for higher levels of Business Intelligence. Data is the golden thread to any digital environment that will enable digital transformation to take place and take place successfully.
What is your vision for the future of local public services and places?
I hope that the government will deepen their investment into local government, and they will take steps to support leaders who are constantly trying to support all communities, regardless of circumstance. Councils are facing the most pressures they have ever seen which include the homeless crisis, more councils in financial debt, climate change and aging population. I hope that our publics services and places create coherence and alignment through national missions, focused on outcomes for people and communities that are meaningful for their daily lives. These should then inform and drive mission and purpose at different levels: city-regions, places and neighbourhoods. I also feel that councils are not recognized nationally for the energy, the time the commitment they put into bettering our communities. The play that critical role in providing essential services, fostering community development, and reflecting the unique needs and priorities of each local area. Its contribution to society should be better understood and celebrated. We want to recognise councils that perform well so they get the credit that they deserve; and showcase the very best in class so that others can learn and inspire from them. At Tile Hill, I want to continue to support councils in supporting them with appointing the best diverse talent that can be ambassadors for their local service and deliver the services our communities deserve.
Georgina Maratheftis
Georgina is techUK’s Associate Director for Local Public Services
Ileana Lupsa
Ileana Lupsa is the Programme Manager for Local Public Services and Nations and Regions, at techUK.
Upcoming Local Public Services events
Insight NWT Simplifying the Complex - Accelerating the Public Sector roadmap for digital and data
techUK, 10 St Bride Street, London, EC4A4AD
Local Public Services updates
Sign-up to get the latest updates and opportunities from our Local Public Services programme.