Emma O’Brien, founder and chief executive of Embridge Consulting, says local authorities risk carrying old inefficiencies into new unitary structures unless they focus on connecting systems and teams before vesting day.
As England’s local authorities move through a period of structural reform, the pressure to modernise public services is increasing. Local government already spends £121 billion a year and employs more than 1.18 million people, making digital transformation one of the most consequential change programmes in the public sector. Against that backdrop, Emma O’Brien, founder and chief executive of Embridge Consulting, argues that councils should look beyond buying new technology and concentrate on whether existing and future systems can work together in practice.
O’Brien’s central argument is that interoperability, not procurement alone, will determine whether the shift to single-tier unitary authorities actually delivers simpler, faster and more joined-up services. While automation, artificial intelligence and better use of data remain high on the local government agenda, she warns that these tools cannot deliver meaningful value if staff still depend on manual workarounds to move information between disconnected systems.
That problem is already familiar across many councils. HR and payroll platforms may not automatically share updates, for example, leaving staff to re-enter data into spreadsheets or reconcile records by hand. In a reform programme designed to eliminate duplication and create more coherent services, those kinds of legacy practices threaten to reproduce the same silos unitary reorganisation is meant to remove. O’Brien argues that technology only improves public service delivery when employees trust it, use it and see clear benefits from it.
Her message is particularly directed at councils now operating in the shadow governance phase. This, she says, is the point at which interoperability decisions need to be made. If authorities wait until vesting day to resolve how systems will connect, they risk turning launch day into the start of a long remediation exercise. By contrast, when platforms share a common digital language and data can move between services without manual intervention, authorities are better placed to begin life as genuinely integrated organisations.
The challenge is significant because most multi-tier local government estates have developed in fragments over time. Housing, planning, benefits and finance systems have often been introduced separately, with limited coordination between them. That has left frontline teams to piece together information across services, slowing decisions and making it harder to respond when residents need support quickly. O’Brien argues that the pre-vesting period is a rare opportunity to decide which systems should stay, which should be replaced and, crucially, which need to be connected through integration.
In practical terms, she sets out four building blocks for interoperability. These are shared data standards, integration engines and APIs, real-time synchronisation, and continuous governance and monitoring. Put together, these elements allow councils to classify information consistently, move data smoothly between platforms, keep records current and maintain alignment as systems evolve. The outcome, if done well, is a more coherent authority for residents, better access to service-critical information for staff and more responsive decision-making overall.
The need is becoming more urgent as councils face a combination of technical and organisational strain. Citing Civica’s Future of Local Government Report 2025, O’Brien notes that 43% of councils report integration challenges, while 40% say digital skills shortages are hindering progress. Those issues become more pronounced when organisations merge and the number of systems, suppliers and governance arrangements multiplies. In that environment, she suggests councils should treat integration as an operating capability rather than a one-off IT project.
That argument opens the door to a broader rethink of delivery models. O’Brien points to managed integration services as one way for councils to maintain resilience and oversight without overburdening internal teams. Rather than asking already stretched staff to spend their time troubleshooting connections between platforms, councils could use external support to keep systems aligned while internal resources remain focused on service delivery. For digital leaders under pressure to show results quickly, that distinction could prove important.
Still, the article makes clear that interoperability is not only a technical issue. O’Brien emphasises the human dimension just as strongly, arguing that systems can only be truly interoperable when leadership, culture and operating models are aligned as well. Newly formed councils must define who owns processes, who is accountable for data quality and who controls access before vesting day. Without that clarity, old habits can easily re-emerge, even in environments supported by modern technology.
For senior leaders, the implication is straightforward. Change programmes need to show staff how integration will help them work better, not simply impose another round of system change. When employees understand the practical benefits, O’Brien says, they are more likely to become advocates for transformation rather than passive participants in it. That matters because successful reform depends as much on behavioural alignment as on technical capability.
The broader promise of interoperability is a more connected public sector experience for residents. Decisions that currently take several emails and multiple handovers could be made far more quickly if officers can see a complete picture of a resident’s circumstances in one place. Time and resources saved through smoother processes could then be redirected towards frontline priorities. In that sense, interoperability becomes the mechanism that turns structural reform from an administrative exercise into a genuine service transformation programme.
As unitary councils move closer to launch, O’Brien’s message is clear: if organisations are expected to operate as one, their systems and teams must do the same. For digital transformation leaders in local government, the test is no longer whether new technologies can be procured. It is whether the whole operating environment can be integrated in time to deliver the joined-up services communities have been promised.
