In a series of guest blogs beginning this month, Tracy Lister, Walsall Council’s Strategic Geospatial Development and Support Manager, gives an insight into the challenges facing local authorities and the steps her small GIS team has taken to overcome them. 

Setting the scene: Walsall’s Council’s commitments

Walsall Council has a clear Council Plan (2022-2025) which outlines its aims to reduce inequalities and make the most of potential. The council is committed to:

• developing a healthier, cleaner and safer borough
• enabling residents, communities and businesses to fulfil their potential and thrive

Walsall’s plan includes Proud Promises to improve:

• outcomes and customer experience
• employee satisfaction and engagement
• service efficiency and performance

You can learn more about Walsall’s Council Plan and key areas of focus here.

However, like every other council, Walsall doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Many factors outside its control affect its ability to deliver against its commitments.

The factors affecting council performance

A PESTLE analysis identifies factors affecting an organisation. Councils are no different, as the examples below show:

• Political: the current political situation affects councils and their potential for change
• Economic: funding cuts make it harder for councils to deliver high-quality, targeted services
• Sociological: demographic changes put increased pressure on services
• Technological: residents have an increasing desire to interact digitally
• Legal: current legislation can shape how communities want to deliver their ambitions
• Environmental: concerns and commitments, such as climate change, impact councils’ actions

Tracy comments, “Change is inevitable for local authorities striving to overcome challenges. Fortunately, digital tools enable councils to build better services and save significant money. Our team’s adoption of geospatial digital tools has been vital to Walsall’s efforts. It enables colleagues to achieve the council’s promises and commitments.” 

The value of location-based data

One of the most valuable assets an organisation holds is its data. This is true at Walsall where data underpins the Council Plan and its commitments. As Tracy says, “Everything happens somewhere. The team constantly uses that information and turns it into data which council officers can use in decision making to shape and improve our services.”  

The ‘secret sauce’ to improving service efficiency and performance

The ‘secret sauce’ at Walsall is the team’s approach to address and street information. Knowing exactly where something happens – or doesn’t – is key to using address and street data as a common standard for digital transformation.

The team ensures that every back-office system holds a unique identifier. This is either a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) or a Unique Street Reference Number (USRN). These ‘golden threads’ tie systems together. They enable departments to share information and give a property or street-level view of service delivery.  

UPRNs are allocated by local authorities and by Ordnance Survey (OS) from a range provided by GeoPlace which states, “The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is the unique identifier for every addressable location across the UK. An addressable location may be any kind of building, or it may be an object that might not have a ‘normal’ address – such as a bus shelter or an electricity substation for example. UPRNs provide every property (or object) with a consistent identifier throughout its lifecycle, from planning through to demolition.” (GeoPlace) USRNs are 8 digit unique identifiers for every street across Great Britain. There are over 1.4 million USRNs in England and Wales. (GeoPlace) The Unique Property Reference Number – the unique identifier for every addressable location – is key to almost everything that’s delivered or achieved by councils. (The Local Government Association quoted in Walsall’s GeoPlace report) Every authority has common focal points, such as housing, education, welfare and highways. When the UPRN is added to each siloed department’s data, the whole organisation benefits. It becomes a much simpler exercise to link inter-departmental information. (The Local Government Association)

Each year, GeoPlace provides each local authority with a detailed report. This scores its integration of UPRNs across various service areas such as social care, building control and environmental health. 

Each service area’s integrations are measured in three ways: 

• How reliant the systems are on UPRNs, for example:
  • They mandate the use of UPRNs or they allow manual entry of address data
• The currency of address data, for example:
  • Data is updated in real-time, daily, monthly, ad-hoc or not updated
• The method of update, for example:
  • Database link, API, custom process, manual entry or not updated

The report also provides clear guidance on how to improve integrations and summarises the benefits of doing so. 

An independent report published in 2022 showed that “widespread adoption and use of address and street data in local authorities could generate £384m savings over the period 2022-2026, with an enhanced return on investment of 6:1… In simple terms, this means every £1 invested in using address and street data more effectively has the potential to deliver £6 in cost efficiencies and increased revenue.” (GeoPlace)

Tracy’s advice to other local authority GIS teams is clear, “I recommend using the report, held by your LLPG Custodian*, to prioritise improvements by service area. By being proactive, we’ve improved our overall integration score by 25% this year. This puts us well above average. Our improved integrations ensure that we can confidently and seamlessly plot service-related data on maps, give us a more solid footing for digital transformation and support wider data sharing, amongst other benefits.”

Removing data duplication: implementing a single source of the truth

Walsall’s GIS team is committed to providing a single source of the truth. Data is stored once in a Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW) held within the council’s end-to-end Geospatial Information System (GIS) and shared appropriately. This maintains data integrity and makes it easier to manage large numbers of complex datasets. The unique identifiers (URPNs and USPNs) make data held in the SDW shareable across the organisation. 

Giving internal users the information they need to make decisions

As outlined before, Walsall Council is committed to putting residents at the heart of everything it does. Tracy comments, “This is only possible if officers across the council can understand what’s happening where and who is affected. Equally important is enabling them to identify what’s not happening in a specific location. This helps identify where service provision may be lacking or non-existent.”

She continues, “Everyone at Walsall, from call handlers to the Chief Executive, can access and visualise the latest data using our GIS (Astun’s iShare in the Cloud (iSiC)) and its SDW’s integrations with internal systems. This requires no experience in analysing spatial data. As a result, colleagues across the council can make data-driven decisions about siting or reshaping services. This empowers them to deliver services to the residents and communities most in need.” 

Next month, Tracy outlines ways in which the GIS team has used digital tools to help colleagues improve efficiency and performance. The team’s efforts have contributed to Walsall’s ‘Most Improved Council’ award at the 2024 Local Government Chronicle (LGC) awards.

* Each council is responsible for maintaining an in-house database, the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG). This contains the definitive list of properties (and associated UPRNs) in the authority’s area. Maintaining an excellent LLPG that is shareable across an organisation is essential for delivering efficient quality services. You can find your custodian here.