Lambeth's library app challenges residents to make tough choices

The council has found a new way of engaging with residents — asking them to decide where money should be spent
by: Ben Cook

When you want to consult your residents, do you make them walk through the wind and rain on a winter evening to a draughty community centre? Or are you one of the burgeoning number of councils using apps to gather residents' views?

Around the country, local authorities are using technology to make consultations more enticing and encourage younger people to take part.

One award-winning example is in Lambeth, whose library challenge apprecently won an award for digital innovation in public services. The app challenges users to spend a £200,000 budget on local libraries. By sliding a tab across the screen, people can allot the money to different parts of the library service such as staff, books, e-books, running-costs and repairs.

"We wanted a new way of engaging with residents, especially as libraries are such an emotive issue nationally," explains Gareth Edmundson, the council's cooperative services manager, who says Lambeth wanted to get away from "top-down" consultations in draughty halls, and instead enable people to engage with the council while going to work on the bus, or using their smart phones.

Lambeth resident Priscilla Baines, who used the app at Durning Library in Kennington, says it was simple to navigate and provided an insight into the challenges involved in running a library on a limited budget. "It forces people to recognise that if you have a fixed budget you have to make difficult choices," she says. "I think this will make dialogue with the council more constructive."

Local authorities in Scotland and Norfolk are interested in Lambeth's library challenge app and Ben Matthews, head of communications at Futuregov, says creating apps is a burgeoning area for local authorities. Surrey council, for instance, has developed an "elections dashboard" app to provide residents with information about county council elections.

Matthews says Lambeth's library app is "a good creative idea" and he likes the fact that people can share it via social media but he does not think apps are a panacea for consultation. "People who want to use a library may not have internet access at home," he says. "Councils should consider whether there is a wider-reaching way [of consulting]."

But Lambeth's Edmundson remains an apps enthusiast. Insights from the app will inform how the council stocks libraries and it now plans to develop a similar app to consult on funding for local parks and open spaces.

He believes the app, which he and Lambeth's director of commissioning Adrian Smith came up with together, will also facilitate more effective engagement with young people. "Questionnaires put young people off," says Edmundson. "But kids love interacting on iPads."

Edmundson's advice on app-building is to leave software developers to come up with the creative ideas.. "We thought about using language in the app that would be pitched at young people but [developer] White October said it wouldn't work, and that young people would see through it if it looked patronising," he comments. "That was a trap we could have fallen into."

He also advises councils not to be afraid to take a chance, as they may find benefits they had not previously considered. There had been, for instance, some concern that the library challenge app would replace face to face engagement, but that proved to be unfounded.

from: Guardian