The DDaT work that holds its value whatever the review decides.

Gartner, 8 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8AP

Registration 9:00am to 9:20am
Start 9:20am
Finish 4:30pm New date: [to be confirmed]

Why attend

On 7th September the government withdrew four LGR decisions, paused the other 14 areas and told councils to stop implementation work. No timetable. May 2027 elections now run on existing boundaries.

The uncomfortable maths: Devon reckons 30% of officer capacity went into LGR, at a cost of millions. Multiply that across eighteen areas. Eighteen months of mapping, analysis and architecture now sits in limbo, held by people quietly updating their CVs.

The pause covers implementation. It does not cover demand, deficits, cyber risk, end-of-life platforms or the contracts renewing in 2027.

So this one is deliberately not about geography. Every session covers work that pays back whether you merge in 2028, merge later, or never merge at all: knowing your processes, keeping services safe and legal, holding a single view of change, building a digital blueprint, and using AI where it earns its place.

Stand still for a year and you will be doing eighteen months of work in nine. Or you will have spent that year waiting for permission to fix things you could have fixed anyway.

Who this is for:

DDaT leaders, transformation and programme leads, ICT and digital managers, customer service leads, and SLT members in the four withdrawn areas, the fourteen paused areas, and the areas watching all of this from outside the programme.

What you will leave with:

A clear read on what the pause does and does not change
A practical test for separating no-regrets work from work that depends on a decision
An understanding how completed reorganisations such as Cumbria & Northamptonshire would sequence it differently with hindsight
Peer contacts across the paused areas who are facing the same question

Agenda

9:00am to 9:20am Registration

9:20am to 9:25am Welcome & housekeeping: where the programme actually stands
Nick Hill, LGRCamp

9:25am to 9:55am Process Mapping: The Foundation That Survives the Review (Interactive Session)
Laurence Allen, UK Country Manager, Engage Process
Process maps are geography-agnostic. Whatever the review decides, you still need to know what your council does, what it costs and who owns it. The most useful thing to do during a pause is the thing you were going to have to do anyway.

9:55am to 10:25am Safe & Legal: Your Risk Did Not Pause
Dave Richardson, Assistant Director – Digital & Customer, Newark & Sherwood DC, and Paul Hinchcliffe, Account Director, Maple Networks
Vesting day has moved. Threat actors, statutory duties and data protection obligations have not. What “safe and legal” looks like for a council that is now running its existing services for longer than it planned.

10:25am to 10:55am Leveraging AI at the Digital Front Door
Matt Culpin, Chief Product Officer, IEG4
Front door improvements do not need a structural change order. Where AI is already earning its place in demand management and customer contact, and how to invest in it without betting on a boundary.

10:55am to 11:20am Morning Break

11:20am to 11:50am One Front Door. Three Councils. A Blueprint That Never Needed a Vesting Day
Jackie Wright, Chief Delivery Officer / Head of ICT & Digital, Public Sector Partnership Services Ltd
Shared delivery across three sovereign councils, achieved without reorganisation. The clearest available answer to “what can we get on with regardless?”

11:50am to 12:50pm Getting Control of Change: Creating a Single View When the End State Is Unknown (Interactive Session)
Chris Elias, Communications Lead, and Dan Fyfield, Head of Delivery, Perago
A single view of change matters more in uncertainty, not less. How to hold the picture together, and hold onto the people who built it, while the review runs.

12:50pm to 1:50pm Lunch

1:50pm to 2:30pm LGR in Cumbria: Lessons Learned, Including What We Would Have Started Sooner
Kate Hurr, CTO / Assistant Director Digital Innovation & ICT, Cumberland Council
Cumbria got to the other side. Which workstreams held their value through every change of direction, and which were wasted effort.

2:30pm to 4:10pm Gartner Sessions: FutureNorthants, the Digital Blueprint & Co-Pilot
Cheryl Doran, Executive Partner UK&I, Gartner, and former IT Enabler Lead, Future Northants Unitaries Programme
Robert Musekiwa, Director, Strategy IT, and former Lead Enterprise Architect, Future Northants Unitaries Programme
Max Goss, Senior AI Analyst, Gartner
A digital blueprint is a no-regrets asset. Northamptonshire built one under a deadline; this session covers building one without knowing the deadline, and what to do with the capacity a pause hands you.

4:10pm Closing remarks, prize draw & close