I was up until midnight last night trying to battle a local authority Education, Health and Care Plan system (EHCP). The system itself is essentially unusable, so the council maintains a parallel system of Word documents and secure mail. Educational psychologists, schools and parents end up maintaining their own ad hoc systems too.

I had to download a copy of Microsoft Word to try and the track changes — the ones that were just crossed out and the ones that were meant to be actual changes. In the end, I gave up and ended up scribbling on a PDF on an iPad, which I now need to copy into the system directly.

I had tried to sit down and do this last week, but the secure email system assumed I used Microsoft Outlook, and I was locked out of the messages. Parents and teachers have to monitor messages from standard email, the EHCP system and secure mail.

All of these systems will have been sold to the public sector on the basis of efficiency gains, but all too often they just push the work elsewhere. Many of the companies selling them are now promising more of the same with AI and the efficiency promises go totally unquestioned. What should be more for less ends up being worse for less.

I was in a meeting the other week, and I think someone described the systems that get sold to local government and the NHS as the modern equivalent of aerated concrete. That’s exactly what they are digital aerated concrete, built into the fabric of our public services.

The arrival of GDS Local is long overdue and very welcome. Part of its job is going to have to be reengineering things like EHCP systems without the roof falling in.