Local Government Reorganisation
One council. One digital front door. Who’s building it?
Your new unitary authority needs to deliver a unified digital experience to residents by April 2028. We embed product leadership into your transition team — so you can move at pace without a 12-month procurement cycle.
The challenge
April 2028 is closer than it looks.
By vesting day, your new authority needs to present one council to residents — one website, one phone number, one brand — while 3–4 predecessor councils’ systems still run underneath.
The MHCLG Digital and Cyber Playbook calls this the “minimum viable council.” But who’s actually building it?
Your IT teams are keeping the lights on. Programme managers are managing governance. The big consultancies are producing strategy decks. But nobody is owning the citizen experience — deciding what gets built first, what gets migrated, what gets retired, and how AI can accelerate the transition.
That’s the gap we fill.
What we do
Product leadership, not more consultancy.
We embed as a fractional product leader within your transition team — typically 2–3 days per week — bringing the discipline that turns strategy documents into shipped services.
Frame the citizen experience
Map the end-to-end journey across your merging councils. Identify where residents currently fall between the cracks and where the new authority can genuinely improve things from day one.
- Cross-council service mapping
- Resident journey analysis
- Priority gap identification
Create the unified digital layer
Define the product roadmap for your single front door — what’s live on vesting day, what runs in parallel behind the scenes, and what gets consolidated over the following 12–24 months.
- Single front door product roadmap
- Vesting day scope definition
- Migration and retirement sequencing
Apply AI practically
Not theoretical AI strategies. Practical application — consolidating content from multiple council websites, automating service triage, enabling contact centre teams to work across unfamiliar service areas during transition.
- Multi-site content consolidation
- Service triage automation
- Contact centre transition support
Build capability as we go
We don’t create dependency. Your team inherits the product discipline, frameworks, and ways of working so you’re self-sufficient post-transition.
- Product practice embedded in your team
- Frameworks and playbooks handed over
- Self-sufficient from day one of phase two
Why this matters
Systems integrators will merge your databases. Who’s designing the experience?
Council reorganisation attracts technology vendors selling platform migrations and system consolidation. That work matters — but it’s not the hard part.
The hard part is the decisions that sit above the technology: Which of four different waste collection booking systems becomes the standard? How do residents in the Waterside — who’ve just been moved to a new authority — find the services they need without knowing the council’s internal structure? What does a contact centre agent do when a resident calls about a service that used to sit with a different predecessor council?
These are product decisions, not IT decisions. They require user research, service design, and disciplined prioritisation — not just system architecture.
The merger
Hampshire Local Government Reorganisation
Option 1A confirmed 25 March 2026: 15 predecessor councils merging into 5 new unitary authorities. Vesting day: April 2028.
Hampshire County Council’s 82+ services will be disaggregated across all four mainland unitaries — the single biggest digital integration challenge in the programme.
Track record
Legacy systems. Structural change. Hard deadlines.
The pattern behind every council reorganisation is one we’ve seen before — complex organisations with competing systems, no internal product leadership, and a deadline that won’t move.
Post-merger digital consolidation
One platform from many — while the business keeps running.
Led product strategy for a FTSE-listed wealth manager consolidating multiple legacy platforms into a single client-facing digital experience — during a post-merger integration with competing stakeholder priorities and no existing product function.
Modernising a 200-year-old institution
Legacy estate replaced. 23,000 members never noticed.
Embedded as product lead for a chartered professional body replacing its legacy .NET and Dynamics 365 estate with a modern front-end — while maintaining service continuity for 23,000+ members and navigating a complex internal stakeholder landscape.
AI-enabled delivery at scale
AI in production, not in a strategy deck.
Designed AI-powered content and workflow automation for a global energy consultancy, reducing manual processes across distributed teams and accelerating time-to-publish for research serving institutional clients worldwide.
Regulatory complexity, real-world constraints
Constraints aren't blockers — they're the operating environment.
Delivered digital transformation across regulated financial services — including accountancy, insurance, and wealth management — where compliance, data sensitivity, and stakeholder caution define the pace of change.
What people say
From the people we’ve worked with.
“They made what could be a stressful process utterly enjoyable. Consummate professionals capable of leading complex projects with multiple stakeholders.”
Paul Moynihan
Founder, We Find Venues
“The best conversion specialist we have got to work with. Based more on logic and data, than wishful thinking, Skysoclear have been a pleasure to work with.”
Pawan Saunya
Co-founder, gomi
“We are very happy with progress and the work so far. Look forward to the realisation of the Design System Lite and sharing it more widely. Thanks for reaching out.”
Amy Simpson
Product Owner, Wood Mackenzie
“I messaged in a panic and they made time for me immediately. Within a couple of hours they had sent over a first iteration. They immediately understood exactly what we were trying to do and made it look super clean.”
Hannah Parvaz
Head of Growth, Curio
“Working with Skysoclear was transformative for Sentrisk. Their ability to navigate the environment, craft intuitive UX flows, and create a comprehensive design set the team up for success.”
Cory Cruser
Partner, Oliver Wyman
“We genuinely appreciate the time and effort they dedicated to Sikoia. Their contributions have been very valuable and we are grateful for what’s been achieved.”
Alexis Rog
CEO, Sikoia
How to start
Start with a conversation, not a procurement.
We know council procurement can be slow. That’s why we keep the entry point deliberately simple.
01
A 30-minute conversation
No pitch. We want to understand your transition timeline, the biggest gaps, and whether there’s a genuine fit. You leave with clarity either way.
No cost · No commitment
02
A short discovery
2–4 weeks mapping your citizen journey across predecessor councils and identifying quick wins. A clear, written deliverable in your hands — whatever happens next.
Time-limited · Fixed scope
03
Fractional product leadership
Embedded in your team at 2–3 days per week, scaling as the programme demands. Monthly subscription — no lengthy contracts, no day rates, no surprise invoices.
Monthly · Cancel any time
The decisions being made in the next 6 months will shape your authority for the next 20 years.
If you’re part of a shadow authority, transition team, or digital leadership group for one of the new unitary councils, we should talk.
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