Cyber resilience and cost control: Securing your new council

In this series on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), we have explored the initial challenge of managing IT complexity and the strategic imperative of integrating systems and suppliers. Now, as the new authority takes shape, the focus shifts to long-term sustainability and resilience. How do you protect the expanded digital estate from evolving threats? How do you support employees through this period of immense change? And how do you achieve all this while balancing incredibly tight budgets?

This blog addresses the critical pillars of long-term success: embedding robust cyber resilience, delivering a user-centric support service, and implementing smart cost optimisation. Successfully navigating LGR is not just about vesting day; it's about building an operating model that is secure, efficient, and capable of serving the community effectively for years to come. This requires a proactive approach to security, a deep commitment to user experience, and a disciplined strategy for financial management.

The heightened cyber threat during LGR

A restructuring is a period of maximum vulnerability. Your IT teams are stretched, systems are in flux, and user access rights are being reconfigured. Malicious actors know this and see it as an opportunity. The merging of multiple IT estates creates a significantly larger and more complex attack surface, introducing new risks that must be managed proactively.

Key challenges include:

• Legacy system exposure: Older, on-premises systems inherited from predecessor councils may be unpatched or no longer supported by the supplier, making them prime targets for exploitation.

• Inconsistent security policies: Merging councils will have different security policies, tools, and standards. This inconsistency creates gaps that attackers can exploit.

• Data in transit: The large-scale migration of sensitive public data between systems is a high-risk activity that requires stringent security controls to prevent breaches.

• Identity and access sprawl: With employee roles changing, managing who has access to what becomes incredibly complex. Over-privileged accounts are a major security risk.

Protecting sensitive citizen data is not just an IT task; it is a core responsibility of public service. A breach during or after LGR can cause devastating financial and reputational damage, eroding public trust at the very moment you are trying to build it.

Layered defence for a complex hybrid estate

Securing a modern council's IT estate - a hybrid mix of on-premises legacy systems and new cloud services - requires a multi-layered, defence-in-depth strategy. A single firewall is no longer sufficient. A comprehensive security posture should be managed by a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC), whether in-house or through a partner.

Key layers of a modern defence strategy include:

• Managed Detection and Response (MDR): 24/7 monitoring of your networks, endpoints, and cloud environments to detect and respond to threats in real-time before they can cause damage.

• Proactive vulnerability management: Continuously scanning your estate for weaknesses and managing a robust patching programme to close security holes.

• Unified Identity Management: Implementing a single, robust identity and access management (IAM) solution to ensure users have the right level of access and nothing more (the principle of least privilege).

• Incident response planning: Having a well-rehearsed plan for how to react in the event of a breach, including communication protocols and recovery procedures.

An experienced Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) can deliver these capabilities, providing access to specialist skills and enterprise-grade tools that would be difficult and expensive to build and maintain in-house.

A single service desk users can rely on

LGR is a disorienting time for employees. Familiar processes change, new systems are introduced, and uncertainty can be high. In this environment, a responsive, empathetic, and reliable IT service desk is not a luxury - it's essential for maintaining morale and productivity.

Consolidating multiple service desks into one cohesive unit is a significant undertaking. The goal is to create a single point of contact that provides a consistent, high-quality experience for every employee, regardless of their previous council. A UK-based, 24/7 service desk that understands the public sector context can be a powerful enabler of change.

Consider the user experience: an employee struggling to access a new finance system at 7 PM while trying to close out month-end reports needs immediate, effective support. Making them wait until the next morning increases frustration and impacts critical business functions. A trusted support partner ensures help is always available, reducing downtime and reassuring staff that they are supported through the transition.

Smart cost optimisation without cutting corners

The financial pressure on local government is immense. LGR is often predicated on delivering long-term savings, so demonstrating financial control from day one is critical. However, crude cost-cutting in IT can backfire, leading to security risks, poor performance, and increased shadow IT (the use of software or systems without the approval of the IT department).

Smart cost optimisation focuses on eliminating waste and maximising value, not just reducing spend. An experienced IT partner can help identify significant savings through several key levers:

• Software licence optimisation: Auditing all software licences from merged councils to consolidate agreements, eliminate duplication, and ensure you are only paying for what you need.

• Cloud right-sizing: Analysing the performance of cloud-based workloads and adjusting resources (e.g., compute power, storage) to match actual demand, preventing overspend on idle capacity.

• Using reserved instances: Committing to one or three-year terms for predictable cloud workloads in exchange for significant discounts from cloud providers.

• Data archiving strategy: Moving historical data from expensive, high-performance storage to low-cost archival tiers, reducing storage costs while maintaining compliance.

• Service Consolidation: Rationalising overlapping services (e.g., moving to a single network provider) to leverage economies of scale and simplify supplier management.

Conclusion: building a resilient and efficient authority

The LGR journey extends far beyond the initial merger. Long-term success is defined by the ability to operate as a secure, efficient, and user-focused organisation. This means embedding cyber resilience into the fabric of your new IT estate, providing robust support to your people, and maintaining rigorous financial discipline.

These are not separate initiatives; they are deeply interconnected. A secure organisation protects its finances from cyber-crime. An efficient organisation frees up resources to invest in better services. A well-supported workforce is more productive and engaged. Award-winning MSPs like OneAdvanced IT Services can provide the integrated expertise across security, service delivery, and cost management needed to help councils achieve this balance.

Get in touch today to discuss how we can help.