Introduction

The Local Government Architecture Model (LGAM) is a shared framework that provides a consistent way to understand, describe, and align how local government technology supports service delivery and the overall operation of a council.

The LGAM is part of a wider vision for local government technology. It guides:

  • the Government Digital Service (GDS) in building common products, including those for local government
  • government departments that build products and services for councils
  • councils who want to work with other local authorities on products and services
  • vendors who need to make common capabilities, patterns and dependencies more visible

The LGAM is a work in progress and will continue to evolve as we work alongside local government to refine it.

For more information on how the LGAM was created, read our blogs on:

Architecture overview

The Local Government Architecture Model (LGAM) describes the technology that councils use to deliver public services and the platforms that support them, across 9 layers.

Public Channels

Public channels are how service users interact with councils.

The Service Manual provides more information in point 3: provide a joined up experience across all channels.

  • In person
    Face-to-face interactions at a council office, a user's home or business, or another physical location.
  • Phone
    Voice calls allowing users to speak directly with council staff for support, enquiries, or complex transactions.
  • Email
    Asynchronous written messages used for direct communication between users and the council.
  • Letter
    Physical postal mail used for formal notifications, legal correspondence, or providing a permanent physical record.
  • Online
    Websites, web portals, apps, and online forms enabling users to self-serve and access information digitally.
  • Messaging
    Text-based messages including SMS, used to provide quick updates, alerts, or appointment reminders.
  • Social media
    Social networking platforms used to broadcast information, answer queries, and engage with the community.
  • Smart devices
    Connected hardware (such as Internet of Things sensors or smart speakers) enabling automated or voice-activated interactions.
  • Third-party channels
    Indirect channels where users interact via a proxy, such as a local MP, an advocate, or local media.
  • Video
    Remote video calls enabling face-to-face conversations without the need to travel to a council building.

Council Interfaces

Interfaces through which councils deliver services and information.

  • Apps
    Both native and cross-platform mobile applications providing dedicated services to citizens.
  • API gateways
    Machine-to-machine interfaces handling third-party integrations and smart device inputs.
  • Automated phones
    Automated telephony systems, such as IVR and conversational voicebots.
  • Human
    Customer service representatives or specialist officers handling queries.
  • Public devices
    Publicly-accessible devices owned by the council, such as touch-screens in a library or Internet of Things sensors in a drain or bin.
  • Websites
    Primary council web portals, forms, webchat, and other digital content interfaces.

Capabilities

Capabilities used by council's interfaces to help them meet the needs of their service users.

  • Agentic AI
    Autonomous AI agents capable of reasoning, executing multi-step tasks, and making routing decisions.
  • Booking
    Capabilities used to arrange and manage appointments or service slots, such as inspections and interviews with users.
  • Email

    Capabilities used to send and receive messages when dealing with users and both internal and external stakeholders.

  • Forms
    Capabilities used to collect and check information provided by users, such as within applications, reports, and requests.
  • Identity

    Capabilities used to check and verify a user's identity.

  • Payments

    Tools used to take and track payments made by users for services such as paying council taxes, and getting licences and permits.

  • Messaging

    Tools used to send and receive text messages including SMS, for updates, reminders, and quick communications with users.

  • Telephony and fax
    Capabilities used to communicate or exchange information with users via voice calls or fax.
  • Workflow
    Capabilities used to manage and track users' requests, applications, or casework as the users move through different processing stages.

Business Areas

Business areas cover the specific functions each council must provide. Each area features individual technology components designed for a specific need.

  • Adult social care

    The provision of support services for adults with physical or mental health needs, and their carers.

  • Childrens’ social care
    The provision of services, including child protection and safeguarding, family support, and care for looked-after children and care leavers.
  • Democratic services
    The management of elections, committee meetings, and support for elected councillors.
  • Education
    The management of school admissions, transport, special educational needs, and support for local educational settings.
  • Highways and transport
    The management of road maintenance, traffic, public transport planning, and parking.
  • Housing
    The management of social housing, repairs, and homelessness prevention.
  • Leisure and culture
    The operation of parks, libraries, museums, leisure centres, and community events.
  • Licensing and regulation
    The processing of alcohol, taxi, and trade licences, and environmental health enforcement.
  • Planning and development

    The processing of planning applications, building control, and local spatial planning.

  • Public health
    The provision of community health initiatives, sexual health services, and health protection.
  • Revenues and benefits
    The collection of council tax and business rates, and administration of housing benefit.
  • Waste management
    The management of kerbside collections, recycling, and the operation of household waste centres.

Corporate Areas

Corporate areas are required functions not specific to councils, each with their own individual technology components.

  • Business planning and performance
    The administration of strategic planning, performance monitoring, and business intelligence.
  • Communications and PR
    The management of press relations, public campaigns, and omnichannel content publishing.
  • Corporate governance and risk
    The management of internal audits, risk, and constitutional compliance.
  • Customer relationship (B2C)
    The management of customer service centres and general resident engagement.
  • Facilities
    The maintenance and management of council-owned buildings and estates.
  • Financial
    The administration of accounting, treasury management, payroll, and budget setting.
  • Geographical
    The management of geographic identity system (GIS) data, mapping services, and gazetteers.
  • Legal and compliance
    The provision of legal advice, litigation services, and data protection (GDPR) compliance.
  • Human resources and workforce
    The management of recruitment, staff training, performance, and employee relations.
  • Procurement (B2B)
    The management of contracts, supply chains, and purchasing of goods and services.

Foundational Technology

Technology platforms and capabilities that underpin council service delivery.

Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence enables advanced automation and insight generation through machine learning, data preparation, language processing, intelligent automation, and generative AI tools.

  • AI enablement
    Tools for collecting, cleansing, and enriching data to train AI/ML models. This covers building feature pipelines, managing feature stores, labelling training data, and ensuring high-quality, well-structured datasets.
  • Conversational AI
    Capabilities that enable systems to process and understand human language, powering applications like chatbots, virtual assistants, and language translation.
  • Generative AI
    Code-generation assistants, content or image generation services, and AI copilots integrated into productivity suites to help draft documents, analyse data, or provide creative suggestions.
  • Intelligent automation
    Software bots and AI-driven automation to mimic human tasks in systems, streamline workflows, and handle repetitive processes.
  • Machine learning
    Tools and frameworks to build, train, and deploy machine learning models, along with processes for ML Operations (MLOps) to manage model lifecycle and integration.
Developer and Operations ToolingDeveloper and Operations Tooling

Developer and operations tooling enables reliable and rapid software delivery through automated pipelines, release management and end-to-end monitoring and observability.

  • Release management
    DevOps toolchains enabling continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD), and automated infrastructure provisioning as code.
  • Monitoring and observability
    IT monitoring and observability tooling to track system health, performance, and logs across applications and infrastructure. This includes centralised logging platforms, metrics and tracing systems, and Application Performance Monitoring tools.
End User and ProductivityEnd User and Productivity

End user and productivity enables staff to work effectively through managed devices, communication tools, collaboration platforms and knowledge sharing capabilities.

  • Unified communications
    Collaboration and communication tools that support day-to-day work, including enterprise email and calendaring systems, video conferencing, voice (telephony/VoIP), and unified communication platforms.
  • End-user devices
    Management of end-user computing devices and their supporting infrastructure.
  • Knowledge management
    Capabilities to manage and share organisational knowledge and leverage internal professional networks or communities of practice.
  • Productivity
    Team collaboration workspaces and productivity suites for content creation and sharing. This includes cloud file storage and office productivity applications.
Service ManagementService Management

Service management ensures reliable and efficient IT operations by managing support services, applications and software assets across their lifecycle.

  • Application portfolio
    Processes and tools to catalogue and manage the organisation's application estatetracking each application's purpose, lifecycle stage, and fit to needs.
  • IT operations and service desk
    Capabilities to run day-to-day IT operations and support services, including a central IT service desk for incident and request handling. This includes monitoring IT systems, managing incidents and changes, and utilising ITSM tools.
  • Software asset and licence
    Systems to track software assets and licences, ensuring compliance and optimal usage of software across the organisation.This includes monitoring software installations and usage, managing licence entitlements and renewals.
Infrastructure & HostingInfrastructure & Hosting

Infrastructure and hosting provides the foundational compute, storage and networking capabilities.

  • Compute, storage, and network services
    Core IT infrastructure providing computing power, data storage, and network connectivity for all systems. This includes on-premises data centre and cloud hosting, and network services (LAN/WAN) that connect environments.
  • Connectivity and network hardware
    Networking infrastructure to provide reliable connectivity across offices, data centres, and cloud environments. This includes network hardware and telecoms services ensuring secure data communication, as well as internet connectivity and remote access solutions.
  • Virtualisation and platform enablement
    Tools and platforms for virtualisation and adopting cloud services, enabling flexible and efficient infrastructure provisioning.

Integration

Integrations ensure systems, applications, and data sources can seamlessly connect and share information to provide consistent data and unified digital experiences across the organisation.

  • API management and gateways
    Platforms and services for designing, publishing, securing, and monitoring APIs, often combined with API developer portals/catalogues for discovery and governance.
  • Data integration and pipelines (ETL/ELT)
    Tools and processes for extracting, transforming, and loading data between systems, supporting both batch ETL and real-time ELT pipelines.
  • Event-driven and streaming integration
    Platforms for capturing and distributing real-time event streams, enabling responsive, event-driven architectures.
  • File transfer management
    Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions to securely exchange files between systems or with external partners, ensuring scheduling, auditing, and integrity of bulk data transfers.
  • Integration governance and tooling
    Secure by design integration architecture and governance processes supported by integration platforms and tools. These establish common integration patterns, standards, and reusable components for consistency and incorporate security & privacy by design principles (e.g. authentication, encryption, policy enforcement) into integration solutions.
  • Message-oriented middleware
    Enterprise service buses (ESB) and message brokers that route, transform, and orchestrate interactions between applications.
  • Partner (B2B) integration
    Capabilities for business-to-business (B2B) and partner data exchange, including supporting EDI standards, secure partner API connections, and external data-sharing agreements.

Security

Security encompasses all capabilities, tools, and practices that protect the organisation's people, data, systems, and services from threats and ensure resilience against disruption.

  • Application and data security
    Capabilities to secure applications and data through secure development practices, data protection controls, and continuous security testing. This involves application security testing (SAST/DAST) during development, enforcing data classification & encryption, protecting APIs, and monitoring for application-level threats.
  • Identity and access management (IAM)
    Capabilities to verify identities and control access to systems that may use Zero Trust principles. This includes authentication and authorisation services (e.g. single sign-on, multi-factor authentication) to ensure only the right users/devices get appropriate access.
  • Incident forensics
    Digital forensic analysis capabilities including tools to collect and analyse digital evidence when breaches occur.
  • Network and endpoint security
    Network, endpoint, and device protection measures to guard against malware, intrusions, and unauthorised access. This includes firewalls, endpoint protection, intrusion detection/prevention systems, network segmentation, and device compliance monitoring.
  • Physical security and access Control
    Management of physical access and on-site security, including badge access systems, CCTV surveillance, and facility security controls.
  • Security operations and monitoring (SOC)
    Continuous security monitoring and incident management via a Security Operations Centre (SOC). SOC capabilities often include SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) tools and threat detection platforms to maintain real-time visibility of the security posture.
  • Vulnerability and threat management
    Tools and processes to identify, assess, and remediate vulnerabilities in systems, as well as manage cyber threat intelligence. This covers regular vulnerability scanning, prioritising patches based on risk, tracking emerging threats, and verifying configuration security.

Data and Information

Data and information management encompasses the capabilities, tools, and practices that equip the organisation to collect, manage, understand, and utilise its data and information assets in an effective manner.

  • Business intelligence and analytics
    BI and analytics platforms for aggregating data and creating reports, dashboards, and visualisations to inform decision-making. This includes interactive data exploration, performance metrics, and trend analysis .
  • Data catalogue & metadata management
    Systems for cataloguing data assets and managing metadata across the organisation, enabling data discovery and understanding. This includes data dictionaries, metadata repositories, and lineage tracking.
  • Data governance and quality
    Tools for managing data assets consistently and ethically throughout their lifecycle.
  • Data science and predictive analytics
    Advanced analytics capabilities for statistical analysis, predictive modelling, and data mining to identify patterns, forecast outcomes, and support data-driven decisions.
  • Data storage and warehousing
    Data storage platforms for structured and unstructured data, providing scalable databases, data warehouses, and data lakes for analytical and operational needs.
  • Document and records management
    Enterprise document management and records archiving capabilities to organise, store, and retain unstructured information throughout their lifecycle.
  • Enterprise search and data indexing
    Capabilities to search and index data and content. This may involve enterprise search engines, indexing services, and taxonomy/metadata tagging.
  • Geospatial data
    Data for mapping, geospatial analysis, and location based services.