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Digital Skills Considerations for the Incoming Government
On July 5th, as the counting of votes concludes, one of the UK’s political leaders will accept a request from the King to form a new government. A car will then lead them the short distance from Buckingham Palace to the steps of Downing Street, where in front of a hundred microphones and cameras, the new prime minister will set out their agenda for the 5 years to come.
Whoever wins the election, the new prime minister will face a daunting prospect: an underperforming economy, an ageing population, public sector funding challenges, and greater international instability than at any time since the end of World War II. So, where to focus? And what might this mean for the way that government delivers services in future?
At AND, we think it’s about a renewed focus on people: on those receiving services, as well as those delivering them.
It’s 12 years since GOV.UK launched, 14 since Martha Lane Fox’s review that presaged its ‘digital by default’ agenda. That work didn’t just transform the way that government in the UK is delivered, but inspired similar revolutions from the US to New Zealand. Along the way, it’s also shaped the way user centred design, agile delivery and open source technology is now conceived and delivered across any sector, not just government.
But the work is never done, and our world is changing rapidly.
One of the challenges for any government is to imagine the world as it will be at the end of its term, and not just as it is right now. Machine learning and generative artificial intelligence are opening up exciting — and unsettling — possibilities. It’s already clear that with innovation comes safety concerns, a need to understand a technology’s limitations and biases as well as its possibilities.
As it did with the creation of GOV.UK, government’s celebrated digital culture of ‘working in the open’ means it is uniquely placed to lead through thoughtful, ethically-led, people-centred applications of AI that are open to scrutiny, build public trust and that ‘do the hard work to make it simple’ for end users. This use of AI might be less flashy, less headline-grabbing, but perhaps as AI ‘companions’ that support decision making, speed up processing and lessen the burden on civil servant caseworkers and the waiting times for citizens. AI in service of its users, in other words. Simpler, clearer, faster.
Any change in administration inevitably also means a shake up in the way that government departments are organised. It presents a precious opportunity for government to continue to apply some of the service design thinking it has been so influential in popularising elsewhere, to itself. To radically rethink what departments are for, and the user needs they are organised around. While progress has been made, there’s still so much to do to commission, design and deliver services that are truly agnostic of which bits of government deliver them: imagine a world of more government services that don't require people to understand the delineation between layers of local and central government, or the geographical boundaries of health services. Or imagine more cohesive cross-digital teams, able to work across departmental boundaries, better able to harness their learning from building and delivering services right across government. That’s good for users, and it’s good for those delivering those services too.
Allied to these changing times is the need for continuous training and development. The Civil Service is rightly proud of its tradition of developing people. Bridging the digital skills gap is central to AND Digital’s mission, and it’s central to government’s future too: making greater use of digital apprenticeships in partnership with industry, and increasing investment in the digital upskilling of all civil servants to strengthen the UK Government’s international position at the forefront of digital government. This only happens through re-committing to learning and development, and the sharing of that learning between departments.
An incoming government faces many challenges: not just to deliver better services, but to doso cost-effectively and equitably too. And that means investing, not just in technology, but in people.
At AND Digital, we work collaboratively with public sector organisations to build digital products and equip teams with the capabilities they need to thrive in a digital world, and deliver the best services for the public.
We build better services today, and better equipped teams to serve the country tomorrow. Get in touch to find out what that looks like for you. www.AND.Digital
By Andrew Travers, Design Principal, AND Digital
techUK and TechSkills at London Tech Week
techUK is proud to once again be a strategic partner of London Tech Week. The event is a fantastic showcase for UK tech, and we’re pleased that techUK members and colleagues are represented on the agenda.
We are pleased to be working with 20 techUK members at London Tech Week to highlight the positive impact of the tech industry in the UK.
You can find more details on the author of this blog, below:
London Tech Week: Fringe events
techUK is leading several fringe events across the week on topics as varied as Justice and Emergency Services, Local Public Services, Digital ID, and international trade. Visit the pages below to register:
