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https://bobkerslake.blog.gov.uk/2013/07/19/a-digital-sprint/

A digital sprint

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Civil Service Reform, Digital

A normal Wednesday morning sees me and my Permanent Secretary colleagues sitting down in the Cabinet Office to talk about the hot topics of the week. This week was different. I hosted a Permanent Secretary panel discussion at the Government Digital Service's Sprint Alpha event to debate digital transformation with the senior leadership of the Civil Service.

Harnessing and enhancing skills

One of the key questions that was raised was whether civil servants have the capabilities to do things digitally. Robert Devereux, from the Department for Work and Pensions, was keen to point out that it wasn't all about putting people on training courses. Talented people working in Job Centre Plus have already made great strides to deliver their services in a modern and digital way. Their Office for the Future in London Bridge (video below) is a great example of how staff have been allowed to innovate to the benefit of the public. Justin Holliday, digital lead at the Home Office, mentioned that whilst many civil servants already possess the skills to work digitally from their use of IT and social media at home the constraints placed on them in the working environment inhibit them from doing as much as we would encourage.

Getting the business case right

The biggest cheer of the day came for a question about the business case process for digital projects. There was a general perception that the traditional governance procedures run by Cabinet Office and the Treasury, whilst necessary, need to be updated to better fit the agile way of working. There was certainly agreement amongst the panel who all thought that more needed to be done to tailor the business case process to the more iterative digital projects. Nevertheless, Richard Heaton, from the Cabinet Office, explained some of the rationale behind the business case process and Ursula Brennan from the Ministry of Justice said that the governance processes in her department had helped to clarify the utility of some projects.

Tweet all about it

The audience were clearly fully behind this digital transformation and the question was posed back to the panel how could the Civil Service senior team lead by example? Many of us are on Twitter (you can read my latest Q&A) demonstrating that it isn't only celebrities who can get a few thousand followers and communicate directly with the public. On a more internal level, we are all increasingly engaged in making government more digital; each department now has a dedicated digital lead who is responsible for making sure that digital projects and ways of working get sufficient prominence.

Savings for the public

All the panellists emphasised that there were two types of savings for the public. The first, and most obvious, is monetary. Digital services can be up to 50 times cheaper than face to face interactions. This will mean huge reductions in spend. As I pointed out at the time of the Spending Review, we need to continue to budget judiciously and reduce spend where we can. The second point is saving the public the hassle associated with some traditional public services. Its striking that though 74% of people use the internet for buying car insurance only 51% buy car tax online. We need to bridge that gap by improving the way our digital services are delivered.

So I would encourage everyone to check out what their department is doing on digital. The work that departments are delivering in conjunction with GDS is a great example of Civil Service Reform; improving public services, saving money, and harnessing the innovation and commitment of civil servants. It is a mark of the importance of digital that a group of senior leaders got together to debate its future. A few years ago that would have been almost unthinkable.

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