marter services delivering the n wave of digital transformation in the public sector ·...

Smarter ServiceSDelivering the next Wave of Digital tranSformation in the Public Sector

Smarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector2 3Smarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public SectorSmarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector2

“To change and To do so aT pace”

that was how then Minister for the Cabinet offiCe ben GuMMer defined his vision for the publiC seCtor in early 2017 as he announCed the GovernMent’s transforMation strateGy. this is a laudable vision, and one that the GovernMent has already Made Great strides towards. the uK is ranKed as the best diGital GovernMent in the world by the un, and the £450M inCrease in the GovernMent diGital serviCe’s (Gds) budGet Made in the 2015 spendinG review siGnals the GovernMent’s intention to build upon this solid foundation.

this report identifies the Key areas GovernMent Must address to aChieve this vision.

3Smarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector 3Smarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public SectorSmarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector2

contentS

Introduction .............................................................................................................................04

Methodology ...........................................................................................................................06

Key Findings ............................................................................................................................07

� Technology as an enabler � Removing barriers to sharing � World-class citizen transactions � Skills and capabilities � Procurement and industry engagement

Next Steps and Recommendations .................................................................................18

Smarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector4

introDuction

The Government’s vision places the transformation of the public sector – the ways in which its organisations work, share and communicate with one another – at its heart. For it to succeed Government needs to embrace not merely new technologies, but the new ways of delivering services that ‘Digital’ makes possible.

While progress has been strong the challenge remains great. The National Audit Office has warned that Government has so far struggled to make a success of end-to-end transformation of the sort envisaged by the Transformation Strategy. The disruption of core public services caused by the recent WannaCry cyberattack highlighted that the public sector remains a disparate and often difficult environment for transformation to flourish, with governance, risk and skills shortages significant barriers to be overcome.

Fortunately, the UK also benefits from one of the most vibrant and thriving digital economies on the planet. UK-based businesses of all shapes and sizes are pushing boundaries not only in terms of digital innovation, but also of large-scale business transformation and change management. This knowledge and experience should prove a valuable resource for the public sector, and Industry stands ready to be constructive partners in the transformation journey. techUK has been working hard to bring public and private sectors together to address these issues.

As part of that techUK has been keen to understand better the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities facing the public sector as it strives for tech-driven public services. techUK’s Public Services Board (PSB), made up of leaders from across the industry, has conducted a listening exercise in the first half of this year, taking in views from across the public sector.

5Smarter Services | Delivering the Next Wave of Digital Transformation in the Public Sector

The PSB has paid particular attention to three key areas, where it believes closer engagement between Industry and public sector could be most beneficial. These areas are:

� Removing barriers to sharing Innovative work is done across the public sector and in partnership with Industry, but it is often hard for knowledge, products and information to be shared between Departments and organisations. By developing cross-government collaboration and common standards and platforms, it will be easier and cheaper for Government to deliver truly transformative public services.

� World-class citizen transactions Government is seeking to move beyond front-end transformation to deliver end-to-end change in the way that citizens engage with public services. With challenging legacy estates and contracts, Government will have to think innovatively about how digital transformation will support citizens however they choose to communicate with it.

� Civil Service skills and capabilities The Government has made good progress in formalising its Digital, Data and Technology profession, and rolling out digital training through its academy programme. However truly transformative public services need to be digital in design, not just in delivery, and an understanding of the possibilities offered by technology should be extended to public servants throughout the civil service.

This report sets out our findings so far.


methoDology

To inform our work, the PSB has drawn particularly from three key strands of engagement with the public sector:

� techUK’s Civil Service Survey, whose results are set out in this document; � Interviews with senior public servants and other stakeholders; and � Third-party research and reports.

This is the third annual Civil Service Survey, a study on the use of IT services and the role of technology in central government and agencies.

The fieldwork was carried out by Dods Research online in February and March 2017 and received 948 responses, establishing a solid benchmark for measuring the views of Central Government.

Differences of +/- 3.21 per cent are statistically significant at the 95 per cent confidence level. This means that we can be sure that if we had asked all 440,000 civil servants the same questions, 95 per cent of all their answers would be within a range of +/- 3.21 per cent of what we see in the results here.

In addition, techUK was able to identify anonymised responses from those in key digital roles and among senior civil servants.

Senior civil servants were defined as members of the Senior Civil Service, grade six, and grade seven. This typically equates to Deputy Director level and above in the Civil Service. 138 respondents were part of this group.

Key digital roles included those who identified as either CIO, CDIO, CDO, CTO, Commercial Director, Head of Procurement, Digital Leader, Finance Directors or Head of Innovation. There are 62 civil servants in this group. While there was some overlap with the senior group, not all of these roles are part of the senior group mentioned above.

Responses represented every region of the UK. Over three quarters of respondents were based outside London.

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Key finDingS

sinCe teChuK’s first Civil serviCe survey in early 2015, MuCh has ChanGed in publiC seCtor teChnoloGy. we’ve had two General eleCtions, three Ministers for the Cabinet offiCe, three direCtors of Gds, a diGital strateGy and a transforMation strateGy. whether beCause of this or in spite of it, our survey has shown that teChnoloGy Continues to beCoMe a More iMportant CoMponent in a Civil servant’s worK.


technology aS an enabler


Technology is increasingly seen as an enabler by senior civil servants that allows for better and more efficient delivery of services, rather than as a necessity or overhead. According to our Civil Service Survey, the proportion of senior Civil Servants describing IT as an enabler has increased among this group in every year that the survey has taken place to 39 per cent in 2017. Across the entire civil service, 28 per cent see IT as an enabler, and 69 per cent as a necessity.

This is encouraging for the Government Transformation Strategy’s prospects, which envisages a Civil Service transformed by technology. Research earlier in the year from techUK member Sopra Steria found that 75 per cent of Civil Servants felt that the drive for digital transformation had had a direct impact upon their work, and that 71 per cent thought that it was changing the structure of the way public services were delivered.

Furthermore, the drive to deliver better services is increasingly seen as the primary driver of transformation within Government rather than cost savings. More than twice as many civil servants see IT as critical to improving service delivery (78 per cent) than view it as critical to making cost savings (34 per cent).

Data analytics and cloud technology are increasingly seen as drivers of efficiency in civil servants’ work, however mobile working is still regarded as the technology most likely to improve efficiency (chosen by 56 per cent of respondents).

In addition to general attitudes towards technology and public service transformation, the survey asked detailed questions on four specific areas: the sharing of information, best practice and processes across departments and organisations; how government interacts with citizens online; perceptions of digital skills and capabilities within the civil services; and attitudes towards procurement and engaging with the IT industry, in particular SMEs.


removing barrierS to Sharing


The rationale for greater sharing within the public sector is well understood by civil servants. Only 6 per cent thought that public services wouldn’t be improved by sharing more information and processes between departments and organisations.

However many respondents felt that significant barriers existed to greater cross public-sector sharing. 36 per cent of civil servants thought legislation prevented them from sharing more, while a further 36 per cent thought incompatibilities in internal working practices prevented it. Interestingly, fewer senior civil servants (22 per cent) thought legislation was a barrier, while a greater proportion (43 per cent) thought departmental working practices were incompatible. This could suggest that the legislative limits on sharing aren’t always well understood across departments.

Just over half of respondents felt that their department/organisation had sufficient information about their users to deliver effective public services, but a significant minority (32 per cent) disagreed. Among digital professionals, the proportion feeling that the information available was insufficient rose to 41 per cent.


WorlD-claSS citizen tranSactionS


While most civil servants (79 per cent) agreed that there was an appetite amongst citizens for conducting more of their interactions with Government online, a number of potential inhibitors to uptake were identified.Amongst all respondents, 61 per cent felt that existing systems and working practices prevented their department from interacting with citizens more online. This rose to 94 per cent when looking solely at those working in digital roles, perhaps suggesting that the limitations of legacy systems are not widely understood outside the digital professions.

Nearly a third of respondents thought moving more citizen transactions online was too complex (19 per cent) or expensive (13 per cent). Among senior civil servants, this rose to 43 per cent, perhaps suggesting the business case for greater digital services needs to be made higher up the departmental food chain.


SKillS anD caPabilitieS


A lack of knowledge or expertise is regarded as the largest barrier to greater technology adoption in government; 57 per cent of respondents saw it as a problem, a proportion that has increased each year. Budget restrictions and internal departmental culture were also seen as significant barriers to technology being used more widely.

Senior civil servants and those working in digital roles had more confidence that their department had the requisite skills and capabilities to deliver its business plan than their juniors did. When asked to rate their department’s expertise in four key areas (digital service design; data; procurement; and change management), on average 20 per cent more civil servants in digital roles agreed that their department had the skills necessary to deliver its business plan.

This could signify that while Government has had some success in attracting expertise to its Digital, Data and Technology profession, these skills have yet to permeate the wider civil service. Fewer than half of all respondents had confidence in their organisation’s ability to deliver its business plan in each of the four areas, with procurement seen as a particular area for concern.Similarly, while internal culture is increasingly chosen as a barrier to greater technology adoption by senior civil servants, the proportion of those in tech-facing roles picking it as an impediment has fallen. This may be a source of encouragement for Departments, perhaps reflecting a greater awareness of some of the complexities of tech adoption in senior roles, and an erosion of practical barriers for digital staff.


Procurement anD inDuStry engagement


Despite the Government setting a target to spend £1 in £3 of its procurement budget with smaller and medium-sized businesses by 2020, only 21 per cent of civil servants believe that there is an appetite within their department or organisation to increase the involvement of SMEs in the procurement chain. There has been a particularly large drop (13 percentage points) in the proportion of respondents working in tech-facing roles who agreed with the statement.

Among all civil servants, better engagement between Government and Industry was seen as the best route to improving value for money in procurement (picked by 58 per cent of respondents). However among senior and digitally-focused respondents, improving commercial skills within their department or organisation was seen as more crucial to driving value for money (picked by 62 per cent and 61 per cent in these groups respectively).While only one in ten of those involved in procurement decisions agreed that their department or organisation had access to a wide range of suppliers, less than a quarter picked widening the supplier base as a priority. 24 per cent do not believe they need access to a diverse range of suppliers, down 12 percentage points since 2016.

Full resulTs oF The survey are available online aT www.Techuk.org/civil-servanTs-survey


next StePS anD recommenDationS

The research shows that while there is a lot of good work being done on public service transformation and civil servants are beginning to adapt to more agile and innovative ways of working, progress has by no means been uniform. To some extent this is unsurprising: as the Government’s own Transformation Strategy states, the breadth of services provided by Government and the diversity of their users means that the challenge facing the public sector as it embarks upon the next wave of transformation is unique in its scale and complexity. We shouldn’t necessarily expect public service transformation to run in perfect parallel to the changes that consumers have seen in the way that they engage with private sector services.

Equally, however, the very complexity of the challenge Government has set itself in delivering the sort of end-to-end transformation that it has envisaged means that it should be taking every opportunity to learn from the wealth of knowledge and experience held by the UK’s thriving tech sector. Industry can provide Government with not only the tools it needs to deliver tech-enabled public services, but also experience of managing large-scale transformation projects, advice on streamlining its procurement practices, and examples of best-practice. There are several areas where Government should focus its energy in order to ensure that its transformation efforts are built upon solid foundations:


WillingneSS to exPeriment With neW WorKing PracticeS

Since GDS was set up in 2010, Government has made a welcome move towards more agile working practices and more innovative technologies in its digital project delivery. However non-digital teams within Government haven’t always made the same progress. As Government moves from ‘digital uptake’ to end-to-end transformation, services will increasingly need to be digital in their design, not just in their delivery. This will require greater flexibility in working practices throughout the Civil Service.

For example, if Government is to take advantage of developments in data analytics and artificial intelligence, it will need to rapidly respond to the insights it provides on users, and design services iteratively as new information becomes available.

However the Civil Service will also need to look beyond new project management techniques: Departments will need to challenge perceptions that their own working practices are unique or incompatible with other organisations if they are to have the tools needed to deliver the sort of joined-up public services that citizens will increasingly expect.

DeveloP channelS to funD anD account for croSS-government WorK

The departments and institutions of Government largely date from a pre-Digital era, and were set up to deliver discreet services in defined policy areas. While there are many good reasons in terms of funding and accountability for why this system has survived, it is important for Government to develop channels to allow cross-Government work to flourish.

While GDS has had some success in building components and platforms that can be used across Government, more needs to be done to support collaboration between individual Departments and organisations. In areas such as health, social care and education, where local authorities are key players in service provision, more also needs to be done to involve the wider public sector in the work going on within Central Government.


common StanDarDS anD WorKing PracticeS

The Government’s Transformation Strategy rightly calls for the development and adoption of common components, standards and processes in the delivery of digital public services. These not only make it easier for public sector organisations to provide their users with more joined-up services and reduce duplication and waste, it also makes it easier for suppliers to work with Government to deliver the more innovative solutions senior Civil Servants tell us that they need.

For these platforms to flourish, Government will need to be open with suppliers and the public about how key products such as GOV.UK Verify will be developed and adopted across Government. Where common standards are introduced on issues such as data storage or procurement, it is important that Civil Servants are given clear guidance on what is expected, and where necessary, training. While current guidance often sets the correct tone, suppliers’ experience in transacting with Government sometimes suggests that it isn’t well understood ‘at the coalface’, and significant uncertainty on issues such as legislative limitations mean that opportunities for cost savings and service transformation are missed.

offer three year PlacementS in inDuStry for civil ServantS in technical roleS

Government has made great strides in modernising the way it approaches technology, and the skills it has available in order to deliver tech-enabled public services. However there remain significant differences between the ways in which the public and private sectors do business, and much mutual benefit to be had by fostering a greater understanding.

Offering placements in Industry for Civil Servants in technical roles would not only allow Government to broaden its knowledge and expertise by exposing its staff to cutting-edge innovation happening in the private sector, it would also allow Industry to develop a better understanding of the problems faced by the public sector, and the opportunities for Industry to play a role in solving them. This would help to bring a wider and more diverse spectrum of private sector companies into the public sector market, and make sure that transactions between private and public sectors are conducted from a position of greater mutual understanding.


ProviDe all faSt Stream WorKerS With Digital SKillS training

While the introduction of the Digital, Data and Technology profession within Government has helped to fill some of the digital skills gaps that have existed when it comes to service delivery, the scope of the transformation now envisaged in the public sector means that an understanding of digital technology needs to be much more diffuse.

In particular, those tasked with designing the public services of the future will need the digital skills that allow them to understand the possibilities offered by technology at a much earlier stage. The digital training offered by the new Digital Academies will certainly help to address this need, and it’s important that Government continues to iterate the courses on offer in response to new technologies and user demand. However it should also be a requirement for future public servants to receive digital skills training as part of the Fast Stream process, to ensure that they are embedded in the Civil Service at all levels.

uSe Public Sector Procurement to helP foSter innovation in the SuPPlier community

Besides its Transformation Strategy, the Government has also committed to using its procurement spend to support innovation in the private sector in its Industrial Strategy. These commitments should be treated as complimentary: for Government to meet this pledge to support innovation in Industry, Government needs to be designing services that can take advantage of the innovative solutions Britain’s tech sector is able to provide.

But it’s also important that Government supports innovation in the private sector through the way that it interacts and transacts with Industry. The public sector needs to understand the value of a broad and diverse supplier base, so that it can take advantage of the range of solutions companies of different sizes and with different specialisms are able to provide, which in turn deliver better value for money for the taxpayer. While initiatives such as the Government’s pledge to spend £1 in £3 of its procurement budget with SMEs are welcome, the research suggests that it has had a limited impact upon the attitudes of procurement staff within the public sector. Government should also be looking at how its procurement frameworks can be streamlined to remove the burdens that often act as a barrier to new entrants in the public sector market.


for more information on our central government Programme viSit

WWW.techuK.org/ProgrammeS/central-government


techuK rePreSentS the comPanieS anD technologieS that are Defining toDay the WorlD that We Will live in tomorroW.

the teCh industry is CreatinG jobs and Growth aCross the uK. 950 CoMpanies are MeMbers of teChuK.

ColleCtively they eMploy More than 700,000 people. these CoMpanies ranGe froM leadinG ftse 100 CoMpanies to new innovative start-ups. the Majority of our MeMbers are sMall and MediuM sized businesses.

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