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THREAD The UK Govt’s appointment of new digital leadership is a great moment to reboot the digital agenda. @GovernSmarter has been meeting over months, taking evidence and interviewing experts to develop nearly 60 recommendations for a digital reboot 1/ http://governsmarter.org/better-digital-government-recommendations https://twitter.com/gdsteam/status/1349280170096652288
Departmental silos need to be broken down and cross-cutting Digital Task Forces set up to design and deliver services anew. It’s time to change Whitehall in ways that technology now allows - starting with housing, early years and business support 2/ https://www.governsmarter.org/better-digital-government-recommendations
A new National Digital Council should created like the National Security Council to elevate digital issues to the top. The Govt Chief Digital Officer must be empowered to lead transformation incl across departments and double-hatted as the Prime Minister’s Technology Advisor 3/
It’s time to transform @DCMS into new Department of Digital, Innovation and Technology taking in the different digital, innovation and science competencies of @beisgovuk, @cabinetofficeuk. 4/
Then an Office of Digital Effectiveness should be set up, like the OBR, to measure the effectiveness of digital programmes. Too much is funded but never assessed for impact and value for money. A logical follow up to @michaelgove’s Ditchley speech 5/ https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-privilege-of-public-service-given-as-the-ditchley-annual-lecture
We also argue that it’s time to set up a Digital Ombudsman, perhaps evolving @CDEIUK, to allow citizens and businesses an independent complaint handling service for complaints about digital public services. 6/
Govt then needs to set itself a number of tough digital targets: for a ‘only-once log-in’ rule for all public services to easer life for citizens; and a ‘portability target’ so all personal health information is easily portable across the NHS, social care etc. 7/
. @GDSTeam created a number of key cross-government platforms but this work isn’t done. Govt should identify and prioritise the creation of the missing cross-government platforms, such as data submission, accepting payments, hosting and data exchange. 8/
Talent is key. New financial or tax incentives are needed to bring top digital talent into government, for example an automatic exemption from the salary cap, grade structures or a two year non-repeatable tax exemption for a stint in government working on a digital programme 9/
So is a commitment of expenditure. We propose the Govt identify a Digital Spending Target - a percentage of government expenditure akin to the 2 percent NATO defence expenditure target - in order to ensure that sufficient resources are dedicated to digitally-enabling services 10
But to ensure the money is well spent @hmtreasury should run a specific Digital Spending Review alongside traditional SRs, given the speed of innovation within technology, looking at digital programmes only 11/
Departments also need to deliver business cases for the continuation of any departmental digitally-enabled programmes that are over two years old and have not yet delivered a public beta version of a service 12/
Too much is built inside or by consultants. @cabinetofficeuk should create “build controls” (as opposed to just “spend controls”) which means that any department or agency that wishes to build its own technology or rely on consultants, has to have this approved centrally. 13/
Procurement also doesn’t work. APIs should be mandated in all contracts with a data component where exposing the data is in the public interest. The Govt should be able to use the API for free and the fee to provide the API by the 3rd party should be added to contracts 14/
We also believe Govt should set a target for 10 per cent of technology spend to go to startups by 2022 and implement a new ‘suitable for startups’ tag on all procurement portals. #GovTech startups are maturing and ready to deliver but govt needs to give them a fair chance. 14/
The market to sell IT to the public sector is also broken. We suggest @hmtreasury and @bankofengland develop a version of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure market concentration where Govt is the main purchaser and task departments to address problematic instances 15/
More transparency is required for digital projects. We propose the Govt publishes KPIs, codes and responsible Ministers and officials to every digital project over a certain cost. Make it possible for anyone to suggest changes, improvements in the code etc. 16/
I will stop here but @GovernSmarter has nearly 60 recommendations covering other areas such as data, digital ID etc. We have deliberately sought to be comprehensive. This is no moment for half-measures. The U.K. has fallen behind; it needs to take action. https://www.governsmarter.org/better-digital-government-recommendations
