For the first time, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) has announced that it is expanding the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework to include senior Civil Service (SCS) roles.
It said this will increase the visibility of executive leadership and establish clearer career pathways for digital, data and technology (DDaT) professionals to senior roles in government.
The first SCS roles on the framework are chief data officer, chief information security officer and chief technology officer. The CDDO said these roles reflect the priorities of departments across government and will be followed by more SCS roles after research, design and development with the relevant subject matter experts.
The department said it explored common challenges faced by these roles, core responsibilities and capabilities required by each role, complex contexts across government departments and the differences between these roles in government and in the private sector.
“These insights led our decision-making, ensuring we were designing the roles and skills to meet user needs,” it said.
“The framework has a very varied audience, our user groups include those already in the role, those who might want to do the role in the future and those who are unfamiliar with both the role and the profession. It was our challenge to ensure that SCS role holders felt their roles were accurately reflected, that career progression had more visibility and that people unfamiliar with digital and data roles could understand what they do and the value they bring.”
Developing a complementary skills structure
The CDDO said its user research led it to design a complementary skills structure that better reflects the scope of skills needed for senior leadership roles. This structure includes capturing the specialist nature of the digital and data skills at leadership level, acknowledging the specific context digital and data leaders work in and providing examples of leadership related to each skill.
These leadership skills are specifically designed for SCS roles but sit within the existing Digital and Data Capability Framework. This means users can view and compare skills at all levels, providing clearer visibility of career pathways and progression opportunities.
It added: “As a ‘living product’, we encourage colleagues to propose a change to the framework and provide feedback on using the framework to help us evolve.”
