Government offers glimpse of Blueprint for Digital Government

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has laid out its plans for the ‘wholesale reshaping of the public sector’ after the release last week of its Blueprint for Modern Digital Government.

In a new blog, government chief digital officer, Joanna Davinson, confirmed that teams from GDS, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), the Incubator for AI (i.AI) and colleagues from the Geospatial data team and the Responsible Technology Adoption Unit have merged together as the Government Digital Service.

Davinson (pictured) sets out “an intention for comprehensive, compelling change across the public sector, not just central government.”

She said the Blueprint was informed by the State of Digital Government Review, which highlighted “some lasting, deep rooted systemic problems faced by digital public services. For example, we continue to struggle with recruiting and retaining the right skills and expertise in our digital teams. And sometimes organisations structures perpetuates the fragmented services people are expected to make sense of. These are just a few of the problems we need to work towards resolving in the newly formed Government Digital Service.”

Davinson said modern digital government should do more of the hard work for people. “They should interconnect and link up and they should move at the same pace as people’s daily lives.

“People shouldn’t have to work out which benefits it’s worth them applying for; or remember the steps they’re supposed to follow when they want to start a new business. We should take a responsible, ambitious stance on using AI to help deliver public services: understanding its potential, and using it where it makes sense to do so.”

Davinson said GDS has been working on very early concepts “to visualise and articulate that future” – but in the meantime, she outlined a set of next steps.

• GDS will expand its remit, acquire new mandates for reform, and gradually expand its scope over time into targeted support for local government and the NHS.
• It will introduce new products, including GOV.UK Wallet and GOV.UK App, and new digital public infrastructure including a National Data Library.
• It will “double down” on existing work, such as One Login, and work to build digital and data capability across government.
• It will renew efforts to reform how AI and digital services are funded, assured and procured.
• It will develop a roadmap for the next few years alongside the second phase of the Spending Review, and collaborate with digital leaders and teams across the public sector “to make sure it works for everyone.”