Policy paper

Government Transformation Strategy: role of the Government Digital Service

Published 9 February 2017

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

GDS’s evolving role

Government is building stronger functions at the centre of government. Digital is one of 10 corporate functions. Functions bring specialist delivery skills and a cross-cutting perspective to the way government operates, to improve delivery of government policy.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) leads the Civil Service digital function.

GDS will continue to support, enable and assure government digital initiatives. GDS’s role is to:

• set appropriately challenging standards for government digital technology and support the increased digital capability of government by identifying, curating and sharing best practice
• strengthen the digital, data and technology communities across government - setting professional standards and standardising approaches to recruitment, retention, pay and career development
• act as a centre of digital expertise (including exploring new ideas and developing prototypes) and make sure this expertise is deployed effectively
• build, continually improve and operate products and services that the rest of government can rely on
• provide targeted digital, data and technology expertise (from GDS, departments or external sources) to other government organisations as support for critical projects
• provide assurance for digital projects through spend controls, service assessments and in collaboration with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA)

GDS’s future role reflects both GDS’s growing maturity and improvements in departmental capability over the last period. It is not prescriptive - GDS will continue to be adaptable, working in a way that is responsive to the changing needs of government:

• GDS will reiterate its commitment to help support departments to transform digitally
• GDS will do more to enable departments to analyse and improve their digital services
• GDS will be clear in articulating its future role in supporting departments and helping to assure they are transforming in the right way

GDS will work effectively with other corporate functions

To enable deep transformation, we will work in a more joined-up way with the other functions (for example, finance, commercial, human resources, property, infrastructure and projects).

We will work with the functions to design services that meet users’ needs and can be reused across government. We will draw on central government networks and levers to help align the priorities of departments.

To provide assurance, GDS will:

• set standards for what good looks like and give clear guidance to help people get there
• make sure that money spent and services delivered meet these standards
• use our position at the centre of government to ensure departments meet and implement standards, spot and address duplication, and ensure better use of technology across government

Departments will:

• have a pipeline of planned digital and technology activity
• establish design authorities to bring strategic oversight and assurance to digital and technology activity

GDS’s role in the Government Transformation Strategy

The Government Transformation Strategy sets out five objectives for GDS for the period up to 2020:

• continue to deliver world-class digital services and transform the way government operates, from front end to back office, in a modern and efficient way
• develop the right skills and culture among our people and leaders, and bring together policy and delivery to enable services to be delivered in a learning and iterative environment, focused on outcomes for citizens
• build better workplace tools and processes to make it easier for public servants to work effectively, including sourcing, governance, workplace IT, businesses cases, human resources processes, common technology across the public sector and better digital tools for civil servants
• make better use of data - not just for transparency, but to enable transformation across government and the private sector
• create, operate, iterate and embed good use of shared platforms and reusable business capabilities to speed up transformation - including shared patterns, components and establishing open standards

Business transformation

Government’s objective through to 2020 is to create joined-up services that meet user needs, and to deliver the major digitally-enabled transformation programmes of whole services and back-office functions. To achieve this government will collaborate to establish a joined-up approach to transformation.

How GDS will support this objective

GDS will:

• create, support and iterate the components which it is best placed to create, and otherwise support the wider public sector in the creation of shareable components
• agree appropriate standards with departments, using industry open standards where possible
• govern the use of common standards
• accelerate work on the emerging themes of transformation
• update the guidance supporting the Technology Code of Practice and other applicable standards to support a strategic approach to old technology, including migration paths

We will also update the Service Manual to provide guidance on building:

• whole services, not just online transactions
• services used only within government, as well as services for the public
• services that cross the boundaries of organisations or sectors

Grow the right people, skills and culture

Government’s objective by 2020 is to grow the right culture and skills among our people and leaders.

How GDS will support this objective

The integration of the Digital Academy into GDS will form an important part of this work.

We will complete the transfer of the Digital Academy from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to GDS. This will create a nationwide capability for providing digital training to civil servants and provide a platform to expand and enhance the training offered. We will explore opening up the Digital Academy to other parts of the public sector too (such as local authorities and devolved governments).

We will use the Digital Academy to deliver a UK-wide programme of multidisciplinary training, framed by the Technology Code of Practice, Commercial Operating Standards, Digital Service Standard and the Supplier Standard, including:

• digital skills for public servants
• policy skills for digital professionals
• standards and spend controls - helping departmental colleagues understand why these are important, and how to make best use of them
• commercial, finance and legal awareness for delivery teams

We will also collaborate across government to support change in other Civil Service professions, and will seek further opportunities to do so. As of 2016, GDS is helping with 2 cross-Civil Service activities.

Civil Service HR has proposed a leadership academy to develop products to support senior leadership development - to include learning on all core professions, for example digital, data and technology (DDaT), commercial and project management. GDS will support this initiative through the expertise of the Digital Academy.

Build better workplace tools and processes for civil servants

Government’s objective is that by 2020 the design and use of space helps to create a culture of open, digitally-enabled policy making and service delivery and that public servants will have the right, location-independent tools to do their jobs. We will make sure all parts of government can govern, fund and effectively operate agile services, including where services span departmental boundaries.

How GDS will support this objective

GDS will support departments to move away from costly, inflexible systems integration contracts by bringing expertise and control in-house. We will:

• publish principles and approaches to contract disaggregation, noting that the legacy situation of each organisation might require a different approach
• continue to work with the Government Commercial Function and the IPA to provide internal consultancy to support departments that require hands-on help in exiting large contracts
• help other parts of government design digital, data and technology related procurement frameworks to meet the needs of government’s buyers and suppliers, by aligning them with the Technology Code of Practice and Commercial Operating Standards

GDS will also continue to publish advice and guidance on public sector technology, particularly around interoperability and common technology. In particular GDS will:

• work with the Government Property Unit to ensure that common, interoperable technology is in place in government buildings
• work with departments to support them in specifying, purchasing and operating common, interoperable devices for users
• with departments, carry out discovery and determine appetite for common tools for central government (such as records management, intranets or freedom of information management tools)

Working closely with the Crown Commercial Service, GDS will continue to operate the Digital Marketplace, which will remain the default place for buying and selling digital, data and technology related products and services.

Making better use of data

Government’s objective by 2020 is to make better use of data. This provides greater transparency, and unlocks data as an enabler for transformation across government and the private sector.

Between now and 2020, GDS will help departments to improve their use of data through targeted support to tackle specific data challenges. We will also collaborate with the rest of government to develop common tools, standards, guidance and infrastructure. This will enable the effective management and use of data to achieve better outcomes for citizens.

GDS will act as a central hub to support, enable and assure departments’ data-driven transformation efforts, and will play a leading role in networking, convening and sharing effective approaches across departmental boundaries.

How GDS will support this objective

We will build on recent GDS discovery work to explore the best way to support more secure and efficient access across organisational boundaries to personal data already held by government, within legal gateways. This will help government to offer better, more joined-up services, while appropriately protecting the privacy and security of personal data, in particular adhering to the principle that, in any given use case, data access should be the minimum necessary to fulfil the stated service objective. The government remains opposed to national ID cards, and has no plans to create a national identity database.

GDS will do this by working with a cross section of the public sector to pilot proof-of-concept work.

This will allow us to test the viability of a scalable, multi-party, cross-government:

• API-based solution for the querying of distributed personal datasets
• approach for conveying user consent in support of reuse, where appropriate
• approach to the creation and management of governance structures that will give departments confidence regarding the quality of the data they are looking to query or share, which will reduce the cost of the matching they do currently when seeking to reconcile data obtained elsewhere with their own datasets

This alpha will then be tested with a wider set of departments, seeking an approach to collect data once and reuse it where appropriate elsewhere in government, for the purpose of improving specific services and outcomes for citizens.

Create shared components, platforms and reusable business capabilities

Government’s objective by 2020 is to assemble a set of reusable business capabilities to speed up transformation - including sourcing, shared components, establishing open standards, and a responsive approach for futureproofing.

We will set standards and curate shared resources so the rest of government can speed up its rate of transformation to best meet their users’ needs.

How GDS will support this objective

GDS will have several roles to play in the meeting this objective. These will be:

• in delivery - to build and operate components centrally, once, where it makes sense to do so
• as a convener - to bring government together to identify where common components and capabilities are required
• as a custodian - to create a list of important shared components and promote them across government
• to develop standards and govern them - to iterate and extend the Digital Service Standard, Technology Code of Practice and other standards as appropriate
• to work with departments to help them identify potential areas of change early, and to support them through early-stage design and change pipelines
• to lead work with departments to overhaul all of government’s legacy content and make reforms to outdated publishing practices so government services and information are clear, well maintained and easy to find
• to support departments in increasing the number of services connected to GOV.UK Verify and make Verify work for more people so they can use it easily and safely to access all the digital services they want to use

GOV.UK Verify allows users to use one account to securely prove their identity online for government services. We will work with the private sector so that users can use the same account to prove their identity online for private sector services, like opening a bank account without having to go into a branch. We will begin pilots in 2017.