By the end of the decade users of public services will expect to access what they want 24/7, by a variety of digital means – phone, TV, computer, console, tablet. Public services will have to meet these higher expectations from taxpayers and service users, as well as developing bold new solutions to social and administrative problems. There are now opportunities for public services to redesign what they do around the consumer experience, enabled by personal mobile technology and open-source thinking. As a Labour authority in Camden, our new Digital Strategy recognises that the challenges of the ‘digital revolution’ are as fundamental to public services and residents as the pressure of austerity budgets.
Coming soon after Policy Exchange’s Technology Manifesto and trenchant critique of central government (and Labour’s) record on IT procurement, Westminster thinktank Reform’s roundtable paper Disruptive innovation in public service reform is the latest flag-planting in the technology and public services debate. Labour Digital, a network of activists working in tech, has warned about Labour being left behind in digital policy whether in relation to the United Kingdom economy or public services – certainly the complete absence of discussion around digital public services and developments like ‘big data’ in the IPPR’s Condition of Britain is a reminder of this failing. Chi Onwurah’s Digital Government Review is a very welcome response to Labour’s deficit in this area – but does it seem unkind to suggest that Digital Britain report of 2009 is increasingly showing its age?
Perhaps the most important essay here is by chief operating officer for government, Stephen Kelly, who outlines the ‘quiet revolution’ in government tech led by the new Government Digital Service. In response to chequered history of government IT, GDS – which has employed a new team of experienced tech professionals – is tasked to reform and deliver digital services across government departments and challenge old ways of working.
GDS reports to Francis Maude in the Cabinet Office and, in a break with the past, operates spending controls for all departmental spending on technology and digital solutions. It has established a set of fundamental standards for digital-by-default services with the aim of transforming half of the largest public services to be digital-by-default by early next year and transformed procurement by disaggregating large IT contracts.
In planning for 2015 Labour should recognise the achievements of GDS, which is overwhelmingly seen as a refreshing innovation within the tech community and a plus for the coalition government. We await the Digital Government Review on what can be improved further, and whether some principles can be extended beyond Whitehall to capture innovation across local government and local public service (currently out of the scope of GDS).
When we do look at these areas we need to take care to avoid the cliché repeated in the Reform seminars that the public sector must always ‘catch up’ with private sector. Tech should not be a new way of saying ‘private sector good, public sector bad.’ First, public sector organisations deal with problems private firms rarely like to touch, and therefore have least experience in. Many public services are universal, and do not just target profitable cohorts of people or dodge complex cases. Second, large swaths of the private sector have just as similar challenges to build internal capability and procure the right systems as their public sector counterparts. Third – recognised by the pamphlet at the outset but not explored – it is not so much the new IT systems you put in place but the leadership outside the IT department which is important for digital solutions. In other words, IT can help collaboration and innovation, but you also need to have the kinds of leadership which recognises and rewards these as virtues – and sees their potential – first.
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Theo Blackwell is cabinet member for finance and technology policy at Camden council and a member of Labour Digital
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You can your contribute ideas on how to develop Labour’s policy on digital technology by contributing to Labour Digital’s online discussion forum
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Photo: Discos Konfort