With the publication of the Government Transformation Strategy the next phase of the digital revolution has been set out. The strategy calls for greater collaboration and aims to use digital government to deliver better public services, harness the value of data for better policymaking, and drive further efficiencies. An effective response to the complex challenges facing the public sector could not be more timely.
The pressures on public services are as well-known as they are widespread. Rising demand on services has coincided with reducing budgets to deliver them. Fuelled by an ageing population and a lengthy period of public austerity such demand has seen a range of services hit crisis point. Aligned with the rise of the smartphone, social media and instant access to information public expectations of the quality, simplicity and accessibility of services is rising in tandem. In recent years digital transformation has been hailed as a sliver bullet but often poor design process and costly failures on large scale projects have hindered progress. With many services running out of cost-cutting efficiencies the case for more radical, deep digital transformation is stronger than ever.
With devolution and localisation policies becoming increasingly embedded digital innovation can provide greater value for communities, places and citizens and not only efficiencies. Policy making and service design can be brought closer together. Key to managing increasing demand is delivering better outcomes for service users without incurring further costs and freeing up frontline staff to concentrate on complex user needs. Online and digital services have proven to drive more effective and efficient signposting to preventative services, the next steps are focused on empowering service users and staff, and to use data and information for better decision making. This event will focus on how to deliver more accurate, faster service responses and put service users at the core as we reshape public services for the future.
Digital transformation and new approaches to improving outcomes can make our public services more effective, more efficient and provided at lower cost to the taxpayer. This event is designed to explore the latest digital solutions and ways of workings to help meet the critical challenges ahead.
The speed and scale of adaption of digital advances has been a revolution. With over 91 per cent of UK adults owning a smartphone with Internet access the level of connectivity to information and resources is unprecedented. How can public services exploit this universal take-up and the Internet’s ability to be anywhere at anytime? Digitally-led innovations have the potential to join-up people, their data, and the services they use and create new opportunities to tackle complex user needs. Alongside the rise of smartphones and social media the stakes have been raised on what the public expect of services – that they are simpler, quicker and empowering. By working with users whole systems and processes can be redesigned, end-to-end, to achieve better outcomes, both for organisations and for service users. A service that is simple and intuitive enough to use not only creates greater value to the citizen but is one that is more efficient and so more cost effective to provide.
The pace and benefits of digital solutions and system methodology, such as agile, are undoubtedly timely. The future of public services as we know them is under increasing pressures and scrutiny. At a time when demand in services continues to rise unabated services are having to cope with austerity and reduced budgets to deliver them. Add to this the uncertainty following the vote to leave the European Union and possible challenges and opportunities that significant legislative change could bring and it is little wonder some services have been described as facing a cliff edge. This context has heightened the need for government and services to be more responsive and to be able to adapt to a changing environment. Digital transformation can help absorb this increased demand without incurring costs with more accurate, faster responses and help drive efficient signposting of preventative services. A key benefit is ultimately improved outcomes, allowing front-line staff and professionals to freed-up to concentrate on more complex service user needs.
Key barriers to digital transformation include digital skills of staff and citizens, take-up and inclusion, and investment in new ICT projects and services. With costly failures dominating headlines making a robust business case and clear project plan is important. Perhaps more important is using digital methods of working to drive an iterative approach, on a smaller scale, that is responsive to change and helps to reduce project risks. The Government Digital Service’s Toolkit has a set of standards to help government create and run good digital services. The standards focus on understanding user needs, using multidisciplinary teams and agile methods, iteration and frequent improvement, and using metrics to benchmark and improve performance. The Government Transformation Strategy sets out five main areas of work: business transformation; people, skills and culture; tools, processes and governance; better use of data; and platforms, components and business capabilities.
Outdated legacy IT systems and technologies are slowing down public sector transformation, a radical shift is required in service provision, collaboration, digital skills and data sharing. Delivering Digital Transformation: The Future of Public Services is designed to explore the latest digital solutions and ways of workings to help meet the critical challenges ahead.
Exploring the challenges and opportunities in delivering on Scotland’s Digital Strategy and how innovation and societal change are key to digital transformation of public services.
Exploring examples of digital projects that have proven to deliver better services and the lessons learnt to take forward into new projects.
Expectation vs. reality in delivering future, digitised public services. Learnings and best practices from the private sector can inspire, but policy and the operations of government mean the challenge here is very different. There is a wall standing between a superficially improved web experience of the current services, and the ability to transform the capability, process and data that enable a joined-up, fundamental change. So what can we do to climb that wall?
· What are the biggest myths about digital transformation programmes?
· How a project management approach is essential for delivering measurable benefits with a digital transformation programme.
· Case study 1: Health Service Executive (HSE Ireland) – How Cora Systems successfully powered the largest transformation programme in the history of the Irish state across the country’s health service.
· Case study 2: Digital Campus – Lessons learned from the digital transformation programme at a university campus.
Yoti is the easiest, most secure way to prove your identity online and in person. We help businesses and government organisations know who they are dealing with, linking digital identity to government issued documents using border control level facial recognition. We’ve teamed up with the London Digital Security Centre, founded by the MET police, City of London Police and the Mayor of London, to help citizens and small businesses tackle cybercrime and online fraud.
Transformation means transformation! Bill will share his experience of working with governments in over 40 countries. He will talk about developing global standards for technology-enabled transformation in governments and show how governments have found that addressing fundamental aspects of their business is critical for success.
The future of public services as we know them is under increasing pressures and scrutiny. At a time when demand in services continues to rise unabated services are having to cope with austerity and reduced budgets to deliver them. Further uncertainty following the vote to leave the European Union means that there are possible challenges and opportunities that significant legislative change could bring. This context has heightened the need for government and services to be more responsive and to be able to adapt to a changing environment.
The Office for National Statistics has responsibility for collecting a vast amount of data to drive the nations statistics. One of the key tools in this is the survey - a tool the ONS has built several core departments around processing. Following a successful relaunch of the ONS website, Methods began working with the Data Collection teams at ONS to transform the survey process into a digital journey that would be more focussed on user need.
The ongoing aim of the project is to provide a consistent user experience across all aspects of data collection - from the smallest sample sizes of business surveys to the volume required for the next census. The journey to build services to meet these needs has produced some solid lessons being introduced across other Methods projects and well worth sharing.
The majority digital transformation projects fail to deliver the outcomes that justified the original business case. In this context T-Impact will talk about process driven design as an approach that mitigates this risk. NHS Blood and Transplant, who delivered the world’s first heart organ offering in the cloud, will be referenced as a case study.
Digitally-led innovations have the potential to join-up people, their data, and the services they use and create new opportunities to tackle complex user needs. How can data be used more effectively to join-up services?
America Square Conference & Events Centre brings together the contemporary with the uniquely historic in bright, innovative spaces located in the heart of the City of London's Square Mile. The historic Roman London Wall runs through the venue providing a memorable backdrop to conferences, where delegates can enjoy presentations, mingle with exhibitors and enjoy a hot lunch in a secure, self-contained suite of rooms.
