Corporate report

GDS communications strategy: 2018 to 2019

Published 27 September 2018

What is GDS?

We help government work better for everyone by leading the digital transformation of public services.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) was established following Baroness Martha Lane Fox’s ‘revolution not evolution’ report on the future of Directgov. The report was published in 2010 and work began that year to set up what would become GOV.UK and to build a team that would develop and support it.

GDS was established in 2011 and GOV.UK launched in beta in January 2012. GOV.UK has become the single website for the UK government and a vital part of UK society.

GDS now supports more than 400 services from 120 organisations across the public sector. Our work has accelerated the pace of digital transformation and helped make it easier for departments to produce and run excellent digital services.

Since 2011 we’ve:

• run the Digital Transformation Project
• set up the Digital Service Standard and the Service Manual
• set up the Technology Code of Practice collaboratively
• launched identity assurance platform GOV.UK Verify
• built the Digital Marketplace in collaboration with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS)
• developed common components GOV.UK Pay, GOV.UK Notify and GOV.UK Platform as a Service
• launched the GDS Academy

and lots more…

How we work

We want to transform the relationship between citizens and the state - putting more power in the hands of citizens and being more responsive to their needs.

We work with government departments and agencies to transform their services. This vision is described in detail in the Government Transformation Strategy. Our aim is to make government a truly digital organisation so that:

• users have a better experience when interacting with government services
• civil servants have the digital skills and capability necessary to carry out their roles
• government can better deliver on policy goals
• the cost and time to build, change and run government is reduced, saving public money
• we improve trust between citizens and state
• we build secure systems by default

GDS supports the digital transformation of government in a number of ways, through products, platforms and tools.

Our work is guided by:

The Government Transformation Strategy (GTS)

The Government Transformation Strategy 2017-2020 sets out how the government will use digital to transform the relationship between the citizen and state and the role of GDS in delivery.`

Cabinet Office Single Departmental Plan

Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister and ensures the effective running of government. It is the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, and takes the lead in critical policy areas. Its objectives are to:

• maintain the integrity of the Union, coordinate the security of the realm and sustain a flourishing democracy
• support the design and implementation of HM Government’s policies and the Prime Minister’s priorities
• ensure the delivery of the finest public services by attracting and developing the best public servants and improving the efficiency of government

The GDS values

GDS has 4 values that help us prioritise and assess work. Every piece of our work at GDS should strive to meet all of these values and must meet at least one of them:

1. Show what good looks like

By ‘good’ we mean things that help government be more efficient, effective and user-focused. Everything we build, run and support should have this aim.

2. Solve the hardest problems

Because GDS works across all of government, our role is to come up with solutions that work for all of government. We do the hard work to make things simple.

3. Help government transform

We want to help all of government use digital ways of working to improve processes and build and run user-focused services. But this is not just about giving departments tools and standards and leaving them to get on with things. Where appropriate, GDS will work directly with departments to help them build and run projects and to create lasting change.

4. Reflect the society we serve

GDS’s purpose is to help government work better for everyone. We will only achieve that if we, as an organisation, are as diverse as the society we’re working for. This means GDS places critical importance on ensuring our people are highly skilled, talented, and diverse.

Reflecting the society we serve also means levelling the playing field so that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can do business with government. Through the Digital Marketplace, suppliers from across the country can bid for government contracts.

We are also expanding our national footprint through the GDS Academy and through regional engagement managers.

Who we talk to and how we reach them

We continually monitor and refine who our users are and how we can best reach them. This ensures we use the right channel, at the right time, to engage with them. To help us do this we look at where our users are already talking about things. It’s much better to go to where the conversation is already happening rather than insisting they come to us.

In 2018/19 we’ll be reviewing and refreshing our channel strategies, to make sure they are best suited for the audiences we’re trying to reach, and that we’re using them to their full advantage. Already this year we have refreshed our YouTube presence to better reflect the work we’re doing and our campaign themes for 2018/19, by reformatting and categorising our videos to reflect GDS as a learning organisation. We have also looked at how we can make better use of Instagram through Instagram stories, and are now evaluating this to better inform our use of the channel.

Our people

GDS is an organisation of committed and passionate people who care about the work they do. We strive to maintain a positive and inclusive workplace, one which reflects the society we serve and one in which expertise is respected. Our job is to ensure that everyone at GDS understands how their work fits into the bigger picture.

Our people are our strongest ambassadors. This year, our goals are to:

• promote our valuable role within, and contribution to, Cabinet Office
• create a more engaged and stable workforce
• raise the profile of GDS as a great place to work

This autumn, we will launch the ‘We are GDS’ campaign as a vehicle for these messages.

We use a range of channels to do this, both offline and online. These include monthly huddles, biannual All Staff conferences, community tools like Slack and Trello, and the GDS wiki.

Our partners

We work with departments, agencies and the wider public sector to achieve the joined-up digital transformation of public services.

The Strategic Engagement team works across government to build and manage relationships, and co-ordinates GDS teams to give a consistent experience to departments and agencies. The team creates buy-in with stakeholders and invests in understanding departments’ digital transformation objectives so that GDS can effectively support delivery.

Our communications also support the development of communities through outputs including blogs and conferences. Beyond the UK public sector, we are proud of GDS’s reputation as a global digital leader. Sharing what we’ve learned through channels such as the GDS Blog, @GDSteam and @DigiCareersGov on Twitter, helps keep us at the forefront of digital developments.

The role of these channels is to discuss work happening at GDS with partners inside and outside of government, allowing us to be more technical in the language we use. Instagram and YouTube channels support this work through more creative content. The new YouTube ‘We Are GDS’ series, for example, allows practitioners, students and commentators to better understand what we’re doing and why.

The industry

Outside of government, our partners include suppliers, think tanks and digital start-ups, as well as the digitech trade media and industry. We want to support the nascent govtech industry, show the benefits to UK SMEs of working with government, and share what we’re doing both at home and internationally to do the hard work to make interacting with government easier for everyone. Our programme of events, from conferences and roundtables, to external speakers presenting in GDS and Sprint 19, support the development of these critical relationships.

The public

In 2018/19 we will look to go ‘beyond the bubble’, and seek to use our best case studies to demonstrate that digital services are helping to improve people’s lives. Working in close partnership with Cabinet Office communications through the Smarter Government campaign, we will show not just the output of our work (for example, new step by step navigation on GOV.UK), but the real-world outcome too: you can now use voice activation such as Google Home and Alexa to search for information on GOV.UK.

To engage with the public we will develop a proactive media approach that tells our stories through national and local press, and high-profile ministerial opportunities. Alongside these, we will continue to share developments publicly through @GOVUK in a clear, matter-of-fact way. Twitter naturally also has to play the role of customer service, and we respond to over 3,000 enquiries from members of the public through this channel each year. The tone of these channels is helpful but to the point, never diverting away from the facts. We strive to avoid any risk in users misinterpreting what we post.

Our approach

The Communications and Engagement Strategy seeks to engage people in the work of GDS simply and effectively. Our work should be driven by insights and should meet the needs of our audiences.

The strategy will:

1. Weave GDS’s strategic priorities through all our communications and engagement activity.
2. Enable colleagues at GDS to see their work communicated.
3. Increase confidence, trust and support for GDS both internally and externally, building our reputation across government and within the sector.

Our campaigns are time-bound pieces of work that support at least one overarching communication or campaign theme to ensure alignment with business priorities. We will make evidence-based decisions about our communications approach for each campaign, using quantitative data and qualitative audience feedback. Aligning our campaigns to 3 overarching themes is designed to increase cut-through and the impact of our messaging.

Our 2018 to 2019 themes

Transforming government for all

To show citizens and government the benefits to be had through the transformation of services, and the role GDS plays in delivery.

Collaborating to deliver the best

To support both the recruitment of high quality talent into government and the development of skills and culture to transform public services.

Innovating for the future

To show how GDS, in collaboration with other government departments, is using innovative technologies to deliver the services users need and expect when interacting with government.

GDS communications as part of GCS

In 2018/19 GDS will work more closely with the wider Government Communications Service (GCS) to develop and enhance our skills, and help build capability beyond our team. This year we will embed GCS professional standards across our team and seek out GCS assessment for our performance against them. This will enable us to learn what more we can do to improve. We will actively engage in (and deliver our own) GCS comms exchange events, and look at ways in which the digital insights gained in GDS can support the GCS Accelerate programme.

GDS communications as part of Cabinet Office

Our communications contribute to the delivery of the Cabinet Office communications strategy. In particular, our campaigns will seek to:

• demonstrate that government is improving public services, and creating a smarter government, through collaboration and by harnessing new technologies, which are increasing value for money and benefits for citizens
• increase understanding across the Civil Service of how we contribute to A Brilliant Civil Service: delivering high-quality public services and keeping the UK prosperous and secure

GDS also works with other functional communications teams to align messaging to the rest of government, such as working with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) to support the Transforming Together programme, and collaborating with the Crown Commercial Service on Digital Marketplace communications.