Transparency data

Organising for digital delivery (progress update, February 2022)

Published 7 March 2022

Progress update: February 2022.

Overview

In 2020, the Cabinet Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport jointly commissioned the Digital Economy Council (DEC) to advise on how best to achieve the Government’s ambition of being the world’s leading digital government. The result was a report summarising the current state of the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) function and setting out eight recommendations:

Build mechanisms to put the citizen at the heart of all design decisions

• strengthen the accountability of Departments and their Permanent Secretaries
• hire a Permanent Secretary level head of function
• re-focus and add teeth to the centre
• create clear investment swim lanes to address the legacy debt
• set up a quarterly business review process
• invest in developing the technical fluency of senior civil service leadership
• create a Government data application centre of excellence

Summary Progress Update

There has been significant change at the centre of digital government in response to the publication of the DEC report. Government is now better equipped with the leadership and operational clarity needed to make the UK one of the most digitally mature governments in the world.

At the beginning of 2021, in response to Recommendation 3 to hire a Permanent Secretary level head of function and Recommendation 4 to re-focus and add teeth to the centre, the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer announced new structures and senior leadership for DDaT. Joanna Davinson and Paul Willmott were appointed as Executive Director and Chair respectively of the newly-created Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), while Tom Read was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Government Digital Service (GDS).

The CDDO was launched in April 2021 to lead the DDaT function and put the conditions in place for digital transformation at scale. Since launch, CDDO has been working to establish its mandate and collectively agree DDaT priorities for government. This has already yielded success; Quarterly Business Reviews (set up in direct response to DEC recommendation 6) have been established to engage departments at senior level on their DDaT challenges and priorities and a new Digital and Data Board set up to engage Permanent Secretaries in the DDaT agenda. In addition, at the 2021 Spending Review (SR21) the CDDO worked with Government Security Group (GSG) and HM Treasury to support decision making on DDaT funding, leading to increased investment in DDaT over the next 3 years focused on addressing legacy technology and cyber risk, transforming and automating services and better use of data.

Alongside the appointment of a new CEO in GDS, the organisation has been refocused on its mission of driving digital transformation through the creation of world-class products, platforms and services that help create a simple, joined-up and personalised experience of government for everyone. In May last year, GDS released its 2024 strategy setting out how it will do this -and progress is already being made. SR21 announced funding to progress development of ‘One Login’, a new system that will provide one way for users to sign in, prove their identity and access central government services online. This work is on track for the public testing of feature-complete software to go live by 31 March 2022.

Annex A: Recommendation by Recommendation Progress Update

Recommendation 1: build mechanisms to put the citizen at the heart of all design decisions

Progress update

Both CDDO and GDS focus on a user-centred approach, and this will continue to drive activity across the organisations. Currently, GDS is bringing together services to help people solve whole problems based on their own life events, rather than government departmental structures. In October, GDS began scoping the next potential ‘whole user journey’ by mapping and connecting relevant data, insights and user research to understand current pain points experienced by users, and is now starting to plan and test improvements to a number of these journeys.

The GDS-led One Login programme will deliver a single, ubiquitous way for users to sign on, login and prove their identity. In October, GDS successfully migrated users of the GOV.UK Account with the GDS authentication product as part of One Login and also commenced discovery work on how app technologies can improve user experience. This is all part of tailoring information and services to provide a more joined up and personalised experience for users. CDDO has set up a team that will work with departments to drive further improvements to the quality of services for citizens and businesses. The team is currently establishing its roadmap for work that will define what good looks like, create the conditions for departments to deliver great services, measure and assess progress, and connect the di.erent groups and stakeholders working on service transformation in government.

Recommendation 2: Strengthen the accountability of Departments and their Permanent Secretaries

Progress update

CDDO has established a new Digital and Data Board at Permanent Secretary level to set and drive delivery of the strategy for the digitisation of HMG. CDDO has also established forums that regularly bring together Chief Digital Officers, Chief Data Officers and Chief Technology Officers from across government with a remit to guide the development of common architectures and standards and to share best practice. Going forward, departmental Outcome Delivery Plans, which are signed o. by Permanent Secretaries and Ministers, will contain specific commitments on digital service transformation and departments will be asked to report against a range of metrics showing how they are seizing the full potential of digital, data and technology.

Recommendation 3: Hire a Permanent Secretary level head of function

Progress update

A recruitment campaign was launched for a Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO) in August 2020. As part of that campaign Paul Willmott, Chief Digital Adviser at LEGO Brand Group, was identified as the outstanding candidate for the role, but was committed to his current employer.

Government Chief Operating Officer Alex Chisholm and ministers recognised the need to flex the structures in order to get the right talent and as such rather than appointing a GCDO, CDDO was launched in April 2021 to lead the DDaT function across government and put the conditions in place to achieve digital transformation at scale. Paul Willmott was appointed as chair and Joanna Davinson was appointed as Executive Director at Director General level. Alex Chisholm is the Permanent Secretary responsible for the organisation.

Early successes for the new directorate include:

• the creation of the Digital and Data Board (see recommendation two) and Quarterly Business Review (QBR) process (see recommendation six)
• co-ordinating the DDaT approach to SR21 (see recommendation five)

Recommendation 4: Re-focus and add teeth to the centre

Progress update

CDDO has carried out work to strengthen the DDaT spend controls framework to ensure controls are operated rigorously in real time across all digital spend. Technology pipelines are now mandated for departments and remaining departments not currently on the pipeline are being on-boarded, while Arm’s-Length Bodies (ALBs) are being onboarded across all departments with existing pipelines. This is resulting in stronger assurance of billions of pounds of spend, driving greater cost efficiency and quality of digital delivery.

CDDO is also going through a rigorous stocktake of the assurance process to revise its ‘red lines’ and ensure that interventions are timely, robust and targeted against priorities.

CDDO, working with Government Security Group (GSG) and Government Commercial Function (GCF) also co-ordinated the cross-departmental DDaT approach to SR21, which involved running an assurance process and providing advice to HMT on investment decisions. This has helped to yield increased and better focused levels of investment in DDaT. The creation of CDDO has enabled GDS to refocus on driving digital transformation through world-class products, platforms and services. GDS recently released its 2024 strategy and is progressing against it.

The strategy focuses on:

• GOV.UK as the single and trusted online destination for government information and services
• joined-up services that solve whole problems and span multiple departments
• a simple digital identity solution that works for everyone
• common tools and expert services
• joined-up data across departments

Recommendation 5: Create clear investment swim lanes to address the legacy debt

Progress update

The co-ordinated DDaT approach to SR21, run by CDDO in collaboration with GSG and GCF, informed investment decisions which resulted in £2.6bn being earmarked for cyber and legacy work, including the replacement of legacy IT in SR21. This paves the way for significant investment in updating systems across government.

CDDO now has responsibility for central co-ordination of legacy IT and a Chief Technology O.cer has been appointed to lead a range of work to support departments to address their legacy estates. This includes introducing consistent reporting on the costs and risks of legacy systems through the roll-out of a common legacy risk framework. Over the medium to long term, this common approach will address significant financial and security risks to HMG from legacy.

Recommendation 6: Set up a quarterly business review process

Progress update

In February 2021, CDDO set up the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) process to review departments’ progress against operational and strategic DDaT priorities. The QBR process is ongoing and meetings are co-chaired by CDDO Executive Director Joanna Davinson and Cat Little, Director General for Public Spending at HMT.

Recommendation 7: Invest in developing the technical fluency of senior civil service leadership

Progress update

CDDO is developing and piloting a ‘Digital and Data Criterion’ that defines the skills and behaviours, associated with data literacy and digital orientation, required of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) across all professions (for example Commercial, HR, and Operational Delivery). This forms the foundation of our training needs analysis and development of critical learning products.

CDDO, 10DS and the Data profession piloted a Data Masterclass for Senior Leaders in December 2020. It is designed to improve the ability of non-analysts in leadership roles to use data in order to make the best policy decisions possible. To date, we have upskilled 1,283 senior civil servants through the masterclass, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) due to extend this to more leaders, including in devolved governments.

In addition 10DS, CDDO and the Modernisation and Reform Unit have also developed and piloted an ‘Innovation masterclass’ to more than 280 learners. This is now being deployed more widely across civil servants and SCS.

Recommendation 8: Create a government data application centre of excellence

Progress update

CDDO has taken steps to co-ordinate a central approach to data standards and to drive up quality. A Chief Data Officer has been recruited to lead the data function in CDDO and has established a cross-government Chief Data Officer (CDO) Council. The data team and CDO Council will work together to provide joined-up strategic leadership on data use and sharing across government, as set out in Mission Three of the National Data Strategy and the forthcoming fifth National Action Plan for Open Government.

Priorities include:

• aligning and prioritising strategic multi-departmental data initiatives such as data sharing and reuse
• monitoring performance and maturity of the data management function across government
• promoting the data profession, capability and culture across government

The GDS-led One Login programme (see recommendation one) will also help realise the ambition of joined up data by delivering a singular central login and identity assurance functionality, supported by common components. This will significantly improve the quality of user experience when they need to engage with government services, and enable more effective support for citizens through key life events.