Budget special, Home Office investment… and popcorn?
With the budget announced earlier this week, this month's edition features a special focus on the Treasury's announcements, alongside our regular digital government updates.
We highlight the budget’s focus on the role of tech in productivity and efficiency plans, the Home Office's major investment in asylum system transformation, and what does popcorn have to do with managing continuous improvement?
All this and more in our monthly update.
Budget special...
In her first budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves emphasised the important role technology will play in improving productivity and efficiency.
“Today we are setting a 2% productivity, efficiency and savings target for all departments to meet next year by using technology more effectively and joining up services across government,” she said in her speech.
Analysis of the budget documents reveals how Labour wants technology to transform public services.
The budget document says the government is developing a “strategic plan for a more efficient and effective civil service,” including through "improving skills and harnessing digital technology to drive better outcomes for public services.”
The budget emphasised the role of The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which now incorporates CDDO and GDS, with ￡80 million investment to support the “transformation of corporate functions across government, to deliver more efficient, cost?effective and modern systems as part of government’s Shared Services Strategy.”
It adds: "DSIT will continue to drive towards a renewed strategy for digital transformation across the public sector to ensure that fundamental reforms in public services are prioritised and digital-led. This will inform a centralised and coherent approach to digital investment at phase 2 of the spending review.
Here are some other things we noticed in the budget on digital government
? There will be investment into the digital transformation of land ownership records.?
Check out the full UK budget.
In this edition…
?? Digital advisory panel: A newly announced panel of 12 digital professionals and academics will help the government better use technology across the public sector. The group is co-chaired by successful start-up founder Baroness Martha Lane Fox and Chair of the Central Digital and Data Office Paul Willmott .
?? Home Office transformation: The Home Office has approved a significant investment initiative to transform "people capabilities, process and technology" across the UK's asylum system.
?? AI in Parliament: The Parliamentary Digital Service is exploring how to implement AI technologies across various parliamentary functions, including the possibility of deploying Microsoft Copilot to help with day-to-day administrative activities.
??? Cyber Security: DSIT has published plans for a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to improve UK cyber defences and protect essential public services. Meanwhile, NCSC warns of a widening gap between cyber threats and defence capabilities.
?? Defra digital transformation: David Caldwell , Defra's Deputy Director for Digital Transformation, updates on the work underway to transform digital services in the department.
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What else you need to know…
?? Graham Francis writes about the launch of the Office for Identities and Attributes (OfDIA), which will oversee the governance of the UK's digital identity market.
?? Last month's DataConnect, government's largest virtual data conference, brought together the public sector data community, including data leaders, academics, innovative thinkers, data scientists, data engineers, and AI specialists. Rachael Richards, CIPD and CIPR accredited gives a flavour of what happened during the event.
?? A new site search engine for GOV.UK has been launched. Catriona Fraser, Christian Sutter , and Tara Stockford write about how it's making it easier for users to find what they need.
?? Andy Jones , Jake Lloyd , and Kerry Lyons share how DfE supports teams through user-focused accessibility and inclusive design guidance and training to ensure everyone can access the services they need.
?? Defra's Kaitlin D'Avella explains what content designers do in the alpha stage of a project. Our blog from a few years ago looks at the value content designers provide during the discovery and alpha phase.
?? Have you ever heard of the "Popcorn Board" to manage continuous improvement? Nindy Scott from ICS Digital explains how the method can help you bring change incrementally.
?? Back from the recent Service Design in Government 2024 conference, Dominic Berry from MHCLG's Common Tools as a Service team shares his key takeaways from the event.
?? Dr Sean P. , User Research Lead from MHCLG Digital, discusses the potential for a Policy Standard in government built on the broader application of service design principles beyond digital services.
?? MHCLG Digital's Elisha Khan writes an interesting blog on the difference between user needs and user biases, and what you can do in user research to differentiate between them.
?? HMRC held an annual learning and development event - ResCon - to discuss trending user research topics. Dominika Wielgopolan-Morton and Aimee Fulton share insights from the last event.
And finally...
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