Part 1 - GDS, CDDO and i.AI all under one roof - what a move, and one that I hugely support

Under the leadership of Peter Kyle the UK’s Government Digital Service , Central Digital & Data Office, and Incubator for Artificial Intelligence will now all sit within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology - see this press release.?

With this centralisation of ‘Gov-Tech’, it’s time to help public procurement make that critical cultural change to become the enabling force it can be and move from being the blocker that many service managers and suppliers think it is.?This approach will bring quicker delivery, more impactful societal benefits, strengthen market data collection and analysis, and provide a new harmonised area of interest for young people to develop their digital skills.

Procurement is complicated

The first step is acknowledging that many people find public procurement complicated, frustrating and often weak at following public money throughout its investment journey - from start to end (budget setting to exit). Whilst the new Procurement Act 2023 will help (through new procedures and being more open to innovation), I think much of this comes down to the culture of ‘Law V’s Folklore’.?There are of course big moves needed here, but there are plenty of small steps that are taking place already.

Civil Servants learning user centred design and innovation

During The Coalition Governments Bonfire of the QUANGOs, many Civil Servants were worried about the impending job losses. I was one of those, but I was also worrying about my career prospects and my developing niche expertise being lost before having a chance to fully utilise and harness them.

However, I was fortunate to have spoken with David Mann and I immediately bought into his elevator pitch of “going wholesale on one government website that would have better, internet-era and user centred, communications'. He was describing the newly established Government Digital Service .

Little did I know at the time this came from Martha Lane Fox 's Revolution Not Evolution recommendations - still an important part of the UK’s story of digital change.

I wrote about my (genuinely) amazing time at GDS here (it's slightly old but still relevant to this post). But, put shortly, my time at GDS was amazing because it:

• Showed me the benefits of true multidisciplinary team working (imagine procurement people sitting next to digital people, content people, agile people, it happened and it worked, worked very well),?
• Enabled me to develop my ambition to become a category expert of Digital, Data, Technology and Cloud (knowing the suppliers - good, bad and ugly, understanding new cloud pricing structures and novel cloud terms and conditions, new market trends, etc),?
• Taught me, a suit-wearing former civil service procurement officer, about user-centred design, agile delivery methods and effective communications,?
• Opened up discussions about proactive contract management and intelligent client and supplier mindsets. Ok, it was referred to as ‘Service Delivery’ but the GDS leadership knew that supplier management, relationship management and exiting poor performing contracts were critical to deliver modern public services,?
• Supported our ambitions to develop a community of like minded people who wanted to share experiences and develop modern approaches. This saw the development of a Digital Commercial Community of Practice* made up of people from Legal ( Government Legal Department ), Policy ( Cabinet Office ), Procurement Operations ( Crown Commercial Service ), Finance ( HM Treasury ) and Delivery ( Government Digital Service ), and
• Ensured everyone - technical, delivery, research, policy, finance, content, procurement - considered users (people) that were or could be digitally excluded.

Next steps

As the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology moves this merger forward there will be plenty of tasks to complete. Whilst these are important I hope leaders consider some of the following which I believe will benefit the department, the market and the procurement profession:?

1. Appoint a ‘Council for Digital and Industry 5.0 Commercial Lifecycle’,
2. Develop a stronger method of assessing the economic, financial and commercial benefits of DDaT and AI,
3. Ensure the full use of the new Procurement Act to realise the art of the possible,?
4. Contract ownership and proactive management of all obligations at all levels across the wider public sector, and
5. Recognition of the passion for communities of practice and younger generational learning that comes from these communities.

*this amazing work is still going under the leadership of Emilia Hogarth .