Gov.uk: the challenge for the rest of government

The Government Digital Service (GDS) formally came into being a few months ago and has just celebrated another milestone with the beta launch of www.gov.uk.  Congratulations all round. This new direction signifies a sea change for digital public service delivery in more ways than one.

It’s great that Government is thinking about a common domain for its services – and although I’m not sure this is causing too much lost sleep for UK citizens right now, the government – like many commercial organisations – will reap the benefits of simplicity both in terms of user experience and further application development.

A common, modern look and feel with integral personalisation and an intuitive, compelling user experience is a major improvement which will make it simpler for users to interact with government and encourage repeat use of government services online, fewer support calls and simpler transaction handling.

Saving money on the delivery of online services is a great benefit and it’s this message that occupies most of the column inches that have already been written about the whys and wherefores of gov.uk.  But this isn’t the most profound impact that a successful online national service will have.

The underlying challenge that gov.uk and the “digital by default” agenda sets  for the rest of Government is to understand their role in the delivery of modern Public Services.

At its very core, the creation of gov.uk challenges the structure of (what is increasingly) the Government’s back office.  Is now the time to start moving away from  functional silos to structures that are more effectively organised around the citizen and the business?  In rethinking how Government works, there are some dominant themes:

The shift from retailers of public services and information to wholesalers
Departments need to think of themselves as wholesalers working with an extended supply chain – providing information through the channels that public consume including the wider traditional, online and mobile channels .

Gov.uk provides a Government-own brand for service delivery but will be part of a richer tapestry of delivery mechanisms (through the media, as integral part of private sector services etc.). With richer options for collecting data and for service delivery, departments need to think about how they orchestrate delivery – pushing interactions to the most effective and efficient channels.  This is an area in which we anticipate significant innovation, service improvement and cost savings in the ways that Public Services can be rethought, repackaged and delivered.

Changing the nature of relationships, redefining the architecture of Government
By using tools like getsatisfaction.com, gov.uk is demonstrating how you can get greater participation in the creation and delivery of Public Services.  It is pushing  departments to work in new ways with their stakeholders and wider audiences when developing services.

Much of the raw material of Government services exists in the modern world in a readily-consumable format. The days of the blank form should be over.  That raw material (for example, details about earnings flowing through payment networks) should form the basis of service provision reducing the touch that Government has on citizens and increasing the accuracy and timeliness of service provision – and reducing the support burden on Government itself.  Much of the new world is “bottom-up” and to effectively harness and play its role in the modern world, Government needs to work out how to interface with, use and deliver services into this environment.  The cultural and organisational change that’s needed after the dominance of traditional command and control models should not be underestimated.

There is still a long way to go from the gov.uk beta to the dynamic, mobile, relevant, personal interface to Government to which the gov.uk team aspires. But you feel that the journey for the rest of the civil service towards adapting to the change may be far more profound. What will emerge from this transformation will be a model for stable, effective governance for the next millennia.  Bring it on!

Jonathan Sowler is Government Client Director at Eduserv. Follow Jonathan on Twitter @jonsowler