30.03.17
NAO reports ‘mixed success’ in early days of GDS
The Government Digital Service (GDS) requires further clarity about its remit and accountabilities to continue being effective in the future, a report released today by the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed.
The NAO’s report, called Digital Transformation in Government, studied the early impact of the GDS across government, finding that while it had successfully reshaped the government’s approach to technology and transformation, there still remained a risk that it was covering too broad a remit and lacked clear accountabilities.
Set up in 2011, the GDS has spearheaded digital reform in government and aims to deliver efficiencies through streamlining and introducing digital services.
In 2012, it was given £455m over four years to move forward with transformation plans. Despite this, the NAO unveiled concerns across the service that it was not adapting to its changing role effectively.
“GDS has found it difficult to redefine its role as it has grown and transformation has progressed. GDS has expanded significantly. In 2015, it received £455m in funding over the four years of the current spending review period,” the report stated.
“At the same time, departments have moved ahead with transformation programmes. We found widespread views across government that GDS has struggled to adapt to its changing role.”
“Mixed success” was also reported in the GDS’s work to transform 25 services across government through end-to-end redesign to show how new approaches could make it easier and more cost-effective for people to access services online.
“In a ‘lessons learned’ exercise in 2015, GDS identified positive net present values for only 12 of the 22 exemplars for which data were available,” the NAO explained. “In nearly two-thirds of the exemplars, GDS found that improvements in online services did not result in existing systems being reconfigured or becoming more efficient.”
But there were some positives announced in the report. Over the five years up to April 2016, the GDS reported that it had delivered £1.3bn worth of savings through introducing digital frameworks such as G-Cloud and the Digital Services Framework that improved contracting with small and medium-sized enterprises.
“GDS reported that controls have reduced spending on IT by £1.3bn over five years to April 2016. Digital expenditure of over £100,000 is subject to these controls,” the report added.
“Our analysis shows that requests for approval for amounts of up to £1m accounted for 47% of the time GDS staff spent on spending controls but only 1% of savings in 2015-16.”
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO said: “Digital transformation has a mixed track record across government. It has not yet provided a level of change that will allow government to further reduce costs while still meeting people's needs.
“To achieve value for money and support transformation across government, GDS needs to be clear about its role and strike a balance between robust assurance and a more consultative approach.”
A government spokesperson told PSE that the report recognised the GDS has “successfully reshaped government's approach to technology and transformation”, arguing that it identified “some key achievements”, including the £1.3bn IT savings.
“Our recently published Government Transformation Strategy sets out our approach to transform government even further, delivering better public services for the citizen while saving money for the taxpayer,” the spokesperson added.
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