With a growing list of challenges to face, and a push from the government to extract the most value from public services, it is integral that the organisations responsible for providing those services are able to find every method for improving service delivery. As technology becomes increasingly prominent in the public sector, there are a plethora of directions for organisations to go in as they look at improving service delivery.
In order to discuss this matter, Public Sector Executive – in partnership with Actian – hosted a webinar that brought public sector professionals together to offer their insights. Some of the organisations represented in the webinar include:
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- National Audit Office
- Office for National Statistics
- Actian
One of the most notable ways that organisations have gone about transforming their public services, is through the migration to cloud technology. Arguably the most prominent aspect of the sector’s drive for digital transformation, the move to cloud has seen a change in the way that data is accessed.
Public Sector Executive’s Davina White, the host of the webinar, kicked off the discussion by asking about the challenges that could be faced when it comes to data accessibility. Exploring this further, Jonathan Pownall from the National Audit Office said: “In our 2019 report on the challenges in using data across government, we set out a timeline of various government initiatives to address the data challenges.
“We started off in 1999 with modernising government, which was the Tony Blair government agenda, and that had a vision to take forward information-age government by publishing new frameworks to cover data standards. Since then, there’s been quite a steady succession of strategies and initiatives which have all set out some very worthy aims to improve data and address some of these challenges.”
In 2022, the government released the Transforming for a Digital Future: 2022 to 2025 Roadmap which focused on how data can improve decision-making across government. The third mission in this roadmap is to focus on how departments can share and use data in a safe way. To delve into how the Office for National Statistics is supporting government to achieve mission three of the roadmap, Fiona James – the ONS’ Chief Data Officer, explained: “It’s fair to say that some of the progress has been a little bit slower than we all would have liked in respect to the action plan, because 2025 is very close now. Some really good foundations and progress has, however, already been made…
“… We’ve identified our essential shared data assets, we have put them together with the right quality metadata, and we are close to making them all available through the integrated data service for other government departments to access.”
To hear more from the rest of the webinar, and gain valuable insight into how data can drive
