For government to realise
billions of pounds in efficiency savings, those running
departments need to improve their understanding of digital
transformation, a new NAO report says.
‘Digital transformation in government: addressing the barriers to
efficiency’ welcomes the stronger central function the Central
Digital and Data Office’s (CDDO) provides in leading digital
transformation. It also commends the CDDO’s fresh approach to
helping government departments address longstanding challenges to
digital transformation through its 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital
and data.
Earlier digital transformation attempts across government often
prioritised simpler online interactions and merely layered new
changes on top of existing services using old data and systems.
This approach entrenched higher costs and earlier inefficiencies.
The UK’s independent public spending watchdog has previously
reported on the barriers to successful digital transformation and
its effect on departments’ operations and efficiency. Our July
2021 report on ‘The challenges in implementing digital change’
identified six key areas of concern, concluding that successive
government strategies demonstrated “a consistent pattern of
underperformance” over a quarter of a century.
Digital change involves levels of complexity, uncertainty and
risk which are often unique to each specific programme due to
legacy systems, existing operations and the difficulties of
integration. These are complex and deep-rooted issues which take
time to address and must be properly addressed by transformation
programmes’ governance structures.
The NAO’s latest report finds that most digital change decisions
in government are made by generalist leaders who lack the
expertise to fully comprehend and tackle digital challenges.
Government should build digital capability and support for
non-specialist leaders to understand the issues posed by legacy
data and systems. The report urges individual departments to
appoint at least one non-executive director with digital, data
and technology expertise and ensure that membership of their most
senior decision-making board includes at least one senior digital
leader.
The report also shows that the government already has a
specialist skills deficit, only 4% of civil servants are digital
professionals, compared with an industry average of between 8%
and 12%. There is a major digital skills shortage in the UK. The
number of government digital vacancies rose from 3,900 in April
2022 to 4,100 in October 2022 and 37% of recruitment campaigns
were unsuccessful.
, Head of the NAO,
said: “The creation of the Central Digital and Data
Office provides fresh impetus for digital transformation across
government. Its roadmap is a good step towards addressing
systemic issues and encouraging departments to take action.
“However, to maintain momentum, government needs stronger digital
expertise and sustained support from senior departmental leaders.
Otherwise, these latest efforts will peter out and government
will not achieve the savings and efficiencies that digital
transformation has long promised.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors
Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website. Hard copies can be obtained by
using the relevant links on our website.
1. HM Treasury's 2021 Spending Review made a commitment to invest
£8bn in digital, data and technology transformation by 2025.
2. Government defines systems as being legacy if no longer
supporting the business service due to being not cost-effective,
hard to maintain, above an acceptable risk threshold or an
end-of-life product.
