Ben Welby helpfully summarises a lot of the chatter about where all the digital stuff in government is going following the decision to break up DSIT.

James Plunkett publishes a long read on approaches to education (Medium warning). It’s well worth your time. Really like this in the concluding paragraphs: The challenges facing public services can feel demoralising; there is such a mismatch between the complexity…

Richard Pope: On waiting, digital and where the state chooses to operate (LinkedIn warning): The post-war digitisation of the UK’s tax and benefits system, the creation of automated institutions like Girobank, and teaching children programming with the BBC Micro (ironically,…

This looks like an important read – the first from from the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee on Rewiring the state: Delivering digital government: Our inquiry identified four building blocks for successful digital transformation, and four barriers…

Terence Eden – How Can Governments Pay Open Source Maintainers?: When I worked for the UK Government I was once asked if we could find a way to pay for all the Open Source Software we were using. It is…

Government IT project disasters are by no means a thing of the past: The PAC’s latest report reveals that NS&I has spent an estimated £111 million on the programme by March 2024, yet it remains unclear how much has been…

Mahad Kalam – The UK paid £4.1 million for a bookmarks site: The UK Government recently unveiled its ‘AI Skills Hub’, which wants to provide 10 million workers with AI skills by 2030. The main site was delivered by PwC…

Government customer services to be modernised with help of industry experts: The government is launching CustomerFirst, a new unit within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to modernise public services and improve the experience for millions of people who…

A roadmap for modern digital government: Our plan to build a modern digital government that works for you – making life easier, driving growth and delivering smarter, more efficient public services

📅 Daily Note: November 25, 2025

Richard Pope – Preventative healthcare: designing for the service loop: # – micropost 23148 Katherine Wastell – Every organisation has some madness: If everyone spots the problems but no one takes responsibility, things will only get worse. Accountability is the…

📅 Daily Note: November 7, 2025

Ash Mann – The discipline of focus, what makes a digital strategy work: Good digital strategies aren’t long documents or laundry lists. They’re about ruthless focus – choosing a clear direction and sticking to it, even if that means letting…

📅 Daily Note: August 7, 2025

AI in Adult Social Care – guidance for adult care providers on the use of AI. # – micropost 22995 Giles shares “examples and links about working in the open and agile communication”. # – micropost 22996 Ben Unsworth is…

📅 Daily Note: July 11, 2025

Digital and mission-driven government: digital, burdens and networks – Richard Pope’s first essay of three looking at how his Platformland thinking “can provide a unifying role in the successful delivery of the government’s missions”. In the digital age the answer…

📅 Daily Note: December 13, 2024

Dave Rogers answers the question Just what is ‘Test and Learn’? # – micropost 22849 Lloyd writes up his experience of new, location based social network thing Mozi. Just like it’s 2008 all over again! # – micropost 22865 Anything that…

📅 Daily note for 30 October 2024

Am thinking again about the structure of my blogging here. I’d much rather than the individual paragraphs in these daily notes existed as posts in their own right, as well as being collected together for the whole day. That way…

📅 Daily note for 24 October 2024

Patient records and the NHS App⬈ – or why this stuff is really, really hard. # Southwark Council⬈ have made some interesting design decisions on their new LocalGovDrupal website. A week note from Catherine Howe⬈ should always be celebrated. #…

📅 Daily note for 17 October 2024

Is it really 13 days since I last posted one of these? Terrifying. Still, it means plenty of links to share. # Rich Pope: Government is not an app⬈ # Tom Loosemore: What we mean when we say “Be Bold”⬈…

📅 Daily note for 23 July 2024

“The new Government must draw on the power of institutional memory⬈” Time and again, National Audit Office reports contain universally similar themes. Over-optimistic delivery plans mean budgets get burnt, deadlines are missed, governance is ineffective. # “Building visual literacy: Making…