By Neil Mclvor, Head of Data for Public Services at technology consultancy, esynergy
Under its newly appointed Chief Strategy Officer, Gina Gill, the CDDO has now kicked off a project intended to solve urgent governmental issues around “data quality”. Whilst undoubtedly important, this overlooks a vital first step; that is, educating the civil service on what exactly “data” itself is. Indeed, across the Government, the term is often conflated with its analysis and/or the insights it can provide.
All operations and outcomes – both in the public and private sectors – rely on data. As such, building and implementing a more effective data strategy will be fundamental to the success of central government initiatives going forward. Therefore, it is essential that any new strategy focuses not just on improving the collection and measurement of data, but also on elevating education around it more widely. Indeed, many civil servants, despite perhaps lacking in-depth education on the topic – have strong aspirations for the potential, radically positive impact that an improved data strategy would have upon almost all aspects of civilian life. The Government should look to leverage this ambition.
Educational foundations
Although focusing the One Big Thing on data upskilling last year was a crucial step to improving the civil service’s education around data, this did not go far enough. The training focused on how data can be transformed into insights, rather than the underlying mechanics of how it flows through systems, where it comes from and how to acquire it – what I term the ‘get-put-use’ model. There is a widespread assumption that relevant data is simply available, on tap, that it readily moves through systems and that valuable insights can be easily drawn from it. Stripping the training back to instead consider and interrogate what data itself is and how it is inextricably linked to business processes, before incorporating learning modules that address all of its different elements (measurement, analysis, insights, et. cetera) would go a long way in empowering civil servants to derive more value from data.
Building these educational foundations is also the first step to democratising data within the civil service. If individuals better understand the nature of the information they are requesting, and where it comes from, they can more effectively use it for decision-making (rather than relying solely on designated data teams to do so). Necessary security guardrails should and must remain in place, but opening up data access in this way could exponentially increase efficiencies across departments.
Developing the architecture
The current data infrastructure also has limitations that need to be recognized, along with systemic challenges that must be tackled. In part, this is due to the fact that, historically, the government’s approach to data has naturally been more reactive than proactive. In other words, significant developments have been driven by need or emergency.
For example, COVID-19 drove some seismic breakthroughs for the Government when it came to unlocking the power of data. In the Department for Education, the data teams built a system that measured, in real-time, how many children and teachers were in school every day, as well as their reasons for being off sick. This information, and the insights it provided, then informed resultant governmental decisions, tapping into the true value that data can provide when it comes to benefitting society. Furthermore, the resulting infrastructure was later used in the publication of the official statistics around teachers’ industrial action in February 2023, which went on to win the 2023 Campion Award for Excellence in Official Statistics.
While necessity will always be the mother of invention and this period showed what was possible, it is essential that a balance is struck here. The Government still needs to look to innovate and develop data infrastructure and pipelines outside of such acute situations, to be better prepared for and more resilient against future shocks. What’s more, when effective systems are created, like those developed by the Department for Education, they must be systematised and automated across departments to prevent a ‘cottage industry’ effect. This will help to address the fact that, although there are pockets of truly groundbreaking work going on, on a macro level, capabilities around data remain relatively siloed within and across departments.
Redefining the future
The government undeniably faces a complex challenge in developing and executing a new data strategy; namely, a smaller civil service, budget cuts, and the substantial investment required for enhancing end-to-end infrastructure. However, digital transformation cannot happen without data transformations, particularly as departments look towards applying technologies like AI. As such, a new data strategy is the first step to driving radical change across all aspects of public service and ensuring that projects provide maximum value right from their inception. This begins with education.
Neil Mclvor is the Head of Data for Public Services at technology consultancy, esynergy. Previously, he was Chief Data Officer at the Department for Education and has 23-year career spanning five government departments.
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