In light of the news that the UK still faces a structural deficit of £90bn, this week’s Spending Review outlined a number of further cuts which will come into force over the coming years, setting the context for the 2015 election. Against a backdrop of continued uncertainty and economic gloom, the CSR did explicitly recognise the potential for technology-driven innovation in the public and private sector, as well as the requirement for the UK’s cyber capabilities to progress at a faster pace. With job losses anticipated as part of the continued efficiency measures, skillsets within the public sector will need to diversify, and private sector skills will have to be tapped into, to meet this need.
On a departmental level, the Chancellor called for further savings to be achieved through pooling resources and reducing procurement spend, with a commitment to drive out waste and inefficiency across the public sector. Never before has digital transformation- and improved data analytics- been so clearly fundamental to the success of the Government's spending programme up to and beyond 2015.
The government must continue to push for additional potential efficiencies and innovation that will cut public sector spending for the long-term, such as maintaining momentum in adopting G-Cloud services, driving adoption of the infrastructure for agile, innovative technology across central and local government and building a Data Capability Strategy based on targets for efficiency gain and job creation.
We also welcome further support for shared services across departments and local/central government capabilities. The localisation agenda continues and more autonomy, along with pressure to achieve cost-saving objectives, is being devolved to local government. Given the role of technology in driving efficiency and transformation in local services, a great deal of best-practice sharing is necessary to ensure that not every council has to reinvent the wheel in an effort to deliver core operational or citizen services. At the same time, guidance on security is necessary to ensure the ongoing protection of citizen services and data from malicious attack.
The opportunity for technology to drive innovation and further efficiency savings in the military was highlighted. The safeguarding of Britain’s military capability was a particular point of contention, with budgets remaining at £24 billion and with a major commitment to investment in cyber warfare and strengthening Britain’s capability in this area – a point we actively encourage as threats continue to diversify and grow. We believe big data – or in military parlance, technology to support the ‘Detection, Processing and Dissemination’ (DPD) of vast amounts of military data – surveillance, signalling, telemetry and beyond – will be core to defining the next generation of British armed forces and we’re working with the Royal United Services Institute to help them investigate this potential in full for the Ministry of Defence.
These key areas highlight the requirement for diversification of public sector roles to ensure greater productivity, understanding and innovation in the public sector going forward. It’s not simply about cost cutting, but a better use of the tools and intelligence within the public sector – be that people or technology. And indeed, with headcount dropping there’s a need and an opportunity for the private sector and mutualised efforts to drive real impact in public sector service innovation.
A technological shift is taking place in the UK public sector and this will inevitably demand public sector employees to become more digitally enabled and attuned with data analytics and the opportunity for disruption and technological transformation. However, we have a way to go, and both the public and private sectors will need to collaborate and innovate in step to meet the challenge.
With Britain spending far beyond its means, we are a way from achieving the Chancellor’s ambitious goals for reform, growth and fairness; but there is both a will and a way; and we believe that the core of some of the most significant paradigm shifts we’ll see drive savings lie in technologies that don’t just make government services more efficient, but fundamentally transform how they are delivered.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Russell Poole
Quelle/Source: The Information Daily, 05.07.2013
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