Manchester, Essex, Liverpool, Sheffield lead ‘test and learn’ government tech overhaul

A new innovation fund is being launched to bring tech industry specialists into the civil service. 

Announced by cabinet minister Pat McFadden, £100million has been set aside for the scheme, which Downing Street hopes will foster a “test and learn” culture throughout government departments. 

According to Prime Minister Keir Starker, “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline”. Pressure is on to increase civil service productivity which was recently revealed to have dropped 2.6% year-on-year. 

Under the new policy, regional teams will be established across the UK. Each will be assigned a challenge and given an opportunity to experiment with different solutions and approaches. This mirrors the way many digital start-ups operate, something that contrasts the “mind-bogglingly bureaucratic and off-putting civil service application process. 

Tech workers will be encouraged to sign up for six-to-12 month “tours of duty” during which they will work on “big challenges” facing the public sector, such as healthcare and the justice system. Professionals with data and digit skills, policy officials and frontline departmental staff are priority skillsets. 

‘Instead of writing more complicated policy papers and long strategy documents, the teams will focus on projects set by government,’ said McFadden. ‘The test and learn mindset, and I’m keen to see where we can deploy it in government. Where we can make the state a little bit more like a start-up.’

The first projects will go live in Manchester, Sheffield, Essex and Liverpool this January. Areas of focus include family hubs which support disadvantaged households, and the need to reduce the cost of cripplingly expensive temporary accommodation. A second wave will then roll out across other parts of the country, with the overall intention to use this model in considerations to ‘fundamentally overhaul how recruitment is carried out’ in the public sector. 

More digital business: 

8 recommendations for correcting the UK’s regional tech imbalance

£22.6m announced for unpaid carers’ tech support

4,300 years of DWP and HMRC work can be saved through AI

Image: John Schnobrich