In January the UK government published a blueprint for modern digital government setting out the actions it will take to redesign public services to make them fit for the 21st century.

The word ‘digital’ has several meanings, but the UK government’s digital centre blueprint focuses too much on digital as a channel.

There’s lots of talk of websites, apps, and phone notifications. There’s very little about the physical and human interactions with the same public services or how these could be improved by modern, digital ways of working.

This risks:

  • poorer public services for millions of people,
  • a less resilient state,
  • a missed opportunity to lead on building a government that is truly fit for the 21st century.

As the government further develops its blueprint it needs to take a more radical look at how modern technology and modern ways of working can improve public services for many more people. 

Public services need more than digital channels

Most public services are accessed through a mix of physical and digital channels. 

This is described in the government’s definition of a service. 

GOV.UK is great for transacting with government online, but many people and many services need more than a website,

People move back and forth between these different channels based on their needs, the requirements of the service, and changing circumstances. This can happen as part of the same journey. To give two examples:

  • a passport application might start online, the passport office might ask the applicants in for a face-face interview, if the application is successful a physical document will arrive in the post and a digital record will be recorded for future use.
  • someone might start their Universal Credit application online but, while their application is being processed, their circumstances change. Perhaps they no longer have enough money for a mobile contract or lose dexterity in their fingers. To continue their application they might ask a friend for help, go to their local Jobcentre, or go to their local Citizens Advice.

Each of the interactions in those examples might be supported by modern digital technologies, and there’s some underlying infrastructure tracking and maintaining the passport and benefits applications, but the channels are both physical and digital with people doing what they need to do to get the services they need.

If a person goes to some Citizen Advice centres then the advisor may use a digital tool called Caddy to assist them in giving advice. At all times the person wanting help talks with another human.

The state of digital government review misses non-digital channels and digital ways of working

Along with the digital centre blueprint the government published a review of the state of digital government.

It contains no assessment of the state of the government’s non-digital channels.

The review mentions the public’s level of satisfaction with using public services through digital channels but has no information about the public’s satisfaction with either whole of public services or of using public services in non-digital channels. Has that fallen more? Or less? Does anyone know?

The review contains figures on the amount of daily transactions with central government services on gov.uk, but no figures on the amount of total daily transactions through other channels. Has no one bothered to collect this?

The review talks about a lack of common technical components, but has no thoughts on the non-technical components that are used by multiple public services. These are things like libraries, call centres, schools, hospitals, town halls, post offices &c &c. Could they be shared more? Or less? Are there any gaps in provision or opportunities to improve them?

The review misses modern, digital ways of working and whether those capabilities are widespread across the government.

I could go on.

This is the literal front door of the NHS at my local GP surgery. The UK government’s state of digital government review would count this surgery as a ‘great’ service if it had a user-friendly and efficient  website that met web accessibility standards.

The digital centre blueprint continues along the same lines

The blueprint says that “seven years after the launch of the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations, we still have a way to go to make sure that services can be accessed and used by everyone who needs them”. It fails to mention that the same services might not provide wheelchair access to public buildings and fail the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The PSED is not mentioned in the blueprint.

It mentions digital inclusion – some statistics that are not in either report: 12.1 million UK adults have very low digital capabilities, 23% of UK households struggle to afford communication services – and says that the government will ensure “as many people as possible can access public services digitally, and that we support the digitally excluded.”.

But the state of digital government review did not assess any existing support for these millions of people and none of the actions in the blueprint’s roadmap describe whether any changes might be needed to improve this support.

Slightly bizarrely neither the review or blueprint seems to have an assessment of the UK population and the types of public services they might need now, or in the future. People’s voices are mostly absent.

The blueprint has a roadmap of next steps but this focuses on new online services: an app, a digital wallet, a chatbot.

There is one action for “piloting improvements on how we can better manage a long-term health condition or disability”, but this is described as supporting the government’s goal to Get Britain Working. It is not about helping people with long-term health conditions get the many other public services they need and deserve.

This video was used at the launch to bring the digital centre blueprint. Without going into nerdy detail it’s genuinely really thoughtful on how to build good online services, but where are the human interactions between people and the state?

The risks of the current focus

This focus of the blueprint for digital government on online services creates a number of risks. I’m neither daft or arrogant enough to try and identify them all, but here are three that are high in my mind.

Poorer public services for millions of people

Government needs to prioritise its resources. If the teams in government that design and build public services are told to focus on websites and apps then the other parts of public services will receive less attention

While anyone reading this post online may think that they can survive using only online public services any of our circumstances can change whether it be due to losing a job, suffering an accident, catching a long-term disease, or needing to care for a friend or relative.

Given the UK’s aging population these numbers will only rise and the issues will only become more politically salient.

The UK’s population is changing, that will have an effect on the public services people need

A less resilient state

Public services that can be used online or offline will make the UK more resilient against a range of threats.

Digital technologies are prone to cybersecurity attacks and simple mistakes in ways that humans and physical places are not. A failure in a single national shared component could cause public services to fail across the country.

Meanwhile other threats are increasing.

The new age of authoritarian leaders in countries like Afghanistan, India, Turkey and the USA are using online services and digital infrastructure against their enemies.

So far the UK has struggled to build its own digital infrastructure, which would reduce the threat of similar actions here, but it has physical infrastructure.

Missing the opportunity to lead on building a government that is truly fit for the 21st century

While there is a lot of attention on AI and automation at the moment it is clear that future public services will include both technology and humans.

Don’t just take my word for it. In 2024 Klarna got a lot of press by announcing that they were cutting staff because AI could do the job. Just a few months later they had an epiphany and realised that humans will play a key role in any organisation of the future so started hiring people back. Sadly, that got less press coverage so maybe the UK government didn’t see it.

Learning how to design and deliver public services that support people to interact with government both online and offline will help position the UK to lead in future public services. It will set the UK up for the long-term, rather than something that could just be a short-term craze.

The digital centre blueprint needs to evolve

The digital centre blueprint isn’t finished, but it needs to evolve. Hopefully when that happens it expands beyond its narrow focus on the online parts of public services.

Since the blueprint was published the UK government has decided to cut public spending further. So, it is becoming even more important that the money that will be spent is spent well and on things that create the best, long-term impact.

Simply focussing on more websites, apps and notifications won’t deliver the great public services the UK public needs and deserves. The UK government needs to place a lot more focus on using modern ways of working to design and deliver public services that work for everyone.