I want to talk to you today about
improving public services my background
is primarily in the UK government I
spent many years working for the
Department for business and the
Department for trade but last October
October 2016 I left the public sector
and I joined a new company with based in
London we called public because I wanted
to see public sector services improved
at a rate that I wasn’t seeing in
government and we at public have a real
belief that if government can really
take advantage of today’s technology of
today’s techniques of analyzing data
public services really could be a lot
better and be a lot better quickly and
more cheaply and this is better for all
of us and the technology is already out
there and if I think about the phone
that I have in my handbag today it will
manage my schedule for me it will wake
me up in the morning I can buy a coffee
on the way to work with my phone it will
tell me within a margin of 15 minutes
error if it’s going to rain today but I
never expect the same level of
convenience from public services from
those services provided by the
government and why is that I think
partly when a lot of us think about
government they think about this or they
might think about this and in my
experience there’s a bit of both but
there’s also this this is a picture of a
digital team from a UK government
central government department their job
is all about designing delivering
digital public services that meet the
needs of the citizens now what does it
mean if they do their job right it means
that if you go to a hospital or a doctor
surgery in any part of the country
they’ll have your records they’ll be
able to help you there
and then and give you the help that they
need it means that if you’re if you live
in a low-lying area on a floodplain you
can get early alerts about whether or
not there’s a risk of flooding coming up
it means that if you’re a security if
you’re in security you can use
technology to analyze CCTV footage to
spot anomalies it means if you are a
vulnerable adult accessing lots of
different parts of the social care
system services will be triangulated for
you so that you’re getting the support
that you need without needing to make
more effort than is realistic or
necessary so I suppose the theme of my
talk today is what does the public
sector need to be thinking about in
order to make these guys succeed firstly
I want to talk about openness and I mean
this in terms of government being open
to working differently technology and
the face of technology has changed a lot
in the last ten years even ten years ago
if we wanted to access the Internet we’d
plug our computer into a cable if we
wanted to upgrade our computer we go out
we buy a disk and we’d stick the disk in
the computer and that’s how we would
progress that’s how we would upgrade our
software today it’s different we use
Wi-Fi to access the Internet if we want
to upgrade software we download it from
the cloud and this is this is a real
shift in how we engage with technology
and as humans we like things that are
tangible we like things that we can
touch and feel and smell and we think we
trust those things more because there’s
something inherently scary about the
intangible who knows what’s in the cloud
what even is it ghosts a slightly cloudy
we shouldn’t trust them but we need to
get comfortable with the idea but this
is where technology is going it might
seem like a really simple point for
those of us who’ve used Wi-Fi at home
we’re used to this whole idea of not
necessarily having cables not
necessarily having physical things but
let me tell you that the UK Department
for Education only got Wi-Fi this year
2017 it’s a live issue and public sector
needs to needs to get comfortable with
the changes that are happening in the
technology environment and when I say
being open to new ways of working I also
mean that we need to reopen the idea of
what user needs really are we need to
make sure that public services are being
designed around what the end user needs
now governments operate under all sorts
of constraints from the media from
politics and economic changes and in
that sort of pressurized environment
it’s very easy to take the least risky
option government is famous for being
risk averse we’re very good at saying
well we did this yesterday we’ll do it
today it’s got to be the right answer
we’ve done it before
social services have always looked like
this Healthcare has always looked like
this it must be right
fundamentally though that’s incorrect
it’s not always right we don’t always
know what our end users need we haven’t
always asked them we’ve assumed we’ve
assumed from my ivory tower in the
public sector that that person over
there with those needs this is what they
want this is what they need of too often
government consultations don’t really
consult they don’t really find out about
what users need and it doesn’t matter if
your end user is a working adult whether
they are a vulnerable child whether
they’re actually someone working in
public services they might be a
clinician in a hospital environment they
might be a civil servant in the
Department for business in any event
their needs should be factored into the
services that they are accessing because
that is the only way in which we’re
going to create services that really
deliver that really make a difference to
people’s lives and it’s very easy to do
these things by paper government usually
does we need to rethink what being open
and engaging with citizens really means
sometimes that means getting out and
talking hosting roundtables having open
discussions about what citizens really
need because it’s only by being open to
those ways of working that we’re really
going to design server
is that make a difference and improve
people’s lives now for my second point
let’s assume we know what our users need
crucially let’s not jump to a conclusion
about how we solve the particular
problem that they’re facing government
is terribly good at writing very
intelligently thought through very
detailed specifications about exactly
what they want and they’re going out and
trying to buy it or trying to build it
however don’t try to don’t Commission a
200 part contraption to change a light
bulb if perhaps an alternative route
might have been you could just use your
hand to take it down yourself so the
lesson here is don’t assume that you’ve
got all the answers already be open to
the idea that other answers are out
there so don’t over specify start from
the basis of user needs ask open
questions and then collaborate to find
the right answer and this again this
leads into a new way of working that
feels risky I think from a government
perspective government is used to trying
to solve big problems and trying to
solve them all at once having a solution
that takes you from A to Z fixes the
problem in so much of life in so many
public services that it’s based on a
fundamental misunderstanding of what the
problem really is so often we don’t
really know what the end point is or
we’re not yet sure what’s really going
to work in my view governments really
need to have a courage to be able to
start small test iterate build build
from small beginnings and that’s the way
in which you design services that really
meet the needs of users that’s the way
in which you really get the best out of
technology and that’s what I think smart
governments will be doing in the future
starting small iterating and remembering
to ask the right questions and so my
third point how do we get all of this
started where does this all come from
and I want to talk about the importance
of nurturing
ecosystems now smart governments will
know they all recognize that companies
they do business with will have a stamp
of approval when that business tries to
scale because they’ve already worked
with the public sector so that means
that if you are a business in the UK if
you’re a tech business in Guernsey and
you are trying to scale internationally
perhaps you’re trying to do business in
Singapore and in Israel in Germany when
they are talking to buyers in those
markets it is an instant positive that
they’ve done business in their home
country indeed it’s a bit of a question
mark about why haven’t you done business
in your home country why isn’t your
government buying from you why are you
not working with your government and
that’s a question I think it’s really
worth public servants holding in mind do
not underestimate the value or the role
public service plays in building healthy
private-sector ecosystems because it
really does count and success breeds
success clusters of successful tech
companies will attract more skill they
attract more investment it’s only a
benefit for the economy if you nurture
the companies that are really doing well
because that becomes an expanding
positive force with some interesting
examples you can see around the world
about where this is happening really
well
so Singapore for example Changi Airport
announced this year that they are
creating a living lab they’re putting 50
million Singaporean dollars into a
testing environment so that creative
tech businesses can test their products
can experiment can explore in a live
airport environment and there’s a win
for everybody here the businesses get to
test their products they get to improve
their products and as we all know by
testing and improving that’s how you
really start to meet the needs of your
users
it’s also a real win for the airport
they get to be the beneficiaries of that
technology they get to make the most of
the innovations that are coming out of
those companies they get to be at the
forefront of the pack of innovation in
that setting it’s a win win and this I
think is an example that smart
governments around the world should
really be looking at and trying to
emulate as far as possible because
nurturing your ecosystem is the way in
which you’re really going to promote
technology and drive better public
services I think just to sum up is it
worth it it sounds like an effort it’s a
lot of change is it really worth it I’d
have to say yes because if governments
really take advantage of technology
today tomorrow the day after that’s the
way in which they will begin to build
public services that are not only
cheaper more efficient they’re also more
effective driving better quality of life
for their citizens and that brings
benefits for government businesses
citizens and society as a whole
thanks very much [Applause]