Felicity SingletonHead of Policy and Departmental EngagementGovernment Digital Service@fjsingleton

GDS was formed to support Departments to deliver digital transformation across Government

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Last parliament, GDS focused on projects which helped departments get the skills to digitally transform

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We also built a few platforms, saving a reasonable amount of money and improving services for a lot of people

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Through that work, we saw a pattern of repeated effort in the way services were developed

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How to design a service wellHow to take paymentsHow to host servicesEtc etc...

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We saw an opportunity to drive much greater efficiency in the way that we deliver digital services

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Design patternsShared codePlatformsDataHostingPeople and skills

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We call this Government as a Platform

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These elements help assemble services and are parts of it

They make is quicker, cheaper, and simpler to build and run great services

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A service might use any of these elements but the end to end service is owned by the department team

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Data

GOV.UK Notify

GOV.UK Pay

Hosting

This parliament, GDS will focus on supporting departments as they transform by building cross-government platforms, and developing common tools and components for them to use

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Take hosting…

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At the moment, every service in government builds its own way of managing hosting…

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15Cloud 1 Cloud 2

Project 1 Project 2

Agency 1

Project 3

Clould 1

Logging

Monitoring

Alerting

Database

Message Queue

Search

Dept 1

Logging

Monitoring

Alerting

Database

Message Queue

Search

Logging

Monitoring

Alerting

Database

Message Queue

Search

That leads to lots of duplication, which takes time and, often, a lot of money

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A simpler way would be to build a platform that services could plug into…

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Government PaaS

18Public Cloud 1 Public Cloud 3Public Cloud 2

Project 1 Project 2

Agency 1

Project 3

Dept 1

This way, a central team can manage the hosting, monitoring tools and contracts while departments focus on transformation

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We’ve already started building platforms…

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GOV.UKA platform for publishing used across government

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GOV.UK VerifyA platform for identity, currently in public beta

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Performance PlatformReal-time information about service use

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Digital MarketplaceA single place to buy or commission technology

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Blogging platformA lightweight publishing tool for open working

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We’re starting to build more…

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GOV.UK PayQuickly integrate payments into services

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Platform as a ServiceEssential technical services – monitoring, configuration, etc – for all of government

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GOV.UK NotifyProactively alert users about services and applications to reduce unnecessary contact

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And we’re developing service patterns - consistent ways for services to meet common, generic needs across Government

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For example, a licensing service pattern will allow any organisation granting licences to draw on the common components that are transferable between different licensing services.

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Common Technology Services will develop blueprints for technology solutions that can be used across departments, from cloud hosting, to wifi, to the computers we use

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And we’re building registers - trustworthy canonical lists of data made available in digital formats that can be easily consumed by services

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These and more will transform users’ experience of government

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Doing it right will make booking appointments much simpler

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Doing it right will make applying for a licence more convenient

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Doing it right will make government more efficient

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All of these approaches are just as applicable across the wider public sector

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We encourage reuse of our resources, tools and platforms where appropriate

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And we want to collaborate to share our experiences and learn from others

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The opportunities are huge - for better services, delivered quickly and cheaply

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Most importantly, it will improve even more people’s lives

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Thanks!

Felicity Singleton@fjsingleton