Verify is being tested for local government - Photo credit: Government screenshot

According to Michael Clark, the GDS’ lead on the moving the service to local authorities, the switch-on of GOV.UK Verify at the end of May was a turning point.

“Before, the whole programme was tilted to central, now we can direct it to local,” he told a seminar held yesterday in London as part of the Public Sector Show.

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GOV.UK Verify allows people to prove who they are online through a series of checks that will cut out the amount of manual work done by civil servants. 

Clark said that GDS would be running a series of pilots with local authorities over the next six months.

These pilots are not only looking at how to improve services provided by councils, Clark said, but also on how to change the Verify framework to suit local government.

“At the moment, it’s geared to central,” he said. “We want to know how to change that and how it applies to local government services.”

One of the first pilots, with Warwickshire Council, is looking at speeding up and simplifying the process for applying for disabled permits, and Clark said that it was already looking at prototypes and was carrying out user research.

He added that GDS wanted councils to decide which services to improve, but from initial workshops the pilots were likely to look at social and healthcare integration, age-based verification and address-based eligibility.

“We’re open to any services where a local authority can say there’s a citizen need,” Clark said. “Particularly where people think there’s efficiencies or the user journey can be transformed.”