PublicTechnology.net

The government has achieved “just about everything” that was in its first digital strategy and now needs a different approach to make bigger savings, the director general of the Government Digital Service has said.

The minister responsible for overseeing the creation of the Universal Credit programme has said that Whitehall's outsourcing of IT is a “fundamental mistake” and that government needs to work to attract more digital talent.

The public sector needs to use technology to reform its workforce by disrupting hierarchies, adopting new recruitment processes and automating administrative roles, a think tank has said.

A government document has revealed the patient information sharing agreements between NHS Digital and the Home Office, while data shows that more than 8,000 requests were made in 2016.

Much of the digital information that government has amassed over the past two decades is poorly organised and “almost impossible” to search, a Cabinet Office report has said.

Regional NHS bodies could soon be asked to collect patient information to create a ‘data-lake’ for use at a national level, according to an NHS England consultation document.

The government’s timeline for implementing plans to digitise record keeping and reporting of tax is “wholly unrealistic” and should be delayed until at least 2019-20, the House of Commons Treasury Committee has said.

Governments need to stop relying on outsourcing and make sure they have competent public servants who can deal with technology, the former leader of the Australia’s Digital Transformation Office has said.

Civica is large enough to take on big transformation government projects but small enough to be seen as “part of the team”, chief executive Wayne Story has said at the launch of its dedicated digital division.

Government digital teams need to make more use of technical writers to help technology teams and allow others to concentrate on transformation, a Government Digital Service staffer has said.

The Socitm Better Connected survey has revealed that more than half of English county councils are not providing a good online service to help people sign up for e-resources.

Geoff Connell took up his role of CIO at Norfolk County Council in August last year. Rebecca Hill asks him how he found the change from the London Borough of Newham, and finds out what’s on his to-do list.

The Environment Agency has awarded a three-year, £5m contract to CGI to design, deliver and run its Future Flood Forecasting System for England.

Traditional recruitment methods are often not “proactive or productive enough” to attract the right candidates and need to be revised, a recruitment advisor at the Government Digital Service has said.

The prime minister Theresa May has announced plans to improve online advice and information on mental health and increase the use of digitally assisted therapies.

A third of UK council websites have not passed the first stage of Socitm’s annual test to assess their accessibility to people with disabilities.

The Government Digital Service has upgraded the public Application Programming Interface for GOV.UK Notify based on the results of user research carried out during its private beta.

The cross-government network for civil servants specialising in procurement is recruiting for a number of senior digital and technology roles for people, including the position of commercial director of IT for HMRC.

The Labour party has launched a consultation on its plans for a “people-centric” industrial strategy that it said would support workers in an era of rapid technological change.

The association of IT and digital professionals in local government has announced its plans for 2017 research and policy projects.

The latest annual report on the civil service fast stream has revealed that 34% of successful applications to the digital and technology fast stream in 2015 came from women – a slight decline from the previous year.