REPORT

October 13, 2021

October 23, 2023

The Future of Digital Government

To refocus digital public services on better outcomes for citizens.

PUBLIC has authored this report summary with support from BT to refocus digital public services on better outcomes for citizens, putting the user at the heart of service design across the public sector. We conducted a survey of >1,000 UK citizens to capture experiences and attitudes towards digital public services, especially during COVID-19, exploring present experiences of public and private sector services and attitudes towards potential future features (such as Digital ID and data sharing for seamless services). This survey has led us to propose a framework of five principles of good digital public services, and a set of 12 recommendations. These recommendations are not exhaustive but are specific steps to prompt a broader conversation about joined-up digital transformation across the whole public sector.

In our report ‘The Future of Digital Government’ we highlighted:

  • Private sector services have transformed citizen expectations of what services can and should provide
  • Citizen engagement with digital public services is lower than international comparisons not so much because of cultural differences but because of issues with service design and delivery
  • Too many services that are nominally ‘digitised’ remain difficult to use (either because they have online components, or because they are designed in an inaccessible way)
  • These issues significantly impact public trust in government, leading to lower levels of uptake and usage
  • But, public confidence in using digital public services has increased since COVID-19, meaning this is the moment to supercharge efforts to rethink how we deliver public services to take advantage of digital technologies.

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