With neither of the main parties securing a majority in the recent election, many pundits are predicting chaos and possibly even doom and gloom. They fear the impact of weakened leadership, limited unity and uncertainty at a time when we face a number of challenges \u2013 not least of which is Brexit, and the terms of Brexit.<\/p>\n
Look back a few years and many of the same fears were expressed in 2010. Brexit wasn\u2019t even a glimmer in David Cameron\u2019s eye, but austerity was high on the agenda, and a massive challenge (Liam Byrne famously left a note for his successor at the Treasury \u201cI\u2019m afraid there is no money\u201d).<\/p>\n
Austerity, and the coalition galvanised one of the greatest revolutionary advances in government. Lord Maude of Horsham (Francis Maude) was able to use his five years as Minister for the Cabinet Office to drive the creation of the Government Digital Service, launch and champion G-Cloud and launch the GOV.UK website. Policies like \u2018cloud first\u2019 and \u2018digital by default\u2019 provided a focus and purpose that enabled the government to ramp up its digital capability and move workloads to the cloud \u2013 ultimately leading to the UK being recognised by the United Nations as the most digitally advanced government in the world.<\/p>\n
This was a massive achievement by any measure \u2013 particularly when seen through the lens of the starting point. A locked down, moribund, mediocre and very costly government ICT market. Strong leadership, clear vision, central controls and Maude\u2019s political backing was turning the tanker.<\/p>\n
One of the casualties in the election was Ben Gummer, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of the digital transformation agenda in Whitehall. Gummer played a crucial role in drawing up the government\u2019s recent Government Transformation Strategy, which he described as “the most ambitious programme of change of any government anywhere in the world”, and was also instrumental in drawing up the now infamous Conservative Manifesto, which pledged a \u00a3740m investment in the UK\u2019s digital infrastructure, a \u201cdigital charter\u201d and supported the sometimes controversial Verify programme.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend it was announced that Damian Green will be replacing Ben Gummer and that Damian will also become First Secretary. Given the many commitments he has, – the focus on Brexit and the complexities of pruning down the Conservative Manifesto and slimming down the Queen\u2019s speech \u2013 it is not yet clear how central the digital strategy will be in the next parliament and technology is not one of Green\u2019s stated interests.<\/p>\n
The Institute for Government recently called on the Government to create a digital minister role post-election, arguing that there has been a lack of digital leadership since Francis Maude left. Green should not under-estimate the challenges, and may do well to heed the IFG\u2019s advice, if he is to deliver on the dual challenges of his party\u2019s manifesto commitments, and the Government Transformation Strategy:<\/p>\n
If the Conservative\u2019s digital commitments, and the programme described by Gummer as “the most ambitious programme of change of any government anywhere in the world” is to reach its full potential we will need exceptional leadership and vision – at least equal to Maude\u2019s \u2013 to navigate the \u201cnot invented here\u201d and counter further uncertainties caused by the election, and its potential impact on government\u2019s top priority: Brexit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With neither of the main parties securing a majority in the recent election, many pundits are predicting chaos and possibly even doom and gloom. They fear the impact of weakened leadership, limited unity and uncertainty at a time when we face a number of challenges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":19868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","region-london","region-north-west","topic-healthtech","topic-cloud","topic-government"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n