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Making the Digital Marketplace Work for Local Government
TechUK encouraged to see Government Digital Service reach out to councils to build a marketplace that is suitable for the wider public sector.
Local government and wider public sector organisations are at the front-line of public service delivery. As such, it is imperative that they have access to the right technology and digital capability to enable them to build great digital services for citizens.
The Government Digital Service (GDS) has made progress in transforming procurement through the Digital Marketplace, with G-Cloud being highlighted as being particularly effective by the supplier community. This is demonstrated by the Digital Marketplace supporting UK public sector organisations to spend over £1.7 billion with digital and technology suppliers, with 56 per cent being spent with small and medium-sized enterprises.
Despite this success, the Digital Marketplace has a low uptake from the wider public sector through only accounting for around 23% of the spend. techUK is encouraged to see GDS outline their ambition to support local Government to access the right technology through the Digital Marketplace. The ambition of GDS is to ‘grow and improve the Digital Marketplace so it's the preferred buying route for all public sector organisations who want to design and build great user-focused services.’
Over the next couple of months the Digital Marketplace team will be working with local Government to:
- Find out what technology and digital services local government and the wider public sector are buying and need
- Speak to organisations to identify and address the unique barriers to using the Digital Marketplace
- Create a plan to support local and wider public sector organisations across the UK.
techUK’s Head of Public Sector, Rob Driver, commented:
“techUK has worked closely with GDS to make the Digital Marketplace work for buyers and suppliers through our campaigns for smarter Government purchasing, and supporting the development of simpler and more accessible procurement vehicles. As such, we are delighted to see a clear focus on ‘supporting local government and the wider public sector’ to use the Digital Marketplace.”
“The local Government procurement landscape can be complex and hard to navigate for both suppliers and buyers. We look forward to continuing our engagement with GDS and supporting them to expand and improve a Digital Marketplace that works for all public sector organisations.”
What are your views and key asks for GDS local government engagement? Please share your thoughts on how GDS can better engage with local Government to create a marketplace that works for them by getting in touch with Georgina Maratheftis, techUK’s Local Government Programme Manager.
