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Building the Smarter State

Key takeaways from techUK’s flagship public sector conference.

Over 200 leaders across the public sector and tech industry attended techUK’s flagship public services conference, Building the Smarter State, last week to hear the government's vision for transformation and learn how peers are re-imagining public services through technology.  

It was a full agenda focusing on twin themes of People & Places. Speakers and delegates explored how emerging tech and societal trends will transform how public services are designed and delivered, the workforce that will be delivering them and the citizens they're designed for. 

We were delighted to welcome Simon Hart, Minister for Implementation as the opening keynote. The Minister reiterated the Government’s commitment to the transformation of public services and pressed on the importance of making digital services accessible to everyone.

After hearing the Government’s vision, we heard from a number of digital leaders across Whitehall departments and health who discussed the civil service of the future, the skills public servants will need, and the tech tools that will be available to them in a decade’s time.

Continuing the theme of horizon scanning, in the afternoon speakers explored the evolving local public services landscape, the importance of place and people when delivering services. Paul Maltby, Chief Digital Officer, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government reflected on the growing local government digital movement and the development of the Local Digital Declaration in bringing together a common aspiration for the sector. The panel of digital leaders from Newcastle and Greater Manchester then went into more detail on how to make collaboration work across a place and the importance of putting users and citizens at the heart of service transformation.

In the afternoon we were also delighted to welcome a keynote from John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service who took the stage to emphasize the importance of smarter working, building connected workplaces and making services more citizen centric. Manzoni also announced the Government is now looking for CDIO that will lead the Government’s digital, data and technology professionals.

The day recognised and showcased the innovative work happening across the public sector and govtech eco-system. Digital leaders were generous in sharing their transformation journeys with the audience, and in the afternoon,  we heard from digital leaders at the Department for Work and Pensions about working collaboratively across boundaries in the department to transform services and how they work.

The day finished with a powerful keynote from Dr Nina Cope, Director General (Capabilities), National Crime Agency on the future of public safety. Dr Cope emphasised the fact that public safety is a shared responsibility, and in doing so, highlighted the importance of partnerships within the public safety ecosystem, including with industry. It gave attendees food for thought and built a stronger understanding of the value and opportunities that technology can provide in the provision of such critical citizen services.

Alongside our conference, last week we also held our Building the Smarter State campaign, which include a series of guest blogs from stakeholders and industry on what the smarter state will look like and the technologies that will help make this vision a reality.

Stay tuned for techUK’s podcast with interviews from speakers and attendees from the conference as well as a summary of the key insight!

You can catch-up on all the content here and continue the conversation by sharing your views at @techUK #techUKSmarterState

 

Channel website: http://www.techuk.org/

Original article link: https://www.techuk.org/insights/news/item/16067-building-the-smarter-state

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