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Blog posted by: Sally Meecham, 18 June 2018 – Categories:GDS team, Transformation.

Portrait of Sally Meecham

I have been involved with GDS, or a forerunner to it, for more than a decade.

Fifteen years ago I was at the Office of the e-Envoy, 10 years ago I was working at DirectGov, 5 years ago I was at GDS – and in April, after period at Defra, Barnardo's and the Crown Commercial Service, I returned as GDS’ interim Chief Operating Officer.

Working both at GDS and other public sector agencies and departments, enabled me to see how critical GDS is to digital transformation across government.

Back to the centre

Coming back into the centre is exciting. Returning to GDS provides an important perspective and knowledge of the obstacles departments can face when attempting digital transformation.

When I was last at GDS, I was a Transformation Lead with the DVLA, working on its end-to-end transformation of services. Back in 2014, I blogged about the then new digital ‘View your driving licence information’ service.

Since then GDS has, naturally, changed and developed.

An awareness of just how demanding transition can be is something which has certainly grown since I was last here. Now there is more appreciation of how the entire organisation - not just a few committed individuals - needs to be on board for successful digital transformational change to happen.

In 2016/17, while I was Chief Digital Officer at Defra, we were able to successfully take its online fishing rod licence service from private to public beta. GDS provided us with fantastic support and they helped us develop positive digital change and deliver on this service.

An excellent service can only be delivered by the right people with the right skills, but also the right finance, right environments etc. in which to work. So that’s why recent publication of the The 7 Lenses of Transformation is really important.

It identifies that in order for brilliant services to be created, the whole organisation needs to think of themselves as part of the delivery.

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