The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, has declared improving the quality and use of data across government as one of his personal priorities.
Writing about the newly-published Barber Public Value review, Heywood said: “In an era of big data, it is essential that we harness the opportunities this presents to deliver the best service we can to the government and the wider public”
But with the civil service facing huge change and pressures on resources as never before, it is also essential that progress on the use of data not only continues, but accelerates.
Heywood acknowledges that there are already a plethora of strategies and initiatives designed to change the way government uses data, and he hopes that the new Public Value Reviews being piloted by the Treasury will become a tool to demand even more from departments and their approach to data.
In this context, Cognizant and Dods have carried out research to discover and determine the state of data-use across government departments. We asked civil servants about the drivers of data use in their department, barriers to increasing data use, and their reactions to key policies such as Digital Economy Act. The findings enable us to explore some of the consistent trends and emerging challenges which leaders can consider as they prioritise resources.
Acknowledging both the challenges which departments face, and the urgency of improving data use, this roundtable will discuss these findings in full and ask:
What reforms must the civil service prioritise to scale the use of data in order to deliver public value?
Topics will include:
-Key findings from our research including attitudes to data sharing, perceived barriers to better data use, skills gaps identified, and progress against key policies
-How can government work in partnership with private sector and other departments to build skills in important areas such as coding and data science?
-How can leaders overcome barriers such as perceived costs and technological barriers?
-Where is data already being used to drive better outcomes, and value, for service users?
-What more can be done to embed and encourage data sharing across departments?
-How can we drive further progress on the Open Data strategy?
-What has been the impact of the Digital Economy Act?
To find out more and to register your interest in attending this event, please contact Sophie Feary by emailing roundtables@dodsgroup.com