Most people working in or around Whitehall will be familiar with the government's target to make £14bn in efficiency savings across this parliament. It is the right ambition, and there is genuine political will behind it. However, delivering it will depend on whether departments have the capability and knowledge to build and run their own digital services or instead remain dependent on external suppliers to do so at increasing cost. For civil servants being asked to do more for less, that question has never mattered more.
For decades, the dominant model of digital delivery was structured – whether by default or design – to create dependency rather than transfer it. Services have become more complex, public expectation has risen, and budgets have become increasingly stretched. In many cases, turning to external contractors was the only realistic option.
But reliance that made sense as a short-term fix has, over time, become the embedded solution. The capability needed to deliver independently never made it into the building – not for lack of intent, but because the model was never designed to leave anything behind. Meanwhile, the skills and knowledge needed to break that cycle rarely transfer – and British taxpayers are worse off for it.
Katie Carruthers, Managing Director, Tecknuovo
We are already seeing the consequences. From the Post Office to the NHS, successive governments have been locked into costly, long-running programmes with large consultancies that refuse to hand over knowledge and skills. Capability is bought, the supplier delivers, moves on, and the knowledge goes with them. Departments that cannot operate their own digital services will keep returning to market, and every time they do, the bill goes up.
Tecknuovo is a homegrown British business, pioneering a deliberately different approach to digital delivery. Our Zero Dependency solution is designed so departments can run and build their own digital services, removing reliance on legacy consultancies and putting control back into the government’s hands. It keeps knowledge, capability and taxpayer value here in the UK – closing the Whitehall skills gap rather than widening it.
Civil servants work alongside our teams from day one, learning as the work gets done. Dependency is mapped and managed throughout delivery, not addressed at handover, leaving teams with the knowledge to deliver without us. We have found, on average, departments working this way save around 20% on digital operations – delivering better value, pound for pound, for British taxpayers.
Departments that have taken this approach are already delivering results that ministers can be proud of.
Tecknuovo works with departments, including HMRC and DESNZ, delivering average savings of 20% across major digital transformation programmes while helping teams build long-term, in-house capability and reduce reliance on external contractors.
In each case, departments come away owning what has been built and able to run it independently. That is exactly the kind of outcome government is now asking departments to deliver.
Government's new Public Interest Test requires departments to assess whether any contract worth over £1m could be delivered more effectively in-house before any outsourcing decision is made. For those spending over £100m annually on contracts, insourcing strategies must now be published. Government has already identified how to meet that ambitious efficiency savings target – by working with sovereign partners to bring digital delivery in-house, departments will save taxpayers money.
It is a big step, and in the right direction. But the test only means something if departments have the capability to back it up. The Cabinet Office has set the mandate – now the priority is to turn that into genuine, lasting capability.
Government is asking more of its civil servants than ever before. Meeting that ask means owning the tools and knowledge to deliver, not cycling back to the same suppliers every time the contract ends. As a British company built to solve this problem, Tecknuovo is ready to help departments make that shift – keeping knowledge, capability and taxpayer value here in the UK, and helping the British government deliver more for less.
To find out more about Tecknuovo’s Zero Dependency approach to digital transformation, visit Tecknuovo: https://tecknuovo.com/