The strategy is written in GDS’s inimitable style – with clear statements as to how the Government will “transform the relationship between citizens and the state” and “make government itself a digital organisation”, as well as detail on successes so far.

Objectives not only cover the continued development of world class digital services, but also:

  • growing the right people, skills and culture
  • building better workplace tools processes and governance
  • making better use of data
  • creating shared platforms to speed up transformation

Each section in the document ends with a list of clear priorities up to 2020, and the strategy also includes detail on expectations for government beyond 2020.

In a foreword, Ben Gummer MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, writes:

The imperative is to change…and to do so at pace and at scale. This is the meaning of transformation. It is in essence a change of working, of culture and of disposition – changes that are made possible by digital technology.

That technology is not change itself; it enables the change that is so transformative.

Since its foundation in 2011, GDS has attracted much praise for its ‘Digital by Default’ strategy, the concept of ‘Government as a Platform’, and its work on service design such as GOV.UK Verify.

In 2015, Mike Bracken, the leader of GDS since its inception, moved to Co-op along with some other former GDS colleagues, becoming Chief Digital Officer and implementing a similar programme of change.

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