This workshop helped participants to tackle some of the key challenges identified in our research, and fostered the development of relationships, networks and projects to hasten progress over future years. We used the information gathered – including a survey of participants’ views, and their comments during the 90-minute discussion – within our second Digital Leaders report.

People and skills

Wednesday 27 April 2022 (Online)

Over the last decade, many governments have created central digital teams to drive progress and support departments. And, offering good training, flexible working and a sense of purpose, they have built large workforces of junior digital professionals within line departments.

The development of in-house digital delivery teams has helped governments to shift away from the discredited model under which civil servants defined the IT system they required, then commissioned a big IT firm to build it – an approach that failed to reliably produce workable IT systems.

To improve governments’ digital delivery capabilities, however, further action is required to build career pathways, strengthen skills and boost capacity. This workshop explored the development of cross-government digital and data professions, discussing the structures, systems and powers required to introduce coherent workforce management.