“We believe designing and delivering great public services in Wales should be easier and more inspiring! Services that are dependable, inclusive, and truly shaped around the real needs of the people who use them every day.” 

Our new permanent Head of Standards and Product, Jemima Montieth-Thomas, sets out her vision to improve services across Wales.  

The Digital Service Standard for Wales plays a key role and is the backbone of how services can meet the needs of those who use them. The Standard is a set of twelve guiding principles that help to set the scene for what good public services in Wales look like. These principles are divided into three sections: meet user needs, create digital teams and use the right technology.  

It doesn’t matter what part of the public sector your service is in, who the service is for, or whether it’s large, small or somewhere in-between – if you design it to meet the Standard, you can be confident that you’re creating a good service that’s accessible and easy for people in Wales to use.  

The Standard is also an essential part of how we can achieve the aim set out in the Digital Strategy for Wales to deliver and modernise services so that they are designed around user needs and are simple, secure and convenient. 

Where we are right now 

Whilst service standards aren’t a new concept, we’re still fairly early on in the journey here in Wales. That’s exciting though – it gives us a real opportunity to learn from what other countries have done and shape it to make it work for us, making sure that we’re continually learning and adapting based on user feedback (as per principle 8 of the Standard!).

Ultimately, we want all services in Wales, new and existing, to meet the Standard. But we know we’ve got a lot of work to do before we get there. 
For now, the key goals are to:

  1. make sure people who are designing and delivering public services in Wales know about the Standard and understand it’s value and how they can use it 
  2. continue to create easy to follow guidance and resources that will help people understand how to meet the Standard which includes expanding the Service Manual so that it provides guidance on meeting all 12 principles of the Standard 
  3. build a collective ambition across public sector leaders to meet the Standard across all organisations and services in Wales 
  4. develop Service Assessments in Wales so teams can get feedback and guidance from their peers which will help us assure the quality of services and measure them against the Standard 
  5. share learning and get feedback through Communities of Practice, Service Assessments and by working in the open (principle 9 of the Standard!) 
  6. continue to work with the Digital and Data Standards Board for Wales to expand the catalogue of agreed standards for Wales – we want to help people understand which other standards apply when designing and delivering public sector services and support greater consistency and quality across the sector

How you can help

All the work we do at CDPS is underpinned by the Standard, and we’re committed to providing the drive and support that’s needed to make this a reality right across the public sector in Wales. But we can’t do this on our own – we need your help to:

  1. start talking about the Standard - tell your colleagues and share across your networks 
  2. start using the Standard – whether that’s thinking about how you might consider one or two points or committing wholeheartedly 
  3. work in the open – this is one of the twelve principles of the Standard and it’s an important way of sharing our learning 
  4. join one of our Communities of Practice

And finally, we’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback about the Standard and the work we’re doing, so please do get in touch by emailing standards@digitalpublicservices.gov.wales