CDPS year in review 2021–22: objectives
4. Our delivery objectives
CDPS’s four objectives enlarge upon our mission of helping to transform public services in Wales in a digital, user-centred way. This section of the year in review restates our objectives and maps them to our activities in 2021-22. The next section describes those activities in detail.
4.1 Objective: Help people in Wales to use modern digital services
Help ensure people in Wales can use modern, simple, secure and efficient digital public services that use data properly and ethically
CDPS helped to bring the benefits of modern digital services, designed around people’s researched and tested needs, to Wales in 2021-22, by:
- using multidisciplinary teams of digital experts to develop services in partnership with other public sector organisations
- developing and promoting the Digital Service Standards for Wales and other digital resources
Through its partnerships and its digital standards work, CDPS has come to be seen as a trusted adviser in the user-centred digital transformation of services.
4.2 Objective: Prepare leaders for digital transformation
Inspire and upskill public service leaders across Wales in digital transformation
Digital transformation of Welsh public services can only happen if public sector leaders are, first, convinced of the benefits of transformation. They must then know how to carry out such transformation at scale and encourage the cultural changes to support it.
Those goals are some of the outcomes CDPS intends for the popular digital courses for leaders and staff that we’ve rolled out in 2021-22 and for our webinars and communities of practice.
Public sector leaders in Wales have engaged strongly with our senior-level courses and with our other ways of learning. They’ve revealed through social media and other feedback that they’ve been inspired to try new ways of working and encourage that shift among colleagues.
4.3 Objective: Stimulate the digital economy
Contribute to stimulating innovation in our economy by helping others to support businesses in developing the resilience they need to succeed in a digital world
CDPS often works in the engine room of transformation, powering other public sector organisations to help others in turn. It’s our goal for Welsh businesses to recognise commercial opportunities in the digital transformation of the Welsh public sector. We hope in that way to encourage a vigorous emerging supplier market in digital.
CDPS smoothed the path for Welsh suppliers to apply for public sector digital contracts by, for example, designing plain English procurement templates. Small to medium companies often lack the resources, such as inhouse bid teams, that some larger firms have. These simpler documents should make it easier for smaller companies to tender for work.
Small to medium-sized businesses have also readily taken part in the 2 communities of practice CDPS has set up, including firms such as Athensys, Dai: lingual and YPod Cymru.
4.4 Objective: Build skills for digital engagement
Help others to ensure that the people of Wales develop the skills they need to engage with digital public services
Digital transformation means transformation for everyone – not just people who already have the digital skills to use online services. Public service accessibility is not merely a nice-to-have – services fail to the degree that they exclude sections of the public with, for example, disability or language barriers.
Inclusivity (including people) is crucial to CDPS’s approach to service design. We have in 2021-22:
- produced a digital inclusion directory for Wales
- used content designers, who specialise in creating accessible, user-centred content, in multidisciplinary teams
- promoted the Digital Service Standards for Wales, including standard 5 – ‘Make sure everyone can use the service’
This approach on several fronts signals how important CDPS sees accessibility and inclusion in service design.
