Looking back: CDPS year in review 2021 to 2022

After its first full year of operation, CDPS has very much moved beyond its own discovery stage into delivery mode. In 2022-23, we’ll be building upon the insights we gained, relationships we’ve founded and digital assets we delivered in our first year. We’ll use those results as a strong foundation for: 

• advocating for digital change across the Welsh public sector and showing how to achieve it 
• expanding our portfolio of exemplar projects that show what good digital public services look like 

As this review shows, we’ve developed extensive partnerships with public sector organisations keen to work with us. We’ve brought in suppliers and contractors who understand the Welsh context and digital development needs. This year, we’ll be engaging with an even broader set of organisations within Wales, widening our geographical spread while ensuring our commitment to bilingual service excellence. We’ll be communicating an inspiring vision of the benefits of digital change and offering practical help to achieve it. 

Our CEOs will continue to expand the influence of the convened Welsh chief digital officers group (including the health CDO, when in post). The group will advance clear, unified positions on the digital opportunities and challenges for Wales, as well as practical steps to address them. CDPS will also work closely with policy teams to push forward improvement and capitalise on the benefits of digital channels. 

CDPS has worked with the Welsh Government partnership team to agree upon a new remit letter, based upon the role and remit statement agreed by the CDPS board. To meet that remit, we’ll be supported by a new, permanent CDPS chairperson and board. We look forward to welcoming them in July.  

Through our partnership work, we’ve steadily raised the profile of CDPS throughout our first year. That profile will allow us to strengthen our work with existing partners, such as Natural Resources Wales, the Welsh Revenue Authority and Digital Health and Care Wales, in 2022-23. We’ll also be working across organisations to translate the recommendations from the Digital Landscape Review into action. For example, we’ll look at which organisations and users will benefit most from improving online forms. We’ll consider, too, where improving delivery and use of case management systems could have the most impact.

Our skills team will support people designing and running services in the Welsh public sector, putting Digital Standards at the heart of our training. Our training programme, Campws Digidol, will set a benchmark for digital education in Wales, co-designing courses, coaching and self-service resources with people and projects before expanding them. We’ll be bringing digital delivery, skills and standards together more cohesively, learning by doing in our partner organisations.  

To help to realise this vision, we’ll be filling new senior roles – a Head of User Centred Design and a Head of Technology. These roles will have a double responsibility: to ensure CDPS delivery is the best of good practice and to champion such practice and support organisations to achieve it in their own digital work. 

Our investment choices will be transparent, demonstrating our commitment to working in the open. Powerful comms will make the most of that transparency, showing our workings through YouTube updates, compelling blog posts and an influential social media following. We’ll relaunch our main comms platform, our website, based upon thorough research into user needs. Our comms will spark a pan-Wales conversation about practical ways of bringing digital change about and encouraging the new habits that underlie it. 

We feel we’ve made the case for CDPS in our first year. Our next year will be about consolidation. We’ll deepen our relationships with existing organisations and broaden relationships with new ones. And we’ll continue talking openly and convincingly about our work to transform digital services in Wales to meet the needs of the diverse people who use them.