CDPS exists to help improve digital public services in Wales and to help us do this, we work with teams to embed the Digital Service Standards for Wales.

By using established user-centred practices that have been developed, tested and improved, we ensure that our services work for the people who rely on them, as well as the teams who deliver them. 

The Digital Service Standards for Wales are a high-level method of communicating the expectations for all Welsh digital services. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all – this is why we’re keen to help leaders and teams talk through how they are meeting the standards. We’re still learning and working to make the Digital Service Standards for Wales more valuable.

This is why we are very thankful to the StatsWales team and Marvell Consulting for the opportunity to review the alpha phase of the new StatsWales 3 service, against the Digital Service Standards and to help the team move into beta.

StatsWales

The StatsWales service is a platform to publish, analyse and download statistical data from across Wales. The team in Welsh Government is working with supplier, Marvell Consulting, to develop the new product. The multidisciplinary team wanted to demonstrate how they were meeting the service standards, and ensure they were on the right path.

The assessment

The assessment was essentially a call over Microsoft Teams. The Marvell Consulting team and the service owner shared their work from the alpha. This consisted of showing us their user research, how they’ve mapped their user journeys, and how they’ve worked together with other data organisations to determine their technical decisions. Throughout this, the team were able to evidence the benefits of using Agile methodology and best practice.

We found that the team were able to answer our questions and build that all important confidence in their ways of working. Meeting the standards, especially in alpha, is less about finding a single correct answer and more about being able to solve problems and meet user needs. 

We also found that we were able to provide existing supporting material to support the team as they continued. The team at Marvell Consulting are very familiar with best practice for digital services but two of the standards are unique to Welsh services, so we had some great conversations and advice to support the team specifically with bilingual design and meeting the needs of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

I have been very impressed with all the work to date, and it was a great experience for us at CDPS to run through a real service being developed by such an amazing team and supplier, and to see how practical and applicable the service standards are.

Future plans and aspirations

Taking what we’ve learned here, we can see how service assessments will be a core tool to making those connections and sharing information that solves problems. The greater visibility we have of services being developed across Wales, the more evidence we have for what works well.

We recognise that services vary massively from project to project, team to team. Whilst we can definitely firm up our processes to ensure consistency in our outputs, we want to maintain the qualitative, conversational nature of assessing how a service can meet the standard. After all, we’re here to improve services, not to withhold an arbitrary stamp. 

Next steps

Our work with StatsWales doesn’t end here. We remain part of the project board, and we’ve committed to working closely with the team to support them up to the go-live date.

In the short term, we’re looking at how best to open this opportunity up to as many services as we can.

Truly embedding the standards across every service in Wales is a massive task, but one which gets easier, if we share what we learn together.

CDPS is here to support and develop the public sector, not lecture or mark. Ultimately, our aspiration is that the service standards are supported by all the knowledge, information and connected digital professionals needed to allow organisations to assess themselves either internally or alongside their peers.

Until we get there, CDPS will play our part in connecting people, expertise and tools.