We have been working with the taxi policy team in Welsh Government to understand the needs of people who operate and use taxis and private hire vehicles. This was a project to explore how we could make government policy and legislation more user-centred.
We first started working together towards the end of 2022 when I was invited to one of the project board meetings. It was at this point in time that the policy team were drafting white papers that had digital or technology solutions. Being a new digital organisation in Wales, we were invited along as an advisor.
The team had very clear ambitions and had done a lot of work with policy makers and officers across government in Wales, including Welsh Government and local authorities. The team came up with a solution to solve some of the challenges taxis in Wales were facing through a database.
When I joined that meeting, I asked why.
This was the start of a great relationship to better explore how digital and technology could help meet policy aims and these conversations led to a collaborative project, (a discovery) that started in September 2023.
Taking time to reflect
If you have paid attention to timescales, you can spot that we didn't jump into a discovery straight away. We were talking for some time before we decided to work together. And that's really positive. At CDPS, we are here to support and help when needed and this doesn't always result in doing projects together.
The discovery took place in autumn 2023 and challenged assumptions and help put users and their needs at the forefront. This meant we had the opportunity to change the heart of the work going forward, to influence policy and legislation.
New ways of working
We worked in an Agile way, which means we worked across organisational boundaries to create a multidisciplinary team and worked in short sharp phases of work called ‘sprints’. We also reflected on the work through regular retros which allowed us to look at what went well and not so well and change how to approach the next sprint.
This way of working and working in the open was a completely new concept to the taxi team at Welsh Government but Taxi Bill Manager, Adrian Davies, now sees it as something he wants to continue doing:
“We have done quite a bit of engagement around the Taxi Bill, but we have tended to deal with one group of stakeholders at a time. There is something powerful and democratic about the show and tell format where we show something we are working on to gather feedback and anyone can ask anything. I certainly plan to look for opportunities to continue this way of working and I will encourage others to do the same.”
Pausing for thought
After this piece of work, we did a short technical feasibility phase as a follow up to some of the findings. We spent a few weeks unpicking business processes and the technical landscape in taxi licensing to gain a better understanding of how we could best share data across local government and Welsh Government. This work will be considered when the time is right but, right now, we are not progressing with the findings from this technical feasibility.
We possibly should have or could have stopped at the end of discovery, and there's a few, good reasons for that, but the information we have now is different to the information available at the time. (Hindsight is a wonderful thing!). This is where Agile ways of working really make a difference and ensure we stop, pause and continue with continuous reflection and critical challenge.
In December 2023, the First Minister announced that he was stepping down from his position. The timing with these sorts of projects is everything with the political landscape having a large influence on the work. With a new First Minister and Cabinet now appointed, it is important we take time before rushing forward with this work. With this political context, it was vital that we put the brakes on and don't make expensive decisions at this time.
Does this mean that the 2-week piece of work, the feasibility study, was a waste of time? No. It was the right thing to do and the right decision with the information we had available at the time. When things changed around us, we stopped.
I am immensely proud of this partnership with Welsh Government and how continuous reflection and acting on data has led us here. I cannot express enough how collaborative the work has been and how we have learned more about policy making and legislation at CDPS as a result.
I want to send a very personal thank you to Adrian, Sean and Leigh at Welsh Government for being open, user-centred and being part of the team.
What’s next
Well, we don't know. At CDPS, we are committed to continuous reflection and learning. We will always prioritise the highest impact and biggest value of work. We will never push forward work unless we are certain it will add value.
