How can CDPS make these guidelines for better services in Wales useful to you, the providers of Welsh public services – asks our interim Head of Standards, Rhiannon Lawson

2 March 2022

CDPS wants to work with you to develop standards guidance that makes sense © Artem Sapegin/Unsplash

The Centre for Digital Public Services developed the Digital Service Standards to help organisations create better public services for the people of Wales.

Consistently applied standards are the basis for

  • a common approach to digital development and use of technology
  • meeting the needs of the people who use public services (‘user needs’)
  • systems and services being able to work with each other (‘interoperability’)
  • processes that allow teams to iterate, fail fast and continuously improve – efficiently producing services that work

Real-life examples

Yet standards do not work on their own. They need guidance explaining how they work and providing real-life examples.

Unfortunately, some standards and guidance leave you more confused than before you started reading them. That’s why CDPS wants to work with you to develop guidance that makes sense. We think guidance needs to be:

  • written in plain English and plain Welsh (not ‘expert speak’)
  • practical – geared towards helping you design and build better services in your organisation

But that’s what we think. We need to hear from you – to understand your needs and get your buy-in from the start.

Get in touch

As part of my induction in the new role of Head of Standards, I’m keen to speak to as many of you – people working in the Welsh public sector – as possible in the coming weeks. Do email me to arrange a meeting.

I’ll be asking people:

  • Are the standards clear?
  • What would help you and your organisation to adopt them?
  • What resources would be most useful?

Our team – the standards team – will be working in the open and blogging about our progress, so keep an eye on the blog to find out more.