Mark Owens

Columnist

Mark Owens

Managing Director (NI) at Civica

Smaller But Smarter

With plans underway to abolish up to 90,000 jobs across the civil service, Civica’s Mark Owens explains why a smaller civil service must be a smarter civil service.

Last month, civil servants across the UK received a letter from Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlining plans for a 20% reduction in the size of the service. With Brexit and the pandemic no longer demanding the enormous levels of time and resource they once did, ministers are aiming for a leaner civil service which will be, according to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, “fit and ready for the challenges of the future”.

From the rapidly escalating cost-of-living crisis to the climate crisis, these ‘future challenges’ are already plain to see. But a civil service which is one-fifth smaller will struggle to tackle these challenges unless it becomes smarter.

Tapping the digital goldmine

From Whitehall to Stormont, civil servants, with their skills, knowledge and experience, are fundamental to the delivery of effective public services. We saw this first-hand during the pandemic, with education, healthcare and other key services continuing largely uninterrupted in every corner of Northern Ireland, despite the incredibly challenging circumstances.

But our public services sit on another vital resource, which, at the moment, is largely untapped. I’m referring to data. From executive departments to arms-length bodies to local councils, our public bodies here in Northern Ireland are sitting on a vast digital goldmine of data, which is growing by the day as our society becomes more digitised. Untapped data is more than just information lying idle on a spreadsheet or a hard drive; it is a missed opportunity to deliver real change for the people and communities who need it most. Data, used to its full potential, can empower a smaller civil service to make smarter decisions, with fewer resources. Data, in other words, is a vital public asset whose true value hasn’t been fully realised.

Demystifying data – Standards, Skills & Sharing

So how, then, can a smaller civil service harness this crucial resource? Where should civil servants begin? The answer is relatively straightforward – easier in fact than you might imagine. At Civica, we refer to the ‘three Ss’ – Standards, Skills and Sharing.

Standards

From symptom checking to proving vaccination status, the rapid deployment of digital technologies to protect lives during the pandemic was a prime example of what can be achieved when data is managed and used effectively. For the most part, however, data is still collected and stored across our public bodies using a whole range of formats, with little consistency, making it much harder for officials to form a clear view of the needs of the population at scale, at the local level, or indeed even at the level of the individual citizen. By applying consistent standards and rules right across the civil service for the collection, storage and re-use of data, officials can make smarter decisions, with greater confidence in the outcomes they’re delivering.

Skills

You don’t need to be a data scientist to work with data. Far from it. As private citizens, we all use data to make smarter decisions, such as when we book a hotel or restaurant based on someone else’s TripAdvisor recommendation. Our public servants do, however, need to be able to understand and exploit data in a way that’s relevant to their role. With the right tools, training and systems, people at all levels of public service delivery, including those in frontline roles, could make better use of data to guide smarter, more innovative decisionmaking, thereby ensuring the best outcomes for the people they serve.

Sharing

But standards and skills alone won’t cut it. The final hurdle to be overcome is data sharing. For all of us, data sharing is now a fact of life. From online shopping to clicking ‘Accept all Cookies’ every time we visit a new website, we know that we leave a digital footprint everywhere we go. For public bodies, the cumulative wealth of data they collect could offer a unique, holistic view of the needs of each citizen. Utility providers, health services and local authorities, for instance, each hold data on those in vulnerable circumstances such as people struggling to pay bills. By sharing their data in a transparent and secure manner, public service providers can better understand the needs of each citizen they serve and offer solutions which are tailored to individual circumstances.

Doing more with less

The UK government appears committed to its plans for a large-scale reduction in the headcount across the civil service and this will impact each part of the UK, including Northern Ireland. ‘Doing more with less’ is never going to be a popular refrain – not least when it comes to our vital public services. However, we need to accept that ‘doing more with less’ is going to become the reality. By exploiting the valuable data they already hold and by embracing cuttingedge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Application Programming Interface (API) to ensure better, smarter decision-making, there’s no doubt that public services from Belfast to Birmingham can continue to deliver vital services effectively and with fewer resources.