Digital Diplomacy: Q&A with the UK’s Government Digital Service 🇬🇧

Guest post by GDS

What is the mission of GDS and how do you work? What are your values and strategies?

We help the UK government work better for everyone by leading the digital transformation of public services. We build and improve government services so they’re easier to use, for example you can now renew your passport online. We use digital to transform the relationship between the citizen and the state and to guide us we have the Government Transformation Strategy 2017 to 2020​.

To help us prioritise our work we have 4 values: Show what good looks like, solve the hardest problems, help government transform and reflect the society we serve.

What kind of people and skill-sets make up your team? What do you look for in candidates?

We look for talented individuals who put users at the heart of their work. We value openness, collaboration, innovation and passion. We also want to build teams as diverse as the society we serve; different backgrounds and perspectives help us challenge and test our own thinking, which helps us deliver much better outcomes for the public.

There are a wide range of jobs at GDS; people here work in content design, delivery management, design, software engineering and more. Lots of the jobs here are found on the ​Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework​, a cross-government tool that sets out common job roles and career paths.

We want GDS to be a great place to work. To see and hear what working at GDS is like you should read our blogs, particularly our ​GDS Blog​ and our ​Digital People blog​.

What has GDS learned from talking to other digital service groups around the world?

We collaborate with digital governments around the world to share our knowledge and expertise, and also to learn from others. We host international delegations at GDS, where we exchange knowledge and people can come to learn from our in-house expertise. In 2017 and 2018, we hosted 140 delegations here in London. Our impact on digital governments has been amplified by our commitment to openness, and has allowed our work to be beneficial thousands of miles away.

We have been collaborating with governments and organisations around the world on the topic of digital identity, with a focus on developing interoperable standards. We have a vast

amount of knowledge and experience in this area but also learn from others on their successful implementation of digital identity schemes.

As part of the ​eIDAS Cooperation Network​, we have been participating in peer reviews of identity schemes used in Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Estonia and others. We learned how their schemes operate and how they meet the necessary standards under eIDAS regulation, enabling interoperability between the member states.

What are a few of your current projects and how are they making an impact in government?

At GDS, we run​ ​GOV.UK​. This is the trusted source of government information and services and a critical communications channel. We are always improving it to ensure it meets the needs of the millions of people that use it each week, with an average of 3 million visits a day.

A large part of this has been about moving to a data-led publishing operation, so that content designers understand how their information is performing with users. We’ve also improved how government services and information is joined up by ​creating step-by-step navigations​. This type of navigation allows the user to see everything they’ll need to do to complete a task, for example ​Visit the UK on a business trip​ or ​buy a vehicle​. Coupled with using machine learning to improve the site taxonomy and navigation between pieces of content, we can see significant improvements in how easily people find and complete their interaction with government. This is also aided by ​our voice assistant work with GOV.UK​. It is now possible to find more than 12,000 pieces of government content on GOV.UK via a smart speaker.

We also want to share two of our projects that have an international focus.

The ​GDS Academy​ provides people with the digital and technology skills needed to transform public services. We recently ​celebrated training 10,000 students​ and our model has influenced ​other international governments to set up their own versions​. It is recognised as an expert provider of training, accredited by the ​Learning and Performance Institute​.

The ​Global Digital Marketplace​ is helping other governments around the world make procurement more transparent and this helps tackle corruption. ​We’re working with national and regional governments​ in South Africa, Mexico, Colombia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

What is a challenge the team has to work through?

At GDS, and across the UK Government, accessibility should be a part of everything we make and design. As everyone must interact with government in some way, we want to make sure there are no barriers to prevent someone using a service. And, we must comply with ​new accessibility regulations​ that came into force at the end of last year.

One of the ways of making your service as accessible as possible is to test it on assistive technologies. However, we know that some public sector organisations, especially local government, can struggle to get access to these technologies.

To help overcome this, ​we created an accessibility lab at GDS​. Any government or public sector employee is able to visit to learn more about accessibility and also use it as an assistive technology testing space.

We also blogged about ​how you can use assistive technologies​ at no cost.

Are there any recent milestones, accomplishments, or upcoming things you’d like to share?

Yes! We’ll be in San Francisco on 29 May with our ​International Design in Government Day at the Code for America Summit 2019​. From setting up the International Design in Government community in 2017, we are now taking it global in 2019 with ​events in the USA, Scotland and the Netherlands​.

For our first overseas event, we’ll be coordinating a full day of activities, including keynote talks, interactive sessions and panel discussions under the theme ‘Designing better government’. The event is open to designers in government, designers in civic tech, and designers interested in the field.

We’re also hosting our flagship event, Sprint, around the UK this year. The event showcases the best examples of transformation, collaboration and innovation. Our final event in the series, ​Sprint 19, will be held in London​ in September and you’ll be able to read about it on our ​GDS blog​ afterwards.

We hope to see you at one of the events!

The best of technology.
The best of government.
And we want you.
We’re looking for the most tenacious designers, software engineers, product managers, and more, who are committed to untangling, rewiring and redesigning critical government services. You’ll join a team of the most talented technologists from across the private sector and government.
If you have questions regarding employment with the U.S. Digital Service, please contact us at usds@omb.eop.gov or visit our Hiring FAQ.