{"id":38317,"date":"2014-01-29T13:34:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T13:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=d0cae7929b6798596d65ffe20e80a4b7"},"modified":"2014-01-29T13:34:57","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T13:34:57","slug":"speech-sprint-14-speech-by-francis-maude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=38317","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Sprint 14: speech by Francis Maude"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s a pleasure to welcome you here today. <\/p>\n

I remember how many of us struggled through the snow this time last year to Sprint 13 at the QEII Centre. <\/p>\n

Then we set out a bold ambition to make 25 major public services fully digital. <\/p>\n

We gave ourselves just 400 working days to deliver this transformation. One year on \u2013 200 working days in \u2013 we can reveal some of those digital services for the first time. <\/p>\n

This time we\u2019re at the London Film Museum\u2026so perhaps I should subtitle this speech \u201cClose Encounters of the Digital Kind\u201d\u2026or \u201cHoney I Shrunk the Costs.\u201d <\/p>\n

In fairness, no one will ever \u2013 probably \u2013 make a Hollywood film about our work. <\/p>\n

People don\u2019t choose to work for government to be famous or rich. They want to make a difference and to contribute to the future of their country.<\/p>\n

But actually increasingly our digital agenda is bringing the \u201cwow\u201d factor to how the UK government is viewed especially abroad.
\nWe\u2019re showing that it\u2019s possible for government to be at the forefront of innovation.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re showing that it\u2019s possible to make public services better while saving taxpayers\u2019 money \u2013 perhaps the holy grail of efficiency.<\/p>\n

Today is designed to give you a glimpse of how and why.<\/p>\n

Transformation<\/h2>\n

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone he spoke of the icons being so bright and clear that people would want to \u201click them right off the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, we didn\u2019t exactly have that in mind when the guys designed the government\u2019s new website, GOV.UK, but the look and feel certainly mattered.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear, consistent and uncluttered. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019re proud it beat off the Shard and the Olympic cauldron to win the coveted \u2013 and unsought – Design Museum Award \u2013 eat your heart out Thomas Heatherwick. <\/p>\n

But design is about more than appearance.<\/p>\n

Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple\u2019s British born designer, put it best when he said:<\/p>\n

\u2018The word design is everything and nothing. We think of design as not just the product\u2019s appearance: it\u2019s what the product is and how it works. The design and the product are inseparable.\u2019<\/p>\n

So what does that mean for government?<\/p>\n

It means putting users at the heart of public services.<\/p>\n

Only when you know what people need, how they want it delivered and how they\u2019ll use it do you even begin to think about building the technology. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a theme that runs through this government \u2013 whether ensuring the primacy of patients\u2019 needs in the NHS; or designing education services around the requirements of children and parents. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious really – but too easily forgotten when bureaucracies become too large, too powerful or too remote. <\/p>\n

So digital by default isn\u2019t about swapping paper or telephone based services for digital ones as an end in itself.<\/p>\n

Digital-by-default is a change to the whole way we design and deliver services.<\/p>\n

A chance to revolutionise public services in the way that eBay and Amazon have revolutionised the marketplace.<\/p>\n

And to renew the relationship between citizens and the state\u2026just as Skype has brought people closer together and Facebook keeps people connected.<\/p>\n

Exemplars<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s not to say previous governments haven\u2019t tried.<\/p>\n

Back in 1999, the Modernising Government White Paper proposed that half of government services should be delivered electronically by 2005 and all of them by 2008. <\/p>\n

But progress was piecemeal to say the least. The old online \u2013 in inverted commas – student loan application process ended by printing out a 30 page form to sign and send off by post.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no good reason for government transactions to be that complex. The airline industry contends with numerous complex regulations. Yet you can cut through them all to book a flight with a few clicks. <\/p>\n

So how is it different this time?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about delivery.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re changing things by doing them, not by talking about them. We\u2019re the JFDI school of government. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve started with a first wave of 25 exemplars. Our objective is to create digital services that are so good, people choose to use them.<\/p>\n

Of course, they\u2019re not going to be perfect first time \u2013 nor will they ever be. It\u2019s an iterative process. It doesn\u2019t end when the service goes live. It will evolve. The feedback will continue \u2013 and so will the refinements. <\/p>\n

And the proof of success is whether people use them or not.<\/p>\n

Take the Carer\u2019s Allowance<\/a> for example.<\/p>\n

Already 45% of applicants are using our online beta.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the result of an expensive marketing campaign to force people to shift.<\/p>\n

The service is good enough that people have chosen to use it \u2013 voting with their fingers and mice\u2026<\/p>\n

We are here today to show, not to tell.<\/p>\n

Ministers and senior officials from several government departments are going to demonstrate 5 of our new digital services.<\/p>\n