Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
A significant gap persists between demand and supply for government digital specialists.
Recommendation
When we examined the challenges in implementing digital change in December 2021, we concluded that there was a large gap between the demand for, and supply of, the digital specialists that government needed, and that it was hard to get the right balance of in-house and outsourced skills.24 In response, in February 2022, CDDO committed to creating 14 C&AG’s Report, paras 9, 18, 22 15 C&AG’s Report, paras 9, 22 16 Q 24 17 Q 25 18 Qq 13–14 and C&AG Report, figure 3 19 Qq 19–20 20 Qq 13–14 21 Qq 14, 20 22 Q 15 23 Qq 29, 78 24 Committee of Public Accounts, Thirtieth Report of Session 2021–22, Challenges in implementing digital change, HC 637, 10 December 2021 12 Tackling Defra’s ageing digital services a consistent, streamlined process for Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) recruitment which would enable a consistent, streamlined process through which government would identify, assess, onboard and deploy DDaT talent. It explained that this would align departments with the DDaT capability framework and associated remuneration offer to further support recruitment and retention.25
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, stating it is implemented through ongoing initiatives led by CDDO to reduce the digital skills gap and improve DDaT recruitment, including the DDaT Pay Framework, bulk recruitment, and Defra's specific talent growth programs.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented. The government’s commitment to build digital skills at scale and reducing reliance on contingent labour, is set out in the 2025 Roadmap for Digital and Data. Across government, CDDO is leading a number of initiatives to reduce the overall digital skills gap. CDDO is enabling departments to reform pay via the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Pay Framework, with 32 organisations already signed up and able to recycle funds that would have been used for contractors into funding for capability-based pay progression. CDDO has also facilitated bulk and brigaded recruitment campaigns across government and is working in partnership with Government People Group as part of their broader work to improve recruitment across the civil service. CDDO is enhancing government’s early talent offer: it has delivered a Summer Diversity Intern Programme (54 interns across 16 depts); the DDaT fast stream (175 fast streamers on 2020-22 cohorts and 102 bids received for 2023’s programme); Tech Smart Futures (20 students from low socio-economic backgrounds); Software Developer Graduate Programme (14 graduates finishing in Autumn 2024); DDaT Apprentices (679). In Defra specifically, the department is adopting a range of new approaches to recruit DDaT civil servants. The key ones are: • using digital market analysis and job text analyser tools to develop understanding of the digital recruitment market and to make job roles more accessible to a wider and more diverse audience. • collating evidence to support business cases for higher starting salaries in Defra’s priority ‘hard to recruit’ roles. • working with recruitment partners to target some of the priority hard to recruit roles and building a resourcing pipeline focusing on the development of academies, recruit-train- deploy schemes, and apprenticeships. • minimising the risk of candidates withdrawing by reducing time to hire and improving the candidate experience. • establishing Digital Academies that focus on growing Defra’s own talent to replace contractors. • maximising its use of the DDaT Pay framework. • having dedicated LinkedIn page for its digital team (2,500 followers currently) to post weekly jobs of the week videos, blog posts to sell benefits and what DDTS life is like for candidates to understand Defra’s culture. This has seen an increase in applications from LinkedIn by 20%; and • increasing its use of external websites for DDaT roles (Defra’s analysis shows that 20% of applicants for these roles have applied via LinkedIn and 10% on Indeed). Defra is working towards a target of 25% of headcount being contingent labour (with the remaining 75% being civil servants) for the end of 2023-24; and 12% of headcount being contingent labour (with the remaining 88% being civil servants) by the end of 2024-25.