Recommendation 5

Departments have failed to develop a modern professional approach to IT operations needed to support business change and transformation and have created an over-reliance on outsourcing. Departmental IT functions are often not structured or funded in a way that allows them to run and update their core systems Challenges in implementing digital change 7 and support business transformation. This is not helped by the current problem of alignment between Spending Review allocations and annual funding and the need to deliver outcomes over long periods in major multi-billion-pound programmes, which have led to under-investment in resolving legacy system issues and in maintaining systems’ ongoing fitness for purpose. Government accepts the less successful programmes were typically excessively outsourced by departments who had a thinly resourced internal client function. This led to a dependence on external consultants who may have considerable expertise in some areas but who have little or noknowledge of the existing systems. Government also concedes that in the past it selected technology too early in programmes and incorporated it into supplier contracts, before fully understanding the business problem to be solved. This has inhibited flexibility and the ability to change direction when needed. Government has been slow to pivot or stop programmes when it has become clear they are not working, as typified by GOV.UK Verify. Recommendation: The Central Digital and Data Office should set out what departments need to put in place to improve the maturity of departments’ approach to IT operations and change including: • what the Intelligent Client Function should do; • what influence Digital specialist leaders should have; • who should be accountable and responsible for contracting; and • the assurance mechanisms at the beginning and throughout the lifecycle.