Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
Cabinet Office lacks plan for developing specialist digital skills and commercial capability
Recommendation
The NAO found that Cabinet Office does not have a plan for how it will develop the specialist digital skills or commercial capability required. In an area as important as digital procurement, it found that it was essential that government had “a clear view of the skills it needs, the gaps and the actions required to fill them”.27 We therefore asked what Cabinet Office and DSIT were doing to address that gap. Cabinet Office told us that it was 24 Qq 51, 57 25 Q 57 26 Q 51 27 C&AG’s Report, paras 11, 2.21 14 looking at introducing annual capability assessments for every government function, and it was hoping to re–introduce departmental capability reviews to enable it to “understand what the landscape looks like”. When asked how long this would take, Cabinet Office said that it did not think that it would take a long time to implement, but that the harder thing would be to make it work effectively.28
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and will, by December 2025, address digital skills gaps by having the DCCoE lead a category-based structure for digital skills, testing a proof of concept through the Central Buying project, and setting up a Commercial IT Directors Group to share knowledge and insights.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2025 3.2 The government will progress the following actions which we will be able to update the PAC on in December 2025. 3.3 Following publication of the NAO Report and to support the Committee’s recommendation the following actions are being taken forward to address capability gaps and increase skills across government. • The Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence (DCCoE) will lead the development of a category-based structure to unify digital skills and capabilities to commercial technical skills. • The proof of concept will be tested through the Central Buying project for the delivery of Cloud and End User Devices and iterated to ensure wider adoption can be achieved. • A Commercial IT Directors Group will be set up to ensure that thought leadership, capability, knowledge, and insights can be shared to support the delivery of increased capability, and the targets set out in the Blueprint for a modern digital government. 3.4 GCF Capability, working with DCCoE, have agreed a strategic approach and baselined current capability levels, and identified available current training provision that will raise capability for those GCF individuals who are not currently at the expert level (see response 4.2 below).