A better way
Pouring more money in isn't the only answer
If Wales wants to rise to the challenge of improving public services, we have to change how we design and deliver them.
That means putting people first, adopting modern and open ways of working, drawing on the best digital practices to build services that are simple, efficient, and designed around real life-needs.
In practice, this means we:
Before designing policy or implementing technology, we need to understand the problem – and the people affected by it. That means doing first-hand research. Instead of making assumptions or relying on surveys, we need to: This helps us focus on outcomes, not pre-decided solutions. It’s how we design services that work across organisational boundaries, reduce avoidable complexity, and minimise costly errors. By truly understanding the complex lives of the people of Wales, we can design services that bridge the fragmented offerings across local authorities, central government and the NHS. This avoids wasting time and money designing or building solutions that do not get used – or worse, create bigger problems down the line. By designing services around user needs, staff can concentrate their efforts where human judgement and care make the biggest difference. Transformation doesn’t happen in documents or plans – it happens in teams. Successful digital delivery depends on small, multidisciplinary teams that bring together: These teams are the unit of delivery. They work iteratively, learn fast, and adapt to change. They’re empowered to make decisions throughout the life of the service – and accountable for outcomes, not just outputs. This approach challenges the usual top-down silos in the public sector. It helps teams work faster and more efficiently by removing barriers and creating a shared understanding. As the needs of the service evolve, so does the team. But the investment in people, knowledge and trust remains – supporting long-term progress. Government services are complex. People don’t always behave as expected, life is messy, and priorities shift. That’s why a test and learn approach matters. Instead of years gathering requirements, procuring, and building an oversized solution that arrives late, over budget, or not at all, teams start small. They focus on the biggest needs, test risky assumptions, and deliver improvements in small steps. This reduces costs and uncertainty as they go, while quickly releasing value to the public. This approach: All of this builds trust and confidence over time, for both users and government. Working in the open means showing your work as it happens. This includes: Openness builds trust with users, stakeholders and delivery partners. It improves governance, makes dependencies visible, and helps retain knowledge across teams.
It also creates momentum for change. The more people can see the story, the more they can support it and continue the work. Today, teams can spin up infrastructure in seconds, build prototypes in minutes, and combine proven tools to create complex services in weeks. Yet in Wales, we still depend too much on outsourcing and big overseas tech companies, often putting all our key services with just one supplier. That’s risky: prices can go up, services can be switched off without warning, and our most important systems become more vulnerable to serious cyber attacks. The alternative is to build with modern Digital Public Infrastructure and open source tools. These are reusable building blocks designed for usability, accessibility, and scale. For example: Shifting from buying to building requires modern skills like cloud engineering, infrastructure orchestration, and software development. But it pays off. It gives public services more control, reduces wasteful vendor lock-in, and creates opportunities for smaller, more agile suppliers – including Welsh companies – to contribute. Opening up public service technology delivery can play a strong role in growing the Welsh economy, keeping talent in Wales and tapping into our universities, our strong cyber cluster, and vibrant fintech sector. Building with Digital Public Infrastructure helps governments move faster, keep spending local, and stay resilient and sovereign while meeting people’s expectations. None of this is radical. These approaches are now the standard in the most effective organisations, public and private. In the UK, the Government Digital Service (GDS) codified these ways of working more than a decade ago. Since then, major services like Renew your passport, Register to Vote, and Lasting Powers of Attorney have been transformed using these principles. They’ve since become common practice around the world: in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US and beyond. In Wales, the System Reboot report made the case for digital public service reform in 2018. It called for: Systems Reboot led to the creation of the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) and the Digital Service Standard for Wales. Progress has been made. But the scale and pace of change still isn’t close to what’s needed. Even though System Reboot and CDPS set strong foundations, big cultural and systemic barriers have slowed real change. Many organisations use the right language, but the deeper shifts in mindset and practice haven’t happened. This means we’re still stuck with short-term fixes instead of long-term transformation. We believe the next Welsh Government should make a clear shift from programmes and projects to teams and services. It’s a chance to:1. Start with people, not solutions
2. Organise around multidisciplinary teams
3. Test, learn and adapt
4. Work in the open
5. Own and build the digital plumbing
This is not new