The pre-election period
In the coming weeks, you will notice that it’s much quieter than usual on this blog and all the other blogs run by GDS. It’s because between midnight on Friday, 21 April and the general election on 8...
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Breaking in a new generation of public speakers
The work of GDS to address the digital diversity problem is ongoing. Part of this effort is making sure that it champions difference. Last year, we decided that “no-one from GDS will take part in a...
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New minister pays a visit to GDS’s new HQ
There was a bit of a buzz at GDS on Tuesday as we welcomed our new minister Caroline Nokes to the new home of GDS in Whitechapel. This was an early chance for the minister to get a deeper understanding...
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Finding things: how we’re breaking down the silos on GOV.UK
We’ve been working on a project we’ve called Finding Things, which we’re now calling Group and Transform Content. Its aim is to make it easier for GOV.UK users to find the content they need on the...
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Working in the open: why being inclusive matters
It’s LGBT+ Pride until 9 July and people from GDS will be joining the Pride in London march to mark the event. Pride is important because it’s an annual celebration of openness and inclusion. But at...
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Designed for users and their designs: the latest service from IPO
Jamie Edwards is a user researcher within the Customer Insight team at Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Apply to register a design on GOV.UK We have recently passed a ‘live’ service assessment for...
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Building digital, data and technology capability for government
I joined the Government Digital Service (GDS) as Director of Capability, for the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession in April. My job is to lead the cross-government strategy to help...
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Taking care of business on GOV.UK
Earlier on in my career as a content designer someone once said to me that no one reads government websites for fun. When you work on GOV.UK every day, it can be easy to forget what it’s like for...
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Building capability and community through the Government Data Science...
Across government, departments are beginning to realise not only the value of the data they hold, but also how they can use data science to make more effective, data-informed decisions. The Government...
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The GDS Academy is here
How we started The GDS Academy was previously known as the Digital Academy, which started at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 2014. We built the project from the ground up to help people...
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Volunteering saved my career and made me a better person
Hard times In 2007 I’d been in a dead-end job for 5 years. I kept applying for other work, but was rejected repeatedly. My mental health was declining and the promise of my 20s was fading away. I’d...
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Make the most of your roadmap
This post is based on a talk I gave earlier in the year about how we are using roadmaps in government. Many civil servants are familiar with project plans. A project plan is a great tool for planning...
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Local government services to start using GOV.UK Notify
GOV.UK Notify – the government's digital communications platform – is fast becoming established in central government. 70 service teams (from 34 different organisations) have used it to send more than...
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Quarterly missions: a new way of working
To improve our focus on delivery and the flexibility to sensibly reprioritise our work throughout the year, we’ve moved to a new way of working in the GOV.UK team. We blogged about our old roadmap and...
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Open procurement for a digital government
The UK is part of the Working Party of Digital Government Officials, known as E-Leaders. It is a forum within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The forum enables...
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Applications for the DDaT Fast Stream are opening soon
On 14 September 2017, applications will open for the digital, data and technology (DDaT) Fast Stream scheme 2018, aimed at graduates and existing civil servants. The scheme consists of 6 placements...
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Why spend data is important for the Digital Marketplace
The Digital Marketplace is transforming government procurement. We want to make it easy for suppliers to sell to government so that we can deliver great digital services. We collaborate with Crown...
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Developing the DfT Digital Data Index
Alan Rider is a digital capability lead at the Department for Transport. It can be tough to find the data you need to do a task. It’s not that it doesn’t exist or that someone is hiding it. It’s that...
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The benefits of coding in the open
For any service to be put in front of the public, it has to meet the Digital Service Standard, a set of 18 criteria. One of the criteria is that all new source code is made open and published under an...
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Local government services to start using GOV.UK Pay
GOV.UK Pay - the government’s secure online payment service - has now processed almost half a million payments, with a total value of over 20 million pounds, for central government service teams. We...
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