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Services by design

Phil Rumens
2 months 2 weeks ago

Service patterns are reusable designs for common problems that help create consistent functions and services. 

I've been talking about service patterns and design with people from around the public sector recently, partly because this could be key to a wholesale reshaping of the public sector.

Service design goes beyond the use of digital, but given almost every public service now makes some use of technology now, service design and digital transformation are intrinsically linked.

I became aware of the need for common service patterns at an event organised by the Department for Communities and Local Government a few years ago. The workshop was part of the now defunct GOV.Verify programme, and brought together licencing and digital teams from councils across the country.

The idea was to see if Verify could be used as part of a common service to apply for a taxi licence, but as the day went on it became apparent that despite similar roles all delivering services to same legislation, they all worked slightly differently across every council.

There was no common service pattern, so there could be no common service.

A lack of common service patterns can prove costly within a single organisation too. We've all read reports of spiralling costs and lengthy delays in pubic sector IT projects, and in part this can be attributed to the desire for bespoke functionality resulting in tweaks or even wholesale redesign of how a platform functions to meet the unique service designs of that organisation.

One of the successes of the roll-out of PlanX as part of Open Digital Planning is that there's a library of re-usable service flows or patterns, and to varying extents the low-code solutions that are widely used across local government also have a re-usable library of common services too.

Without a common pattern for that service they will always need to be tweaked and bespoked for local use though, meaning there's little chance of a large uptake of solutions like Local Gov IMS, originally funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities which might provide a common income management platform for councils.

You may have seen me write about work I've been doing through LocalGov Digital with Dr Rebekah Wilson and Sarah Slate at the Local Government Association (LGA) and colleagues in my organisation including Kafilat Akintoye, around the Service Standard and service design in general. The draft report will be published in the next few weeks, and contains proposals around the use of a common standard and a service design community.

The Blueprint for a Modern Digital Government talks about a "one only" rule and a Digital Backbone.

I think service design and common patterns are key to the delivery of this at the very least across local government, and perhaps functions that involve the NHS, the Police, or central government too, so I very much hope they feature in the Government Digital and AI Roadmap, to be published in summer 2025. 

None of this is new, nor are they my ideas, I am merely an advocate for service patterns and design, and after reading this I hope you are too?


Phil Rumens

Let's talk

Phil Rumens
2 months 3 weeks ago

I'm putting aside half an hour of my own time to talk to you

What I'd like to talk about

Primarily anything around technology, data, and the internet, which relates to the design and delivery of public services. That could be anything from a specific development to a global trend.

Secondly, politics, or rather how politics and policies might affect local and regional government.

And finally, Arsenal Football Club, although my interest in this will vary depending on how well we're doing in the WSL and Premier League.

What I don't want to talk about

A product or service you'd like me to buy. I might be interested, just not through this route.

Specific political parties or politicians. I have views, but I won't be expressing them here.

Recruitment. I'm possibly interested in employing you or being employed by you, just not through this route.

Who would I like to talk to?

Anyone worldwide who wants to discuss the topics I'm interested in.

We may never met or talked online, or perhaps I've spoken to you many times face-to-face; it doesn't matter.

Is this a new idea?

No, "coffee cup conversations" or the idea of two strangers chatting has been around for decades, in fact the NHS are running their own randomised version.

What's in it for you?

I have 25+ years of experience in public sector IT and digital, so perhaps I can offer you:

A new perspective on something you're doing, or thinking of doing. 

Validation of your views or approach to that thing. 

Just a chat about something we find we mutually like or dislike.

What's in it for me?

You're not me.

It doesn't matter how much experience I have, you might have a different and possibly better take on some of the things that interest me.

What if no one's interested?

To be honest I'm not that interesting and definitely not very exciting. 

Don't expect a rollercoaster ride of laughs or action for half and hour; it's just you and me very likely talking about technology and the public sector for 30 minutes.

I'm fully prepared for not a single person taking up this offer and in that case I'll have half an hour set aside to research something I'm interested in.

How do I book time with you?

You can book a slot, usually at 4.30pm on a Wednesday here.

Phil Rumens