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30 Sep 2022
by Laura Webb

KPMG in the UK - Voices of 2030: Digitalising government (Guest blog by KPMG)

Guest blog by KPMG

This week (26-30 September) the Central Government Programme is running its Building the Smarter State Week.


It is less than eight years away, but expectations for 2030 are already sky high. Across most spheres – technological, social, political, economic and others – transformation is underway and huge goals are being set. So what will the world look like in 2030? And what can public sector organisations be doing to help ensure they can meet these expectations? This report explores the answers to these questions and many more related to government services in 2030.

Some transformative pressures are already at play. Digitalisation is radically transforming the way people interact with the world around them. Governments are under intense pressure to improve service delivery to citizens – particularly following the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. And new concepts and technologies are becoming enablers to delivering on these expectations.

Here in the UK, a new Prime Minister has recently been installed with a set of pressing priorities to deal with. The cost of living crisis, energy bills and inflation have plunged the country very much into an agenda of the here and now. But at the same time, the government and our major public services have an ambitious programme for change that we literally cannot afford to put on hold. Ultimately, these investments are a key part of the answer to improving citizens’ lives and empowering individuals – it is by transforming them that we will find long-term answers to many of the issues that beset us today.

Our recent report on ‘Voices of 2030’ offers a view of 2030, from 2030. We asked public sector leaders and visionaries from around the world to envision what the world might look like, how it got there and what the big challenges were along the way. I am delighted that three of the voices are from the UK, representing central government, taxation and healthcare. They each offer a compelling perspective, and each reflect to varying degrees some of the key themes we see across the entire set of voices from the global stage. Digitalisation looms large of course – bringing smarter, more cost efficient delivery, and enabling individuals to self-serve with much greater autonomy in how they manage their interactions. The compelling advantage of this is that it both empowers citizens, putting them at the heart of the journey, and reduces the pressure on public departments, allowing them to put more resource into continued improvement and innovation.

It could also allow a much more joined-up approach between government and public departments, taking out the frictions and frustrations individuals experience when they are asked for the same information over again by different services. Bringing systems together, powered by AI and cognitive technologies, could enable public offices to take a more proactive approach – predicting and anticipating the needs of an individual according to circumstances or specific ‘life events’ the system detects they are going through (marriage, new employment, redundancy, retirement, bereavement, etc).

Based on the voices in the report and our experience and insights working with governments around the world, we have also developed our own predictions. Some of our collective predictions may not come to pass, but the trends we identify are worth noting and following.

Ultimately, we identify five key areas of transformation for public sector leaders:

  • A new relationship: Cognitive capabilities enable machines to interact with humans more seamlessly
  • The transformation journey: Governments rethink models for a decentralised world
  • The decentralisation of data: The power shifts to the individual
  • The citizen developer: Coding is democratised
  • Sustainable growth enabled: Digitalisation helps achieve ESG goals

On behalf of KPMG, I would like to thank all of the leaders, in the UK and globally, who participated in the development of this report. Your vision, passion and ideas will be instrumental in shaping the future to 2030.


Download the report to find out more. 

 


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Authors

Laura Webb

Partner, Public Services Technology Transformation, KPMG in the UK