Public service reform in Scotland will increasingly be aided by the digitalisation of services and the power of artificial intelligence, according to a new government strategy document.
Ministers have committed to 25 per cent of all government services being administered via a digital mailbox service by 2030 with the aim of saving at least £100 million-a-year in correspondence costs.
The ScotAccount service, which is currently seeing 9,000 new identities being created every week, will be extended across more government departments, in a bid to deliver secure, one login communications with end users.
The national ‘Digital Front Door’, currently being led by the Scottish Government as an NHS App-style service for health and social care, will also take advantage of a new secure mailbox to be piloted from December this year.
Ivan McKee, public finance minister, who oversees public sector productivity and efficient government, said in a foreword to the new 49-page document: ” Everyone working in public services is motivated to work with people to improve their lives, but sometimes process and protectionism can get in the way of doing so. Public Service Reform is about reorienting our system to put people and those relationships first.
“The Scottish Government cannot deliver reform alone. We are a part of a system – a system with huge potential which already shares a vision and values. As a small, connected country we can be agile in response to these challenges. We are committed to working together to find solutions and empowering people and communities. Through building on that distinct Scottish approach, we can deliver the scale and pace of change required. We can challenge one another to act differently, to embrace innovation and fresh thinking with that common and core goal of improving lives.”
The document stresses the importance to deliver on the recommendations of the Christie Commission, formally known as the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, which was established by the Scottish Government in 2010 and chaired by Dr. Campbell Christie. Its final report, published in June 2011, made key recommendations for transforming public services in Scotland. The aim was to address challenges like inequality, rising demand, and constrained public finances.
The recommendations included a shift to prevention, to reduce demand on public services, as well greater integration between services, devolving more powers to the local and community level and workforce development and leadership.
Recognising that the Christie vision has not been delivered to its “full potential”, the new strategy pledges to identify the ‘underlying systemic barriers and root causes which prevent us moving faster and further, and sets out practical actions to overcome those barriers’.
The role of data and AI
Prominent in the strategy is a commitment to getting data right. It recognises that some of those systemic issues relate to data sharing, so it commits to ‘explore new approaches to data sharing and protection across public services, helping lawfully balance risks against the benefits of sharing data’.
It also stresses the need for data maturity within public sector bodies, with ‘common digital components that encourage findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data’.
Signposting a new national digital strategy, to be published later this year, the document also references the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) as a driver of public service reform. In line with the UK Government’s recent AI Opportunities Plan, the paper outlines how the technology can ‘deliver efficiencies in public service operations’…. ‘predicting demand, monitoring outcomes for prevention, as well as targeting human interventions for maximum effectiveness’.
Mr McKee, who set out the reform agenda in parliament, also paid tribute to the centre for intelligent automation within the Scottish Government, which has used automation technologies to save “upwards of £10 million already”.
“It has implemented dozens of projects, with several hundred more in the hopper,” he said. “We are investing more in that service to enable that to happen.
“The provision of digital services for service users is hugely important. The digital strategy, which will be published soon in collaboration with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, will identify how we are taking that work forward.”
But he also sounded a note of caution on AI.
He said: “We very much want to share data, but we must ensure that the appropriate safeguards are in place when we use AI in that regard, building on the intelligent automation work that we have already done.”
He added: “All public bodies are already required to deliver best value, but this is about going further and faster. It is about taking all available opportunities to introduce and embed efficiency through automation, digitisation, estate rationalisation and changing the delivery landscape.
“That is about delivering significant change, including structural reform in the government and public bodies when that is needed — not in a headline-grabbing way that simply throws out random targets based on no evidence, but by identifying and delivering the real opportunities for better, joined-up services that will improve lives and redirect resources.”