Pink hotels

I recently wrote about how my understanding of transformation fundamentally shifted. TL;DR transformation is about taking responsibility for the way you deliver services. When you outsource the whole, you outsource responsibility. Retaining control allows an organisation to learn, iterate, and reduce fragmentation to better meet users’ needs.

This week I’ve been thinking about other benefits of not outsourcing, things that risk averse procurement rules don’t take into account. When you build something yourself:

  • you don’t need to work with organisations whose stated values and leadership fundamentally conflict with those of the public sector
  • you fund teams, not projects gaining the benefits of institutional knowledge and first‑hand experience for the organisation
  • you retain the expertise to be a more informed buyer, buying smaller things that are easier to assess the value of
  • ideally you’re paying employees not corporations – people who aren’t rich enough to not pay taxes and spend money locally
  • your employees get to do interesting, valuable work instead of writing requirements and judging suppliers on their ability to write pitch documents

There’s a wider social impact to the default assumption that outsourcing is more efficient. I’m beginning to wonder if the argument for efficiency isn’t a pretext for a lack of ambition.

Tree museums

The State of digital government review summarises all of this, but I’m not sure if it’s made a difference. The NHS’ ten year plan promises transformation, but doesn’t set the conditions for it.

Building quality in-house capacity takes time. The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, but it feels like the trees get chopped down faster than new ones are being planted.

I’m spending some of my time next week building a demo to show that we are as polished and as far reaching as the enterprise software we’re competing with.

The NHS Health check online team published a design history post on the excellent work they’re doing to translate complex medical data into understandable, actionable information the public can use.