Lee Waters MS

Post on IWA site on 11th December 2018 Digital solutions to problems have become commonplace, but there is a gap emerging between the digital expectations of citizens and the reality of Welsh public services. When my son was receiving regular care from a consultant I asked if I could avoid the car journey and a morning’s lost school for him by Skyping into the clinic instead. The answer was no. After accessing a GP service via an app on my smartphone within 8 minutes of checking availability, it’s a frustration to then spend 30 minutes repeatedly calling on the phone to get an appointment with my local NHS GP surgery. These are just anecdotes based on a few of my own personal experiences, but they demonstrate that the digital expectations that have been set by our everyday experiences of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google (the so-called FANG companies), clash with the reality of the way public services work. Citizens expectations are being transformed online. If heal...

We're reaching the end of the beginning of the work of the panel on Digital transformation of public services that I'm leading for the Welsh Government. I'm hoping our initial report will be out in the next week or so. One issue we've been debating is whether Wales needs a Chief Digital Officer. As I touched on in the last blog there is currently a gap at the top - very few of the leaders of our health boards, local authorities and senior civil service can be said to be confident digital leaders. In fact, most feel embarrassed to admit they don’t really understand it. Most highly paid people in public organisations can talk easily about money, people and buildings. Some of the better ones actually recognise the importance of culture, but how many can, or more worryingly want, to tell the digital story that will drive their evolution? As one insider told us "Digital in public sector is still largely a space for techies and this needs to change. It needs to ...