As part of its austerity measures, the UK Government is putting serious effort into reducing the cost of service delivery and has introduced several austerity programs. One of these, ‘Digital by Default’ focuses on reducing the cost of handling government to citizen engagements by encouraging citizens to use cheaper digital channels instead. Sometimes referred to as ‘channel shifting’ in the UK (see my previous blog, Channel Shift – overcoming the barriers ), some UK Government departments have come under fire for implementing this online government strategy. The UK tax office, HMRC, in particular has critics who claim that digital channels exclude the vulnerable and needy. External criticism is one thing, but when it comes from UK Government Members of Parliament and the UK’s Treasury Committee, it’s time to take notice.

Whilst there is no doubt that the UK Government – indeed all governments – must look at ways to reduce costs across the board, including in citizen engagement, there is no doubt that they cannot do this at the expense of those who can’t – or won’t – use digital channels.

In simple terms there are three different stakeholders here:

  • Government
  • the digital citizen
  • the non-digital citizen

And, unlike many of the stereotypes you will have seen on the digital citizen and the non-digital citizen, they aren’t necessarily segmented by age. My wife, who will kill me for writing about her, mostly refuses to have anything to do with technology; whereas my mother – who just turned 76 – is on facebook and reads my tweets.

So does the UK Governments ‘Digital by Default’ strategy (or indeed HMRC’s strategy) exclude the vulnerable or needy or, more generally, the non-digital citizen? Is it in fact a ‘Digital by Exclusion’ strategy?

Well, no, I don’t think so. Essentially what they’re trying to do is design service delivery for digital consumption first thereby minimizing the ongoing related cost of citizen engagement, but they should also be designing for the non-digital citizen, too. In other words, the strategy is signaling a change in mindset; a re-framing of thinking for the digital age.

The exciting thing is that this approach can generate benefits previously not possible in government, including helping make our communities safer, benefiting everyone including the vulnerable and needy.

If you’d like to find out more about this and other benefits, come and hear me speak about a number of actual case studies at the ‘Digital by Default’ conference in London on 1st December. I’ll be talking and running a master class. And for those who can’t make it, don’t worry, I’ll also blog about it.

KANA is also delivering a series of ‘Digital by Default’ webinars starting on Tuesday 22nd November, when one of our customers, North Ayrshire, will be talking about their experiences with digital government as it relates to their citizen mobile application.

(David Moody is VP Solutions Marketing, KANA)

 

Related posts:

  1. David Cameron vs The Cloud (aka UK Government vs The Cloud)