The government will recruit tech workers for ‘testing and learning’ solutions

The government is planning to hire start-up workers in the tech industry, to help embed a culture of innovation and make it more efficient.

Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden will announce a PS100million innovation fund to support the scheme. He hopes that this will encourage a culture of “test and learn” in government. He will also examine how to revamp recruitment in the civil service.

The announcement follows Keir starmer’s statement last week that “too few people in Whitehall feel comfortable in the tepid water of managed decline“, after it was revealed that productivity in the civil services was 2.6% lower this time last year.

Digital start-ups often use this approach to create teams around the country. They are given a problem to solve and then allowed to experiment.

McFadden, who will launch the programme in London today, said that the test-and-learn program is part of an effort to reform a “mind-bogglingly arduous and demoralizing” application process for jobs within the civil service.

The scheme will encourage tech experts to apply for “tours de duty” of six to twelve months to tackle “big problems” such as criminal law or healthcare.

Teams for test-and learn will include a mixture of people with digital and data skills, policy makers and frontline workers. He will explain that the teams would focus on government-set projects, rather than writing complex policy documents and lengthy strategy documents.

Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool will launch the first two projects in January. The first two projects will begin in Manchester, Sheffield, Essex and Liverpool from January.

McFadden says: “Test it.” Fix the problems. Change the design. Test it again. Re-tweak the settings. So on and so forth, as long as the service is provided. The most important question suddenly isn’t ‘How can we do this correctly the first time’. The most important question is ‘How can we improve this by Friday next week?’

“I’m interested to see how we can use this mindset in the government.” We can start by making the state more startup-like.

These test-and-learn schemes will be extended to other areas of the country, and other projects.

In addition to promoting innovation, the government wants to encourage more workers from the front line of the public sector to be seconded to the central government.

He will tell you that “prison governors and social workers, as well as directors of children services, are on the ground, who know how things work, what obstacles exist, and which policies won’t last contact with reality.”

They have seen the problems and the people who depend on us, they have seen the broken system – each week, they take their frustrations with them home. We want them to become part of the solution.

The scheme will also look at how to “fundamentally revamp how recruitment in the civil service is conducted”.

Outsiders may find the current process overwhelming bureaucratic. McFadden says that filling out applications can take many days, and good candidates may find it difficult to get through the process if they don’t know the civil service system.

“We must go faster and further.” So I will ask departments in the government to use simpler recruitment processes, based on what we have proven works.

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