Pat McFadden: Government should adopt Silicon Valley mindset

Intergovernmental minister Pat McFadden has pledged to make the government "more like a start up" as part of his plans to reform the state.

McFadden announced a £100m innovation fund to introduce the 'test and learn' culture of Silicon Valley across public services.

A series of teams will be deployed across the UK to help services adopt the mindset and “rewire the state one test at a time”, McFadden said.  

The initiative forms part of a wider plan to restore the UK’s “crumbling” public services and demonstrate a new way of carrying out state business, the government said.

McFadden said: “Test it. Fix the problems. Change the design. Test it again. Tweak it again. And so on, and so on, for as long as you provide the service. Suddenly, the most important question isn’t, ‘How do we get this right the first time?’. It’s ‘How do we make this better by next Friday?

“That’s the test and learn mindset, and I’m keen to see where we can deploy it in government. Where we can make the state a little bit more like a start-up.”

From January, the teams will begin to focus on two projects south of the border.

The minister said: “First, they’ll be tasked with tackling two challenges: family support and temporary accommodation. On temporary accommodation, we want them to begin by looking at how we can reduce costs. And on family support, they’ll be looking at how family hubs can increase the number of disadvantaged families that they reach.

“We’re not going to dictate how they do that. The central point of these test-and-learns is that we set them a problem and then leave them to get on with it. They’ll be empowered to experiment and find new and innovative ways to fix problems”

It is understood that test-and-learns teams will then expand to other parts of the UK, and start focusing on bigger challenges.

The minister also urged tech experts to join government services for six months to a year as “tours of duty” to help tackle challenges such as criminal justice or healthcare reform.

This marks the third wave of recruitment of the Innovation Fellowship Programme, under which tech workers are encouraged to join the civil service.

McFadden said: “We are on the cusp of the next technological revolution. AI is set to transform the way people work and the way data is used. And the state cannot afford to be left behind.

“The huge benefits of technology including AI have to be felt in the delivery of public services as well as in the private sector”.

He also pledged to overhaul the civil service recruitment process, so outsiders don't find it “mind bogglingly bureaucratic and off-putting”. 

He added: “My message to creative thinkers is this is your chance to serve your country. 

“Use your brainpower and tech talents to fix some of the biggest problems we face today.

“Britain needs you.”