It’s no secret that in 2024 there will be a General Election, and after that a spending review. A spending review is how HM Treasury decides how to distribute the total amount of money the Government plans to spend on its departments and public services. Each department must bid for the funds they think they’ll need.
Typically, spending reviews cover an electoral term, so we expect the upcoming review to take us up to 2029-30. Teams across Whitehall will currently be considering what funds they will need to maintain public services over the next 5 years. But that’s not all - they’ll also need to consider what funds may be required to respond to changing external circumstances. This is particularly relevant this time round, if you think about the rapid development of new technologies such as generative AI and the opportunities this may bring for the Civil Service to modernise its services and improve productivity.
Spending reviews are usually developed in a similar way to traditional policy. Civil servants, typically from Strategy and Policy, develop ideas that are evaluated by Economists for their potential costs and benefits.
This is a tried and tested model. However, like traditional policymaking, it comes with some challenges - particularly now, in the age of vast technological advancement. Classic consultations, pilots, and evaluations can take a while to set up and assess, whereas User Centred Design (UCD) methods may be better equipped to respond to such fast-paced change. We can generate insight quickly by testing innovative ideas early and often with users, learning and iterating our thinking as we go, and having the flexibility to respond to the changing landscape around us.
A user-centred approach is also about ensuring user needs are well understood, so we’re prioritising the right problems to solve. To do this well, we need to foster an environment where we can think creatively, and to be bold in challenging existing assumptions about how things can or should work.
This is why our CDIO proposed that as Justice Digital looks to contribute to the MoJ’s spending review bid, we do so from a user-centred perspective. A small team has spent the last few months exploring opportunities for digital transformation in the justice system. We’re now about to start testing different ideas that we hope will streamline policies and processes, increase productivity across the department, and ultimately deliver a better experience for our users.
It’s been challenging to approach change in this area. Many of the colleagues we need to work with in a spending review are unfamiliar with UCD, and may have misconceptions about its purpose and potential. For instance, some colleagues have expressed doubt that UCD methods can provide a robust evidence base in such a short period of time.
We’ve therefore felt it important to show colleagues as quickly as possible what a test and learn approach means in practice, and just how much insight can be gathered from engaging directly with our users. We think showing, not telling, will build confidence in this approach - one reason why we’ve decided to start testing ideas very quickly.
Traditional spending review bids often feel like they are developed from the top-down, designed by Policy, and implemented by Operations. Digital may be thought of as an enabling factor in the implementation of a new idea, rather than a driver of change in its own right. Thinking in this way can reinforce siloes between disciplines, limiting collaboration around the development of new ideas.
Whilst a key component of a user-centred approach is to challenge this notion and create new ideas via multidisciplinary working, it has been difficult to achieve this in some spaces, because of how some colleagues may perceive UCD. If UCD is thought of as something Digital ‘own’, then this approach risks reinforcing the same siloes.
This is why we’ve considered how we can create the conditions for true collaboration amongst different disciplines, where different parts of the department agree to work towards the same, shared outcomes. This could even involve this type of work needing to sit outside of Justice Digital, in a central space with an impartial sponsor. Hopefully, the time and effort we’re putting into this now will allow for more radical approaches to strategic work getting off the ground faster in the future.
We are a temporary team that was only set up in September. This didn't give us much time to collect existing knowledge of user needs across the justice system - a challenge exasperated by the lack of repositories that document the user research we've already conducted, the service blueprints already developed, and the thinking already done to map how different products and services interact with each other across the justice system.
Additionally, the aforementioned challenges around trust and collaboration have meant that a large proportion of our time has been supporting stakeholders to understand our approach. This has taken time away from working directly with users, filling research gaps, and as a result, has sometimes limited our ability to offer the most effective strategic advice.
To help us address this point in future, we may wish to start our spending review planning even earlier, so there is sufficient time to engage directly with both users and stakeholders. It would also help to have access to a more holistic view of user needs across the justice system - something the User Research community are actively starting to explore.
Moving into the next phase of our project, we’ll be testing quick and dirty ideas with users, to identify which have the greatest potential for improving service delivery through to 2030. We’ll also work with an Economist to understand how we can weave an agile, user-centred approach into the more static requirements of a spending review bid.
We hope that the biggest hurdles of this project have already been experienced, and that the work done early to build understanding and buy-in around UCD will help us in the long run. But we don’t know what’s yet to come - this is the first time we have worked on a spending review in this way at Justice Digital. We truly are working in the unknown. So I’m sure there’ll be more reflections and learnings later on this year.
]]>When he was five, my son asked me if men were ever allowed to be doctors. His question came from the world he knew - he had only ever seen or heard about women doctors. His aunt is a doctor, his granny a senior nurse, and of course Miss Rabbit in his favourite show, Peppa Pig, is a doctor, among her many other and varied professions.
I grew up in a family where traditional gender roles were ignored. My mum was the main earner whilst my dad stayed at home to look after the kids. It never once occurred to me that being a woman would limit my potential or my dreams. My mum was a daily role model of a strong, inspiring woman with a series of very senior jobs. She showed resilience, capability, and confidence. I saw first-hand that a woman could be a mum and have the career she wanted at the same time.
What I didn’t see at the time of course were the barriers that she and her generation, as well as the women before her, were forced to overcome to get to that position. Or indeed how difficult it was to succeed in a still very male-dominated environment. Gender discrimination, limited job opportunities, unequal pay, and pervasive sexual harassment were harsh realities for women in the 1980s and 1990s.
Thankfully, pioneering women persisted in their pursuit of equality and paved the way for future generations like mine to challenge traditional gender roles and advocate for workplace fairness and a seat at the table. I stand on the shoulders of these giants - the courageous women like my mum who defied societal norms, shattered glass ceilings, and fought tirelessly for gender equality. Their unwavering determination and resilience has paved the way for me and countless others to succeed without the constraints of gender stereotypes.
But despite my young son thinking that only women can be doctors, the battle isn’t yet won.
Gender equality is not just a female fight
It’s up to everyone as a collective to drive progress. Today, in 2024, despite advancements in gender equality, women continue to face obstacles such as the gender pay gap, under-representation in leadership roles, and workplace harassment.
The McKinsey’s 2002 report on Women in the Workplace showed that when managers actively advocate for gender diversity and provide support and mentorship to female employees, gender disparities in the workplace are significantly reduced. Supportive managers play a crucial role in dismantling barriers and biases.
We also need to actively push for more diversity in our teams, especially in management roles. To increase inclusivity of course but also because diverse voices and views make a better Civil Service able to serve our communities more effectively. To do this, we need to increase awareness and educate our colleagues about the unique challenges faced by women from different cultures, ethnicities, and sexualities in the workplace. This means proactive not passive allyship – speak out against bias, advocate for opportunities, and become mentors and sponsors.
Let's normalise diversity
In Justice Digital, we strive to build an inclusive talent pipeline. We want a workplace culture where women feel valued, respected, and supported, to reduce the prevalence and likelihood of microaggressions and biases. That means standing up to poor behaviour, advocating for flexible working, and promoting the benefits of feminine, people-focused, leadership.
Since August of last year, we've welcomed 92 incredible women to Justice Digital, and we're eager to see this number continue to rise! We have also recently signed up to the Talent Tech Charter which aims to help organisations look at the different lenses of diversity and how these lenses impact strategies like recruitment, retention, and creating an inclusive culture.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we pay tribute to the resilience and perseverance of women who have blazed trails for progress and have allowed us to feel we have a place (and a voice) at the table. Let us all play our part in advocating for an inclusive and equitable workplace that embraces diversity and empowers all women.
]]>Alexander Graham Bell's 1876 telephone call marked a milestone in communication, pioneering the ability to converse over long distances using electricity. Fast forward 122 years to 1998 and my first IT job, and a desk phone with a fixed extension number was still my main means of communication. Since then, our methods of communication at work and at home have exploded. Today we have a suite of options available to choose from and the term ‘Unified Communications’ has been coined to describe the many communications channels used by businesses. Voice, conferencing, mobile phone, video, instant messaging, directory, chat, email, voicemail, fax (yes it still exists). Take your pick.
What Is the MoJ Voice Service?
Never mind all those options, this blog is supposed to be about Voice Services at the Ministry of Justice. However, defining where one communication channel ends and another starts can be difficult in today’s landscape. MoJ's Voice Services enable communication between individuals in different locations, utilising telephone numbers for connection to public networks. They offer feature-rich functionalities like auto-attendant and call queues. Comparing Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone illustrates the blurred boundaries; while Teams allows calls within organisations, Teams Phone provides global connectivity via telephone numbers. Telephony remains crucial for MoJ's public facing services and contributes to Justice Digital's strategic aim of delivering swift access to justice.
Who Are the Voice Services Team?
The Voice & Video team has grown significantly over the last couple of years, from about 5 at the start of 2022 to over 50 at the end of 2023. That includes Service Owners, Product Managers, Operations Managers, Infrastructure Engineers, and Delivery Managers, enabling us to take control of all aspects of the products that make up the service. It’s a supportive and committed team with people from all sorts of backgrounds and parts of the country. It’s impressive to see how cohesive the team is having grown so quickly. Building an open and collaborative culture is a key aim for Justice Digital and it certainly feels like we’re doing that.
MoJ Voice Services Today
The Voice Service delivers approximately 100,000 fixed telephony connections across around 900 MoJ sites, as well as about 70,000 mobile phone connections. Over the last year, we’ve also deployed about 12,000 Microsoft Teams Phone users. Also, part of Voice Services are PINPhone for prison in cell telephony and Esendex SMS messaging.
Achievements So Far
Taking control of such a large, diverse estate has been a challenge for the growing Voice Team but one which they’ve approached with tenacity and skill. There have been real successes already, bringing tangible benefits for MoJ. We've streamlined suppliers from 30 to 7 and identified significant savings by canceling 17,000 unused connections.Teams Phone usage has surged, primarily via laptop deployment, modernising our Voice Products. We’re really focused on driving continuous improvement for all our products, knowing that designing, delivering, and maintaining sustainable core technology services underpins Justice Digital’s goals.
What’s Next?
We're embarking on an exciting journey with the Evolve programme, starting with a new Contact Centre solution set to integrate into our Voice Service. This managed service will streamline eight different existing solutions. Additionally, we're revamping fixed telephony with modern tech for future readiness and replacing local telephony systems. In mobile, we're optimising contracts for maximum value and tightening security measures. To enhance efficiency, we're restructuring the team for a more product-focused approach. The team are all looking forward to tackling more challenges over the next few years.
]]>During the colder months, it is usual to reflect on the year just past and the year ahead and perhaps even make a resolution or two. Here in Justice Digital our Capability Team has already fulfilled a major resolution in our efforts to be the employer of choice.
We’re absolutely delighted to have signed up to the Tech Talent Charter (TTC). The TTC is a government-supported and industry-led membership group that brings together 700+ signatory organisations, providing the best networks and diversity and inclusion resources. This is all backed up with market-leading insights, programmes, initiatives, and practices.
Signing up means we’ve made a commitment. We will work with the TTC and our co-signatories collectively to increase the diversity and inclusion of our and the UK digital and data workforce.
Data
We did not go into this lightly and will share anonymised diversity data with TTC. The sharing of data was quite rightly something we discussed at length to make sure we’re doing so safely and ethically. It was this requirement to share data before joining that really made me feel this was something worth our investment. We aren’t interested in simply signing up to acquire a badge, our data and that of our co-signatories will combine to add value to our conversations, plans, and actions.
Why does this matter?
Some statistics from their website help frame why the TTC was created in 2015 to address the UK’s tech talent shortage and diversity problem.
I am also very grateful to be able to pursue a CIPD Masters Level qualification. In my extensive reading about people matters, the requirement for diversity of people and thought in organisations, to enable them to thrive, is overwhelming. Proactive organisations are more likely to achieve stronger results and make better decisions. If an organisation like ours can be as diverse as the citizens we serve, we are more likely to deliver the best products and services.
It’s also, put simply, the right thing to do. A Justice Digital workforce that is more diverse, equal, and inclusive will experience improved wellbeing and feel more psychologically safe. Things that are extremely important to us.
Resolution fulfilled; what’s next?
It’s with a real sense of pride that I can say the Justice Digital Capability Team has met one of our key New Year’s resolutions. This year, we are dedicated to creating our own roadmap and establishing a firm timeline for reflecting the diversity of the UK population. Collaborating with TTC will enable us to describe, design and deliver in a meaningful way.
Rewind to my school days, when the notion of apprenticeships was confined to specific trades and the belief that university was the ultimate path to success. Fast forward (I'll spare you the exact number of years, as it still sends shivers down my spine), and here I am as a Lead Engineer for the Prison Onsite Support team at the Ministry of Justice.
Within Justice Digital, there is a strong emphasis on continuous improvement and personal development. As leaders, It’s our responsibility to give everyone opportunities to upskill and to help them achieve their aspirations. This involves exploring pathways for learning and development, enabling them to progress both within and beyond their current roles.
While researching available learning, I found the Microsoft Azure Cloud Support Specialist L3 apprenticeship. Exploration of this apprenticeship gave me insight into how such a route of learning could offer a structured way to deliver training whilst allowing staff to support each other through the process, demonstrating and developing their existing skill set.
The course includes a range of subjects, including Networking Principles, Microsoft Azure, and M365. Undertaking such learning seeks to give learners a broader knowledge and understanding of the tools at their disposal to deliver effective services whilst learning on the job and gaining a recognised qualification (quite different from my experiences at school).
Our first cohort is now fully enrolled. Their enthusiasm and commitment to personal and professional growth have been nothing short of exceptional. We are excited to see how the team grows and develops throughout the course and into their careers moving forward. Future enrolments are scheduled throughout the year with a view to the whole team engaging in the process within the next 12 months. There is a level of commitment and enthusiasm being demonstrated towards professional development, which is great to see, and I’m pleased to be able to have the opportunity to offer such prospects.
Apprenticeships offer a dynamic blend of hands-on experience and tailored content. To those thinking about an apprenticeship journey, take this week to see what is out there. I encourage you all to take the leap - we did!
]]>HMP Highpoint is a category C training and resettlement prison, housing a combined capacity of 1310 prisoners, split 943 (South) and 367 (North) with an expansion of ~700 planned for January 2027. The prison industry in focus is operated on the Southern element of the establishment. Daily life focuses heavily on rehabilitation and many of the life skills that will be needed on release.
Inside the Digital Workshop
The Digital Workshop is a partnership agreement between DSA Connect, Xerox and HMP Highpoint
DSA Connect provides the necessary technical skills and accreditations to prisoners to perform the dismantling and separation of waste streams under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations.
The target for the workshop is to process and dismantle up to 600 devices per month. There are currently 12 men employed, with a capacity for 16. There is a good supply of machines in stock to be disassembled, with many more waiting at Xerox distribution centre in Northamptonshire.
There is always a list of applicants who would like to come and work in the printer workshop. A job here means prisoners must meet a set of criteria such as good behaviour, positive engagement with prison life, etc and then they have to be successful in the application process, just as if they were having to apply for a job outside prison.
Why HMP Highpoint?
It’s the ideal location as it is approximately a 90-minute drive from the distribution centre, thereby reducing carbon emissions, freight movements, and so on. In turn, it’s also a great way of supporting the environment, both right now and in the future, and will deliver cold, hard cash savings which will no doubt be quantified going forward.
Much research was carried out in the early stages to find a suitable location for the workshop within the prison. Space and lighting were key, as was access to outside so the vans bringing in the devices could get them into the workshop. The space is now filled with everything that is needed to reduce a printer down to its last tiny metal nut and bolt, significantly reducing the volume of plastic (in particular!) ending up in landfill!
The workflow of a device through the workshop comprises of the following:
In other words, it looks something like this:
It’s a smooth operation with everyone making their own contribution to what could be a massive opportunity with its potential to evolve and expand way beyond just printers.
The work done here is prisoner outcome-focused
Whilst each individual has their own ‘back story’, this work is all about moving forward to become a good citizen. It offers individuals a chance to earn accreditations and develop transferable skills for post-prison employment, fostering meaningful work and a pathway to employment. The environment also facilitates the acquisition of softer skills, such as interpersonal interaction which is equally available across the other workshops on site. The pride and dedication observed among both the workshop workers and staff contribute to a well-coordinated and efficient operation, despite its relatively short existence.
Winning prisoners’ hearts and minds to get the message across that they are making a positive difference to the wider world can be a little more challenging however this work is supported by weekly facts and figures displayed on a big screen in the workshop. It serves as a reminder of just how much they are doing and offers real-time insight into how they are closing the loop on waste.
Reducing the carbon footprint with sustainable practices
Xerox has committed to ensure all end-of-life equipment from their UK customer base (both Corporate and Government clients) will be routed to HMP Highpoint as opposed to being shipped to mainland Europe for disposal as was previously the case.
When broken down, the target is to recycle 40% of fire retardant plastic (the most tricky to do because it has to be incinerated). Overall 66% of plastic is recycled as a result of the work these men carry out. Importantly, only 0.02% of the original equipment (by weight) that comes in is categorised as ‘waste’ that may end up in landfill.
This initiative would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of Harry Benham, Chairman of DSA Connect (pictured above), Steve O’Neill and Alex Taylor, Client Directors, Xerox, Warren Higgs, AUM Industries at HMP Highpoint and Steve Phillips, Head of Reducing Reoffending at HMP Highpoint. They have been ably supported by an onsite team working tirelessly to gain customer and prisoner buy-in and actually make this initiative in an exceptionally busy, challenging category C environment work!
It is such a wonderful example of what can be achieved with a vision and people behind it to drive it through to the success this work already is proving to be.
I could wax lyrical on this topic for far longer but I am conscious that I have only a finite amount of space for writing and readers will only have a finite amount of time for reading so I will close now!
However, should you require any further information about this great work, I will be happy to facilitate your request so please contact me at Karen.Gedge@justice.gov.uk
]]>If you’ve worked on a Welsh language product or service, you probably know that translation tends to be one of the last steps in the process. English content is often sent in bulk to translation teams, after the important design work has been done.
Yet when the design work is done solely in English, the needs of Welsh speakers and the mechanics of the language itself are not always considered. This can lead to problems further down the line. The classic example is that ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers in Welsh depend on the question, so there’s no one-size-fits-all translation here. (See other examples in HM Land Registry’s guide to creating a Welsh language service.)
While translators do their best, without enough context of products and services, translations can be overly formal or even different in meaning.
As research from the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) shows, the results can be that people are put off from trying or unable to use services in Welsh.
Since the summer, we’ve been fortunate to work with the HMCTS Welsh Language Unit to translate our content from English to Welsh.
To make sure that the Welsh version provided a consistent experience across the service for Welsh language users, we decided to test it. We did not want to assume that a direct translation of English content would meet their needs.
In our first round of Welsh testing, we focused on the content itself, rather than the functionality of the service. We tested for:
One of the benefits of having a Welsh speaker on the team was that we could pilot running our test sessions bilingually. This meant we could give users the choice of which language they’d prefer to speak.
As one user explained, this was helpful because it meant they could read the Welsh content and share their thoughts without needing to switch to speaking another language.
During sessions, our Welsh-speaking team member took detailed notes and interpreted for the rest of the team when users spoke in Welsh.
We learnt a lot and even defined some best practices for the team going forward:
The feedback on our Welsh content was overwhelmingly positive. But there were instances where words and phrases were unfamiliar, or the tone changed.
To act on feedback, we adapted an approach we’d seen used by content designer, Adrián Ortega and the team at CDPS called trio writing. This technique involved a content designer, translator, and subject expert designing content together in English and Welsh at the same time.
We worked through feedback directly with the Welsh Language Unit, reviewing the Welsh and English content side-by-side.
Not only did it save us time going back and forth in Word documents and emails, but it meant that we could provide context, discuss each comment, and decide whether any changes affected the English content too.
Translating and testing content are not the only things we’ve been up to on the Welsh side of the service. We’ve also:
While having a Welsh-speaking content designer embedded in the team has been beneficial, we still have some challenges:
If you’re facing similar challenges and would like an invite to the fortnightly chat about designing Welsh products and services, contact Nia at nia.campbell@digital.justice.gov.uk.
]]>One of the unexpected consequences of participating in this session was the opportunity to zoom out a bit and look at what we had learned about our users (legal aid providers, support workers, charities and applicants) over the last year. It was a useful exercise to take the time to make a more in-depth synthesis of what we had learned across different rounds of research and see the patterns and themes that emerged. Trust, vulnerability, accuracy, time, varying needs, and complexity surfaced as the main themes for our users across these past rounds of user research. It was powerful to look at this work in this way, as a whole, and see what surfaced - something I need to make more time to do more often.
Something I love about working at the Ministry of Justice is the positive impact our work can have for people in their time of most need. It is sometimes easy to forget who we are building for and the challenges they face when we get our heads down and find ourselves caught up in problem-solving as we develop our services. It was a wonderful experience to be able to share insights into some of what our users experience with a new audience of different professions and roles.
As a member of the MoJ ‘Future of User Research’ working group, I was invited to the workshop ‘Public services in the age of AI: An interdisciplinary approach to ethical artificial intelligence’ led by Oxford Insights. It was great to meet with colleagues from across the MoJ and discuss developments in AI and how they might impact our work. As well as sharing some real life cautionary tales about how AI has been used in the public sector, they shared data ethics frameworks that might support us in our work as we decide whether AI is the right tool for a service. There has been much written about the biases in artificial intelligence training data sets and how human intervention and collaboration is needed. We were given great examples of AI working well including satellitte images to estimate populations and transec tracking and alleviating urban congestion. They also have examples of it not working so well including an example of re-enforcement of racial bias and a childcare benefit scandal with wide reaching consequences.
The design of this workshop worked well - the first half was learning-based and in the second half of the session we could put into practice what we had learned by working in groups, looking at real scenarios where AI was implemented. The scenarios prompted discussion about the security, ethical and practical considerations. Real food for thought! My favourite quote of the day was from a fellow participant,‘AI feels like a solution looking for a problem.’ I think it can be easy to get carried away with the enthusiasm of the possible and with concern about being left behind, but it feels important to remember that AI is a tool, that we need to consider carefully where it is appropriate to use it - and ensure it is being used to meet real user needs.
Last summer MoJ launched its data strategy, which aims to accelerate our transformation into a data-led department, improving justice outcomes for all.
We are committed to:
The data strategy was designed in tandem with MoJ’s digital strategy 2025. Our data teams provide insights to inform decisions by frontline teams, work with digital teams to use AI and machine learning tools effectively to deliver the best possible services for the future, and to ensure we’re making the most of the data that we gather from our digital products.
We’ve made a lot of progress towards our ambitions this year, here are some examples of what we’ve done.
Making data accessible and impactful
In October 2022 we launched Justice in numbers – giving staff and the public access to key data and statistics on the justice system. Justice in numbers is available as a hard-copy pocketbook, but online you can drill down into the data underpinning the charts to get a better understanding of trends and latest data. If you’re looking for the latest published numbers for a briefing or writing a speech, this is now the go-to source. Justice in numbers has won praise from practitioners and researchers for helping people to get an at-a-glance sense of how the system works and helping the curious to dig down into the data to improve their understanding.
This supplements the criminal justice system delivery data dashboards – designed to increase transparency, increase understanding of the justice system and support collaboration, particularly at a local level through Local Criminal Justice Boards. The dashboards are interactive and have been further developed this year to reflect requests from local agencies. I have attended Local Criminal Justice Boards and talked to Police and Crime Commissioners to see how they are being used in practice to get a shared understanding of priorities across local agencies, and to see what more we can do to help.
This is a great example of how our data can help to make a difference in practice to our public services.
Data-driven insight and innovation
Our data science teams are at the forefront of innovation, producing new tools and analytical approaches. They have linked electronic monitoring curfew data into probation case management. This is being used by data analysts within MoJ and by collaborating academic fellows to support policy makers and operational staff in their work to reduce offending and strengthen public protection.
We continue to improve and develop our existing data science products to provide new insights. Our Prison Network App links up multiple sources of administrative data to help detect prisoners involved with drug smuggling, gang violence and organised crime. More than 500 intelligence staff use the app to identify connections between individuals in the prison population. We're now adding information on co-defendants which will make the app even more powerful in spotting relationships between offenders in prisons.
We have worked in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute to develop a framework for the Department to build and embed our ethical approach to the use of AI and data science, so that we can be confident that we understand the choices we make are ethically sound, with principles we can stand by as this area develops quickly.
Improved outcomes for users through data linking
Data First links together administrative datasets from across the justice system, to build a fuller picture of our users and their outcomes that has not been possible before and allowing researchers across the UK to generate new insights to inform decision making. For example, on which kinds of intervention and support are more likely to help an individual turn away from crime. Data First researchers have shared a cross-justice system dataset that links users from across the courts, prisons, and probation with those of the civil and family courts in England and Wales. This will help us better understand the extent to which people dealing with debt or housing issues are also involved in the criminal justice system, and how many people involved in care proceedings in family court are subject to criminal cases at the same time.
Data First also recently published analysis on linked data from MoJ and the Department for Education, which revealed that children who have lived in care are eight times more likely to have received a youth justice caution or conviction than those who have not (as cited by the Guardian in September 2023).
Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) is another ambitious data-linking project, joining data from MoJ, Department of Health and Social Care, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, among others. BOLD has begun to transform the way policy and services are shaped, actioned, and delivered with a strong emphasis on linked data infrastructure across service systems that span multiple organisations.
BOLD has linked probation and health treatment data to understand treatment pathways for alcohol treatment and drug rehabilitation requirements which can be imposed by a court alongside a non-carceral sentence. This revealed that only around 40% of those with these requirements appeared in treatment data, suggesting that large numbers of offenders are not completing their treatment and allowing probation officers to follow up with those most likely to drop out. BOLD have also produced a tool for probation staff which cuts down the duplication of data entry and significantly reduces the need for probation officers to search for data, freeing up their time to allow more offender management to reduce reoffending.
As demand for our services increase, linking data across different public services can give us a clearer sense of how – by working with our colleagues in health, education and local authorities – we can help to divert people from crime before they enter the criminal justice system, reducing criminality and making our communities safer places to live and work.
Fixing the basics to support a strategic approach to data
The MoJ now has its first Chief Data Officer, to lead from the top, bring strategic expertise and championing our data ambitions across the department. Our Data Improvement team has run a discovery into tooling for a new data catalogue and has mapped critical datasets across the MoJ and criminal justice system (CJS), which will inform prioritisation of work and form the basis for this future catalogue.
The Data Improvement team has also piloted a data ownership policy that is tailored to the way MoJ is organised and have supported thousands of colleagues to build their data skills through One Big Thing.
I’m also proud to be sponsoring the CJS Data Forum, bringing together senior leaders from across the CJS to agree and prioritise our collective ambitions for using CJS data to provide greater insight to support decision-making - whether that is in policy development or operational delivery.
What’s next?
We will shortly publish our data improvement roadmap, outlining our plans for data management, data skills and behaviour, and access to data over the next three years. Early progress notwithstanding, we are still at an early stage in our journey to deliver on the vision of the data strategy, and there is much more to do, and our teams will share more about their work in the future.
]]>The growing number of publicly available AI tools, which have been shown to have incredible impacts depending on the hands they fall into, has meant that once again tech ethics has been given a boost to the top of the agenda. However, the conversation has moved on from when ethics was discussed in more theoretical terms; the kind that resulted in many organisations publishing principles and guidelines. There is a want and need for ethics to become more practical and more tangible. People want to know how they can put principles into action, especially those relating to privacy, fairness, inclusion, environmental sustainability and explainability of systems. We’re seeing this need being met through the increasing number of tech ethics and AI ethics toolkits that are being published. Ethics is also becoming more action-orientated through the diversity and number of voices contributing to calls for regulation and legislation where conversations about “should we or shouldn’t we” are being debated in terms of “cannot” and “must not”.
The move toward practical ethics must be applauded and must continue to be contributed to. However, we must not forget to update our principles. There will be many who say that principles are nothing but theory and built on idealism. Yes, there can be challenges with implementing some of the ethical principles and yes, there are principles that create friction with one another. However, starting from a place of idealism and the bluest of blue skies allows us to constantly be stretching towards excellence. Ambitious principles implore us to reflect and continuously improve. Another reason principles are important is because they create a moral boundary that helps to determine what good looks like. It’s the reason the Service Standard, with its principles relating to users, technology and data, and teams has been so pivotal in setting the high quality standards of public service design in the UK. When we’re asked to “Design for users and their needs”, it means we prioritise activities that allow us to collect valuable insights from people who use our services. I could say the same thing for the rest of the 13 Service Standards. For example, the call to use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns has contributed to service teams across government championing re-use and building and maintaining common public digital goods. Toolkits are brilliant at putting theory into practice. Principles are remarkable at creating social norms that lead to desired behaviours being sustained over time.
This is why the Service Standard needs a refresh. In light of the enormous piles of evidence that show how technology continues to be woven into the microfibres of our lives and planet, we need a principle that asks service teams to consider the ethical impacts of their work. Right now there are teams at the Ministry of Justice, Home Office, NHS, Ministry of Defence, and others who are thinking of ethics and finding ways to apply it to their work. This has been great at starting conversations and bringing people together to share emerging best practices. But many aren’t part of this small sea change simply because it’s not on their agenda and hasn’t been flagged as a priority.
Elsewhere across the public sector, change is taking root. The NHS Design Principles and the Digital Service Standards for Wales both have been updated to clearly state that teams need to think of the impacts of their work. Principle two in the NHS Design Principles says that teams should “Design for Outcome” and reflect on what good will look like. Informed by the Well-being of Future Generations Act, standard one of the Digital Service Standards for Wales calls out the importance to “Focus on the current and future wellbeing of people in Wales”. There are also the Environmental Policy Principles Duties that have come into force which means that every policy professional must consider the environmental effects when developing policy. These duties will have a knock-on effect on the design of services and the impact that our technologies have on the environment, and as a result, on humanity. Alongside this, a team at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have drafted 9 core principles and 24 guidelines for designing planet-centric public services.
As always, there are some fantastic people leading the way in the tech ethics space but more can be done and must be done to make ethics a priority in public service design. There is no better place to start than updating the common standard we all know, respect, champion, and use to hold ourselves and others in our community to account. The impact would be remarkable.
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