Analyzing Public Services in the UK: A Comprehensive Report

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PUBLIC SERVICE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
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Contents
LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 4
DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES.........................................................................................5
GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE................................................................................................5
TRADITION OF HISTORICAL PRACTICE........................................................................................6
OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE........................................................................................................7
ACTIONS AND DIRECTIONS........................................................................................................ 8
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE....................................................................................................10
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES..........................................................................................................10
SOURCES OF FUNDING............................................................................................................ 11
ALLOCATION OF FUNDING.......................................................................................................12
IMPACT OF FUNDING AND ALLOCATION.................................................................................13
STRATEGY, STRUCTURE, AND ROLE OF PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS..............................14
IMPACT OF CHANGES ON SOCIETY..........................................................................................16
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 17
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................18
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: GDS Operational Structure..............................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Public sector organizations are those organizations which have been formed partially or
completely by the government or state of the nation through which development of the society
can be enhanced (Bouckaert et al., 2016). These organizations hold the main purpose of
working towards the welfare of the society and are operated by the individuals appointed by
the government so that goods and services can be provided to the customer economically and
their basic necessities can be fulfilled.
Through this report, an overview of the public services organization has been given. The report
shall cover the development of public services organization and would assist in studying its
impact over society. Through this report, development in the practices undertaken by public
sector organizations would also be studied and their generation and allocation of funds shall be
studied.
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DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES
Public services hold huge importance in a country's development as they assist the nation in
improving the standard of living of the society and work for its betterment. Over the years,
public services have been developed to a higher extent and digital technology has assisted the
public services in increasing its efficiency in satisfying the needs of society (Kearney, 2018). In
the United Kingdom, the public services sector has been divided into central and local
government which altogether develops opportunities for enhancement of society. The public
services in the UK include education, healthcare, police, public administration, etc.
With the use of digital technology, public services are being able to maintain transparency
between their working and the society so that higher impact can be initiated over the
population of the country (Hanson, 2019). With the assistance of digital technology, the sector
of public services is being able to develop innovative solutions for the problems faced by society
and ensure its reduction through an increase in efficiency. Digital technology has also supported
public services by providing reliable measures of analysis and forecasting which allows the
government in determining future changes and adopt precautions accordingly to reduce its
negative impact over the country’s development.
Use of technology has assisted in the development of the public sector in reducing human
efforts and making use of automated systems. These systems allow public services in providing
support to more number of individuals at a higher rate of efficiency (Dimock, 2019 ). Through
the automated systems, society has also built strong trust over the public services as it leads to
easy detection of fraudulent activities and keeps a higher level of transparency.
GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE
Government Digital Service is a part of the UK government’s Cabinet Office which has been
established for the transformation of the government of UK digitally and provide with digital
services so that the government offices can provide better services to the society (Gov.UK,
2019). Government Digital Service has been providing innovative digital services while setting
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up digital principles which the organization rigidly follows. The organization also deals with data
which can be used by the government as well as the public for taking relevant decisions.
Government Digital Service provides various services to different government departments
such as content designing, providing technical architecture, managing delivery, user research,
etc. The organization has assisted in transforming various governmental departments through
collaborating with them and satisfying the needs of the society (Gov.UK, 2019). Government
Digital Service has contributed to the public service department at a higher rate through in
taking a high level of technology in their working so that efficiency of the procedures in the
development of the country can be assisted.
Government Digital Service also holds GOV.UK, which is the most commonly used source for
providing information and services through the government. It has been a major part of the
digital infrastructure of the United Kingdom and increases the value of technology in the
government departments (Janowski, 2015). The structure used by Government Digital Service
has also been used for forming digital teams of different governments around the world. The
organization has transformed the ways in which the government organizations frame policies
with the help of digital technology and make use of data which has been with them to take
decisions effectively.
TRADITION OF HISTORICAL PRACTICE
Being a part of the public sector organization, the key purpose of Government Digital Service is
to ensure that the services provided by the organization are in favor of the development of the
country and thus follows a set of traditional as well as contemporary procedures to provide
services to the society (Bason, 2018). The strategies that are currently adopted by Government
Digital Service has taken over the manual practices of public service organizations and inputted
digital technologies which assist the staff as well as the public to make efficient use of the
services being provided to them. Implementing technological tools allowed the public services
organization in reducing time and costs and also reducing the cases of defaults in providing
services.
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Though implementing digital services into the function of organizations has assisted the
functioning of public services effectively, the Government Digital Service has also followed
traditional methods for maintaining privacy and ethics into its operations (Theaker, 2016). As a
part of the traditional practice, the organization ensures that the use of digital technology does
not impact the faith society has over the public sector organizations and follows the rigid rule
for maintaining ethics and privacy of their operations. Government Digital Service has also
shifted various responsibilities to other departments of the government and has strategized
their focus over digitalizing government and public sector organizations (De Vries et al., 2016).
Thus, Government Digital Service innovates its services and use of digital technology while
maintaining the traditional ethics into its operations.
Based on the current objectives that Government Digital Service holds, the traditional
workforce has also been changed and the employees that are being hired in the organization
are highly skilled and motivated employees (Arnaboldi et al., 2015). Government Digital Service
has improved its recruitment areas and skills requirements as they are willing to enhance their
services and despite following the traditional sources of recruitment, they have been sued
different sources through which they can hire highly capable workforce for conducting its
operations. The traditional values have been taken by Government Digital Service into its area
of operations while making use of digital technology for providing better services to the clients
and society.
OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE
Operational Structure can be defined as the order through which activities are conducted in an
organization. The operational structure of an organization determines the flow and hierarchy of
operations that are being conducted (Mateas and Wardrip-Fruin, 2018). It also determines the
power and control which is held by different departments of an organization and how the flow
of information shall be done in the internal bounders.
Government Digital Service holds various objectives which have been delivered through 11
business units that have been assisted by the organization. The organization has majorly three
objectives served through business management, delivery programs and supporting business
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units. Altogether, these three categories have assisted Government Digital Service in providing
a high quality of digital services to ensure that the needs of the people are satisfied (Gov.UK,
2019). The operational structure that has been used by Government Digital Service has been
widely supported by the use of digital technology for the establishment of communication
systems through which the flow of information is being assisted efficiently.
The operational structure that has been framed by Government Digital Service also assists in
taking efficient decisions for advancing the technology and using it to serve better to the
people. Operations of Government Digital Service majorly has four division through which the
operations are being divided and served to the 11 different parts of the firm Gov.UK, 2019. The
operations of Government Digital Service are being governed by the Ministerial Group of
Government Digital Technology.
Figure 1: GDS Operational Structure
[Source: Gov.UK, 2019]
ACTIONS AND DIRECTIONS
The main objective of Government Digital Service is enabling the government of the UK in
providing better public services that are being provided through different organizations. The
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organization has 11 platforms wherein it ensures that maximum utilization of digital services is
done so that manual efforts are reduced and the society can be provided with simpler and
easier delivery of public services. With the help of Government Digital Service, the government
sector of the UK has been able to initiate the use of emerging technology in the public sector.
Government Digital Service provides direction to the public sector organization in selecting the
right technology that shall be building better relationships with the people through providing
their higher efficient public services. The actions that are performed by Government Digital
Service are being governed by the various standards that have been set so that the data is
secured and the process is not competitive but is undertaken for the benefit of society (Brown
and Osborne, 2012). The organization also undertakes actions through which cross-
governmental collaboration can be increased and better standards can be set for the use of
technology in building the nation.
Government Digital Service also undertakes actions to support the digital professions through
forming GDS academy and ensuring that it would increase the capability of the government to
use digital forms. The organization is directed to ensure that the government of the UK has
been making use of innovative technology for providing public services (Fishenden and
Thompson, 2012). The organization not only works in favor of leading to the development of
the society but also ensures that the staff of the governmental sector is assisted by the use of
this digital technology.
Being formed for assisting in providing public services efficiently, Government Digital Service is
also focused on maintaining the data securely for different areas of public services and make
use of high technology to secure the same (Bloch and Bugge, 2013). This data is being
registered by the government across the country and it is the responsibility of Government
Digital Service to make proper use of it and ensure that it can be accessed by the government
and the public at secured grounds and are not being misused.
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ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
An organization structure directs the flow of direction in an organization. It is essential to
determine the organization structure in an organization so that the roles and responsibilities to
be performed at different levels of management can be clarified and the hierarchy of orders
can be stated (Winnubst, 2017). Selecting an appropriate structure of the organization is
essential depending upon the tasks that are to be performed so that they can be assisted with
higher efficiency.
The Government Digital Service is being directed by Ministerial Group of Government Digital
Technology and the different leaders that have been appointed by the local and central
government of the United Kingdom. Government Digital Service is also guided by three major
boards being Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group, Data Steering Group and GDS Advisory
Group (Gov.UK, 2019). Along with this, Government Digital Service has also established a global
network for leaders through which the digital agenda is being shared with leaders presenting
different parts of the public services. This network is being named as Technology and Digital
Network Leaders and has been formed in the year 2013 to support the leaders working for the
public services.
Along with these governing bodies and network, the Government Digital Service has divided its
platforms majorly into three categories which have been further divided into different
categories based on the tasks that are being undertaken by them (Gov.UK, 2019). The
organization structure for Government Digital Service can be understood by the objectives that
are being set by the organization and the different departments that are being formed for its
fulfillment. Through forming an efficient organizational structure, Government Digital Service
aims at providing digital services at different platforms to meet the requirements of the society
at appropriate levels.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
There are various issues that have been faced by Government Digital Service while providing its
services and are required to overcome them so that they can efficiently function. Though the
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organization has broken down numerous barriers for initiating digitalization of public sector,
there are various legal systems which cause challenges for the organization (Wæraas and
Byrkjeflot, 2012). Government Digital Service works over a huge operational area while focusing
over simplifying the procedures of providing public services for the people. However, the major
challenge which is being faced by Government Digital Service is the complex infrastructure
which leads to higher costs to the government for the establishment and training the
employees for its use. It has led to increased expectations form the existing employees and
various technological barriers for the new applicants willing to serve the people through these
organizations (Ramanadham, 2019).
Another contemporary issue which is faced by Government Digital Service is controlling the
budget framed for the establishment of the digital technology in the public services
organizations. The cost barriers are also being caused due to the outdated legacy system and its
long-term contracts which lead Government Digital Service in following long procedures and
further increase more costs (Ganapati and Reddick, 2018). Along with it, various issues of
duplication have also been faced by the organization. To overcome these challenges faced by
the Government Digital Service, it is required to adopt distributed technology and implant it
into organizations.
SOURCES OF FUNDING
Public sector establishes various organizations for providing public services to the society.
However, this organization requires a huge amount for its establishment and operations. Thus,
the public sector has to get the resources arranged through different sources so that it can
provide services to the society at economical prices and ensure that they operate efficiently
(McGann et al., 2018). For the public sector organizations, one of the major resources of
funding is taxes which are being paid to the government by companies and individuals.
Government has its major funding through different taxes that companies and individual pay in
different forms and utilizes and allocates them for the establishment and operation of a public
services organization.
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Though taxes contribute highest as a source of income for the government, however, the public
sector is also being funded through foreign sources which invest in the public organizations of
the country for their betterment (Fisher, 2015). Since the main aim of public sector
organizations is not the generation of profit but to work for the welfare of people, the
expenditure of providing these services do not match with the income generated from them
because of which external sources are to be considered for funding. In the public sector, private
financing is also being done through which funds are being generated by the public services
organization from private sources such as banks, individuals, or companies.
Public debt is also a source of funding through which the public sector generates funding
resources. Public debt is considered when the public sector sells its securities for trading to the
general public in return to the investment taken by the public in the form of funds (Ball et al.,
2014). These securities are marketable in nature and can b traded in the open market. Buying
these securities provides various tax benefits to the holder and thus is taken by individuals.
Business finance is also a resource of funding for the public sector which is gained as profit from
the business done by government-owned or state-owned bodies. Though these profits are
generally found to be less than the expenditure required for its operations, however, these are
considered as a resource of funding for the public sector.
ALLOCATION OF FUNDING
Managing the money that has been received by the public has to be appropriately managed by
the public sector organization so that it can be divided among the required areas and the
different public services organizations can perform their operations (Arnaboldi et al., 2015). The
ministers that head different public services department are required to conduct the public
services appropriately along with their accounting officers to determine funds that shall be
required by them to attain objectives of their relevant public services. The House of Commons
holds the privilege to make decisions in the matter of finances required by the public services
organization based upon their objectives and ensures that the funds are being used as per the
budget that is proposed by the organization (Gov.UK, 2018).
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