What a brilliant day at GovCamp Cymru! The energy, generosity, and curiosity in every room was infectious, and proof that when you bring together people who care about public services in Wales, good ideas flow fast.

We pitched and ran a packed session on “A vision for public services in Wales”. Around 40 people joined us to explore what great public service delivery could look like, and what’s holding us back.

The discussion was honest, hopeful, and grounded in real experience from across local government, digital, and community sectors.

What we heard: a shared vision

There was strong agreement that Wales needs joined-up, user-centred, consistent, and inclusive services. Services that feel simple, trustworthy, and designed around people’s real lives.

Participants painted a vision of services that just work:

  • Simple and unobtrusive, where users don’t have to understand government structures to get what they need.

  • Consistent and fair, so people have the same experience no matter where in Wales they live. (“I should just have the same bins.”)

  • Accessible and relational, blending digital convenience with the human connection that still matters deeply in care, support, and advice.

  • Empowering, with decisions made closer to those delivering and using services. (“Power in the hands of the people doing the work.”)

  • Collaborative, with shared platforms, standards, and learning across Wales so we design well once, and reuse widely.

  • Data-informed, using evidence from service delivery to shape better policies and improve visibility for the public.

And all this built on a thriving local digital economy, where small Welsh suppliers and in-house teams are trusted and supported to deliver what’s needed.

What’s in the way

Of course, many of the barriers are familiar, and are things we point to in the Transform Wales report . Seeing them written out together gave the room a real sense of the challenge ahead.

We talked about fragmentation: 22 councils often running 22 versions of the same service, and the difficulty of coordinating across so many overlapping systems and policies. Short-term funding and political cycles mean transformation rarely outlives an election term.

Procurement and vendor lock-in are still major blockers, with many organisations reliant on systems that don’t fit local needs or talk to each other. People also spoke about risk aversion, “not invented here” attitudes, and a lack of autonomy and trust for those closest to delivery.

There’s a growing skills gap too — both in digital and service design — compounded by heavy reliance on contractors and the constant pressure to deliver rather than learn. And across it all sits a tangle of legacy systems, weak data-sharing, and a focus on efficiency over outcomes.

What could help us progress

Despite the challenges, the room was buzzing with practical ideas for how Wales could move forward.

We need to invest in teams, not projects, and give them the time and trust to build capability. Common standards, shared platforms, and interoperable data systems could save time and free up teams for more relational work.

Participants also called for language change, from “efficiency” to quality, experience, and impact. Funding could be used to encourage collaboration and reuse across councils, rather than rewarding duplication.

Above all, people wanted to see citizen co-design built in from the start, not as an afterthought once a solution is already decided. And they highlighted how crucial it is to work across political divides, finding shared purpose in improving how we serve people in Wales.

A shared mission for Wales

If there was one message that stood out, it was this: we already have many of the ingredients for better public service delivery. Passionate and committed teams, and an appetite for change.

What we need now is leadership buy-in, trust, and sustained investment to make it real.

At Transform Wales, we’ll keep holding these conversations and connecting the dots between vision and delivery. Because transforming public services isn’t just about technology. It’s about trust, collaboration, and believing that Wales can build something better, together.

If you didn’t attend our session but can see a different angle or something that’s missing, email us at: team@transform.wales . We’d love to hear from you.

Read more about people’s experiences of GovCamp Cymru 2025: