Current challenges
The way we design and deliver public services is broken.
For over a decade, we’ve failed to increase our state capacity as Welsh public services have faced growing pressures: rising demand alongside reduced funding. People need and expect more, but public services have failed to keep up.
Councils are finding it hard to keep essential services running. Wales’ 22 local authorities often work in silos, face chronic underfunding, and rely on outdated delivery models. Expensive ‘big bang’ technology programmes take years and rarely deliver the improvements people need.
The NHS is struggling to balance budgets, reduce waiting times, and handle large queues at A&E.
Welsh public services are falling behind – not just compared to England, but to other countries like Estonia, Canada, and Caribbean nations leading the way in public service reform.
For years we’ve relied on sticking plasters and short-term fixes to keep vital services running. A bit more money here, a re-organisation there. But it’s not enough. Without a strong impetus for systemic reform, this fragmented approach only perpetuates problems.
We’re stuck in a cycle where it takes more and more just to stand still.
And now, the latest Spending Review makes the outlook even tougher. Hard choices are coming.
It’s time to move beyond crisis management and start planning for the future.
We can’t afford to wait another 5 years.
The old ways are not working.
For years, government has turned to technology to make services more efficient.
While technology has changed immeasurably in the 25 years of devolution in Wales, the way we deliver it hasn’t.
Wales relies too heavily on big IT suppliers – often based outside Wales – who still use old-fashioned delivery methods. These methods rely on months of upfront planning, heavy governance that slows things down without adding value, and long procurement cycles that often fail. Even when projects launch years later, they’re usually outdated, over budget, and a huge drain on public funds.
This holds us back from using more modern effective ways of working that deliver value at pace.
Policy is still made without understanding delivery. Technology is still bought without thinking about users. Big programmes promise everything – then deliver too late, or not at all.
We’ve designed around technology, not people, and it shows. We keep putting tech and policy first, and experience last. We mistake digital products for digital transformation. We rely on the empty promise of ‘quick fixes’ like Artificial Intelligence, and assume they will dig us out of a hole.
And with organisations each trying to solve the same problems in isolation – from social care to housing – we waste money, time and effort that could be better spent working together.
What’s needed isn’t just better tools, it’s better ways of working.
That means starting with people’s needs. Testing and learning, not guessing and launching. And building in the open, with teams who can adapt as they go.
The real opportunity lies in how we work, not just what we build.
Good practice exists, but it’s not the standard.
Wales isn’t short on talent or good ideas.
The Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) has successfully tested different ways of delivering services. This includes a positive shift to designing better bilingual services through closer working between the Welsh Government and the Welsh Language Commissioner.
Alongside this, other organisations have shown what’s possible. Sport Wales has redesigned its community grants service to be more inclusive. The Welsh Revenue Authority prototyped policy in the open. Natural Resources Wales is sharing and learning openly. Councils in Gwent are forming a shared digital unit to share resources and learning, and reduce duplication.
The Welsh Government should be championing and mandating these modern approaches across all public services, especially for local government and the NHS.
But they are small-scale, fragmented, and far from standard. Progress is too slow.
The Digital Strategy for Wales has stalled.
The next government is a chance to do things differently, and do them better.