Policy and strategy, Document

Digital strategy for Wales: delivery plan

How we plan to deliver the strategy.

First published: 23 March 2021
Last updated:
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Digital services

Now

Next

Later
  • Review how key public services are delivered digitally and use this information to drive forward further strategic transformation in key areas.
  • Develop and promote guidance to support the adoption and implementation of the digital service standards.
  • Review findings from the alpha phase of Campws Digidol, the Centre for Digital Public Services’ digital sills academy, and develop a suite of digital skills training that meets the needs of those delivering public services across Wales.
  • Enhance our digital leadership in Wales by appointing a Chief Digital Officer for Health and Care and ensure the Chief Digital Officers and Centre for Digital Public Services work together to support improvement in digital public services.
  • Create a training and knowledge sharing community to support creation and delivery of good digital services with implementation tools and guides for practitioners.
  • Undertake a Discovery to explore how the appropriate use of digital and technology in the public sector can contribute to achieving the net zero carbon emissions target.
  • Continue to support organisations across sectors in Wales to strengthen their cyber resilience through training and partnership working.
  • Support public services to undertake user research with different population groups when developing services.
  • Work with the UK Government to ensure UK-wide digital and data policy and regulation is delivered in Wales appropriately and meets our needs.
  • Deliver a series of demonstrator projects to exemplify building good services based on principles of user-centred design.
  • Create and promote a set of technology standards to support the delivery of better public services.
  • Develop an understanding of requirements and a plan for shared digital identity approaches across public services.
  • Develop areas for collaboration across the Chief Digital Officer leadership and involve wider digital leaders across public bodies.
  • Publish the Digital Strategy for Health and Social Care in Wales.
  • Create and promote guidance and other support materials to help Welsh public services take decisions and implement best practices on the use of technology that decreases the environmental impact of service delivery.
  • Publish a Cyber Action Plan for Wales to bring together a coherent statement of ambition and activity on cyber in Wales. 
  • Drive forward work to ensure public sector organisations are reviewing their legacy infrastructure and modernising appropriately.   
  • Agree and identify opportunities for a shared architecture for public sector systems and services.  
  • Deliver the Digital Strategy for Health and Social Care in Wales.
  

Digital inclusion

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  • Explore a minimum digital living standard for Wales which includes a recognised baseline for what it means to be digitally included e.g. connectivity speed, device and basic digital skills.
  • Ensure appropriate interventions are in place to support people gain the digital confidence to engage with digital and know where to go for help.
  • Ensure front line staff and volunteers can access training to become digitally confident.
  • Commission research to understand the barriers faced by those who do not engage with digital.
  • Build on the mapping of digital inclusion activity taking place across Wales.
  • Use available mechanisms to influence telecoms companies to deliver tariffs aimed at the digitally excluded.
  • Work with all sectors to ensure alternative options for engaging are available for everyone and designed to the same standard as those expected of digital.

Digital skills

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  • Continue to deliver support through skills and awareness training which enhances digital in the delivery of learning and identify opportunities for doing more.
  • Continue to deliver extensive IT and digital apprenticeship provision in Wales at sub-degree and degree level.
  • Review existing Regional Skills Partnership work, such as Covid-19 reports, for intelligence on digital skills requirements in Wales.
  • Continue to roll out the Personal Learning Account programme which delivers digital courses to employed individuals who want to upskill or reskill to improve their career and earnings prospects. 
  • Continue to support schools to deliver digital competence as a cross-curricular skill at the heart of the curriculum for Wales and prepare learners to be good and effective digital citizens, enhancing their career and work-related opportunities.
  • Continue to support schools with the Digital Professional Learning Journey and help leaders, teachers and learners develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours, including keeping them safe online.
  • Consider the key issues and priorities for digital and blended learning in the Further Education and Adult Community Learning sectors and opportunities to build on progress achieved during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Develop support for digital bootcamps through innovation funding. 
  • Run pilot for a new digital Shared Apprenticeship project and evaluate outcomes.
  • Work with Regional Skills Partnerships to shape their work on digital skills as they develop a digital skills annex to their upcoming three-year employment and skills plans, ensuring alignment with policy requirements.
  • Expand the range of new digital qualifications for delivery through Personal Learning Accounts.
  • Review and evolve the digital competence framework to ensure learners across Wales can thrive in a constantly changing world.
  • Review and evolve the effectiveness of the Digital Professional Learning Journey to ensure leaders, teachers and learners have the skills, knowledge and attitudes that will enable them to confidently and creatively use digital and technology.
  • Review and consider the content of apprenticeships to ensure they remain relevant to employer needs. This will include consideration of expanding the content to meet needs identified by public sector organisations.
  • Continue to work with Regional Skills Partnerships to further strengthen their approach to capturing digital skills requirements and driving up employer investment in digital skills.

 

 

 

Digital economy

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  • Support digital driven innovation by working with business, industry bodies, research institutions and others to focus on specific industrial clusters.
  • Deliver work streams for initial agreed priority clusters.
  • Strengthen Wales as a digital exporter by creating a thriving ecosystem of commercial and academic expertise that drives digital innovation in emerging technologies.
  • Support development of the Wales Data Nation Accelerator to establish collaborative activities.
  • Mobilise Wales Cyber Innovation Hub and deliver benefits for Wales.
  • Support and champion the provision of cyber security support to businesses in Wales to strengthen their resilience when faced with cyber threats.
  • Seek out opportunities for shared working spaces across public and private sectors to encourage collaboration and reduce travel.
  • Deliver a roadmap to improve procurement practices and processes, delivering better outcomes for all.
  • Accelerate the digital maturity, productivity and skills of businesses.
  • Commission research to support prioritisation of future clusters for attention.
  • Instigate work streams and actions for further agreed priority clusters.
  • Exploit the outputs of the Wales Data Nation Accelerator for the benefit of Wales.
  • Explore opportunities to grow the cyber ecosystem.
  • Build on the relationship with National Cyber Security Centre for cyber advice to businesses.
  • Implement improvements using the existing procurement legislation (Public Contracts Regulations 2015).
  • Deliver actions from published Cluster Action Plans. 
  • Develop digital ecosystem inward investment proposals.
  • Drive further improvements, including enhanced transparency, using the new Procurement Reform Bill and the Social Partnership and Procurement Bill.

 

 

Digital connectivity

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  • Support community-led deployments through voucher schemes, like Access Broadband Cymru, grant funding like the Local Broadband Fund. This includes a £4.2 million investment in the Digital Signal Processing Centre at Bangor University to fund research and connect premises on Anglesey.
  • Consider the findings of the taskforce on digital connectivity investment and roll out.
  • Continue to develop and deliver public sector connectivity in Wales by evolving PSBA in conjunction with public sector requirements for increased connectivity.
  • Establish protocols and processes with UK Government to support the UK schemes like the Shared Rural Network and the Gigabit Broadband Programme.
  • Re-invest funding returned through our superfast roll-out to improve digital connectivity through targeted infrastructure interventions.
  • Review the ownership and commercial models for public sector duct and fibre assets.

Data and collaboration

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Next
  • Undertake a programme of work and embed a culture change to improve data sharing across public services.
  • Exploit new and existing data sources to inform analysis, decision making and research by delivering the next phase of Administrative Data Research Wales and maximising opportunities to collaborate with academia and others on data driven innovation.
  • Work with the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to embed ethical principles across all actions in this Delivery Plan.
  • Develop the next iteration of the Stats Wales portal, placing users at the heart of its design. 
  • Continue to develop Data Map Wales, the shared data platform which serves as a source for public services geospatial data in Wales, from beta to live.
  • Develop a “data promise” for health and social care, which assures people about how their health and care data is held and used. Work with the National Data Programme to consult on a wider set of principles for the use of data in the health and social care sectors.
  • Agree an approach to setting and embedding data standards across Welsh public services.
  • Develop a range of data communities for public services in Wales to work collaboratively, share expertise and support each other which will enhance data maturity and expertise.
  • Develop guidance on what public services data should be made available in an open format.
First published: 23 March 2021
Last updated:
Download document: File size 97 KB, File type PDF

This file may not be fully accessible.