Name: Demos: How can technology support a ‘liberated’ public sector workforce?
Start: 2024-11-27T17:00:00+00:00
End: 2024-11-27T18:30:00+00:00
Location: Demos

$Demos: How can technology support a \u2018liberated\u2019 public sector workforce?$

Join Demos’ as we launch a new report on our priorities for embedding data and AI within a larger programme of public service reform.
About this Event

Much ink has been spilled about the potential of AI to transform public services. At times, AI and wider technological innovation has been presented as the silver bullet to increasing productivity and efficiency across the public sector.

The opportunity for public sector professionals is usually framed as a simple process of automating mundane tasks, and freeing up human capital to do more important work.

Generally, this seems to be a sensible approach. But when grand ambitions of technological innovation meet the messy reality of a complex network of public service providers, a deeper set of questions come into view.

Where do public sector professionals and their role in adapting and shaping digital transformation of services enter the picture? How can technology for the public sector be designed in a way which can adapt to respond to changing priorities and needs on the ground? What measures are needed to put technology in service of public sector professionals and citizens, maintaining human agency and judgement?

Join Demos’ Public Services 2030 Network as we launch a new report on our priorities for embedding data and AI within a larger programme of public service reform.

Speakers:

Dan Aldridge MP, Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare
Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy
Gina Neff, Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy
Sophia Knight, Senior Tech Policy Researcher, Demos

About the Public Services 2030 Network

Public services are in crisis. Backlogs are everywhere, from NHS waiting lists to undecided asylum applications. Frontline staff, managers and civil servants alike are doing their best to respond, and often performing heroically.

But the fundamentals of the situation are beyond individual heroism, short term fixes or limited cash injections to resolve. The United Kingdom needs a rethink on public services: what do we want, what are we willing to pay for, and who will do the work and how will there be change?

There is no shortage of bold and innovative ideas. From pioneering councils to charities experimenting to new approaches to service design and thinkers across the political spectrum, we have been inspired by the wealth of work happening right across the country.

Now is the time to connect these voices to create a new era of public service reform. The Public Services 2030 Network is a movement of organisations committed to rebuilding and reforming our public services so they are fit for the next decade.

The Network is supported in 2024 by: