Jason helps develop DH’s digital strategy, particularly the capability and policy parts. He is @xcaplin on Twitter.
I joined the Department of Health as the head of digital strategy in July 2013. Since then, our little team has saved less than £1m, not created any new jobs, not revolutionised health and care, and not spent its budget. And that’s all a good thing.
In the past we've called it 'policy'. But I don't think that's the right word any more.
Today we're making the code for the Department of Health’s intranet available for free to anyone who wants to copy it. With one small request:
During 2014, we’ve been pushing the digital capability message pretty hard. (Summary: don’t be scared, it’s the same internet you have at home, now go do clever stuff.) So it’s nice to have a number to put on the progress we’ve made.
One month ago we launched the Department's new intranet, including our new PolicyKit, in a fanfare of public sector savings, staff satisfaction, and another big win for small UK digital businesses.
A year ago, head of government communications Alex Aiken described internal comms as ‘the Cinderella of the practice.’ We thought: let's fix this.
It seems like every training session we run at DH starts with the same quip. How many of you bank online? Who bought something at Amazon this month? Have you ever checked up on your children on Facebook? … And …