Developing a modern statistical system - a review of Scotland's Census 2022

Digital Programme Delivery as it relates to statisticians

In this section we review the relationship between the census programme and best practice for digital programmes. The 2011 census had around 20% of questionnaires returned online but the 2022 programme intended from the start for the vast majority of returns to be digital.

With 89% of returns online in 2022, representing over 2 million households with no major outages or defects, the census is both a digital programme and an example of positive digital transformation. mirroring the modal shift away from paper and manual processes in many other government functions.

Digital Assurance

In the early stages of the Census programme there were a number of emerging resources to support large public sector digital programmes in Scotland. In April 2017 Audit Scotland published Principles for a Digital Future – Lessons Learned from public sector IT projects . Around the same time the Scottish Government published an updated digital strategy. and formally introduced the Technology Assurance Framework and Digital Service Standard

The Census programme worked with the Scottish Government Directorate for Internal Audit and Assurance to implement an integrated approach to Assurance which included Gateway Reviews, Digital Standards and Internal Audit. The programme worked with the Digital Assurance Office to conduct major digital project reviews in this wider context of integrated assurance and assessment against digital standards under the Technology Assurance Framework.

The expertise from the Digital Assurance Office was influential in shaping the delivery of the programme and their detailed reports on a number of topics have contributed to this review. The experiences and reflections from NRS have been captured as case studies for use in future projects.

Integrated assurance approach provided strong evidence on the health of the programme to a range of internal and external stakeholders. Over time, engagement with assurance processes enabled the census programme to effectively prepare and respond to reviews to maximise the positive benefits from the assurance processes.

Findings

Whenever a major statistical programme includes a major digital programme there should be early engagement with the Digital Assurance Office. This should ensure that future programmes have a detailed awareness of best practice and the areas of assessment at programme inception to maximise the benefits from expertise in digital programme delivery. This should be part of a wider move to increase links between statisticians and those with digital expertise.

Digital First Service Standard

The Digital First Service Standard was introduced in 2017 and the Census Programme was required to embed the delivery practices set out in the Standard as part of its approach under the scope of the Technology Assurance Framework. This is a set of criteria for organisations delivering public services and has three themes: meeting users’ needs, providing a service and using the right technology.

Although census programme design started before 2017, an awareness and understanding of established best practice from other digital programmes had not been embedded into the Census Programme at the outset. It was also not included early enough once the formal Digital First Service Standards were in place. This led directly to early assurance assessments making a high number of recommendations around end-to-end service design and the adoption of user-centred approaches. As the programme progressed, significant effort was made to address these requirements. The programme subsequently took as many opportunities as possible in the remaining time available to optimise the user experience .

The introduction of leadership, governance and resourcing requirements to meet digital standards were delayed and some design decisions had already been taken, limiting the scope for both service design and technology choices.

Findings

A solid understanding of the Digital Standard as a way to design and deliver a service needs to be embedded from the outset of the project, at all levels in the organisation. This should include consideration of wider non-user stakeholders and those impacted by delivery of a large programme, as well as users of statistical outputs. Statistical products should align with principles and standards for digital delivery.

Digital Resourcing

NRS does not retain a core Census team, instead it is built as NRS progresses through the programme. This is partly a reflection of the different skills required at different stages and maintain a resource profile which is value for money. Skills that were particularly hard to source and retain included service design, understanding of digital standards and project management Throughout the programme lifecycle, securing appropriately skilled resource to design and deliver the Census was an ongoing challenge and regularly identified during assurance reviews. Digital skills and expertise were drawn from a combination of permanent recruitment of civil servants, fixed term appointments, short term contracts, as well as a significant reliance on existing contracted suppliers and partners to fill gaps. As a variety of routes were followed to secure resources this led to challenges in creating an effective team culture being cascaded through the programme from senior leadership downwards. In interviews, a number of NRS staff shared the view that external contractor and suppliers exerted influence on service design and technology choices without sufficient oversight from programme leadership. This would not necessarily have been the case with a greater level of embedded and NRS controlled digital resources established earlier in the programme.

Findings

The end to end resourcing requirements and the strategy to deliver them for a programme have to be considered realistically from the outset. Leaders have a central role to play in ensuring that there is a shared understanding of what success looks like and acknowledges the diverse professions that are needed for successful programme delivery.

Scottish Government Digital Directorate has developed mature strategies for implementing digital standards, assurance and resourcing and these should be considered across the statistical system including digital platforms in use by statisticians and analysts to deliver products across that system.

This aligns with Recommendation 4: The Chief Statistician should consider what mechanisms are required to provide oversight and assurance of Cross-cutting Statistical Components in a holistic way and escalation of key decisions that could impact an integrated statistical system.