One Team Government manifesto   —   prototype

1. Be curious, practical, reforming

• We are reformers. We embrace change and define ourselves against those who are reluctant or fearful of it. We serve Ministers elected by the public and we follow the civil service code.
• We are curious. We are familiar with the best thinking and writing of the internet age, and are hungry for more knowledge and experience.
• We roll up our sleeves. We mess around with data, code and digital tools ourselves, even though that is not always our day job. This first hand knowledge helps us cut through the hype of new fads and fashions.
• We are the future of the civil service. The internet came for retail, finance and the media and it will come for us unless we are prepared. We know it is not okay to be ignorant about how our modern world functions.
• We understand that digital changes the fundamentals. We see that digital is reshaping the foundations of society, and understand this affects how we do policy. It is a category error to think of digital as merely a new add-on, something to be considered after core policy work has happened.

2. Have a deep regard for the citizen experience of a policy or service

• We are driven by citizen and user needs. We use tried and tested methods to understand the lived experience of the people affected by a service or policy, and to learn what it would take to improve.
• We know that government is not just transactional. We serve the collective interests of the country and recognise that government is about more than individuals wanting simple transactional services. Digital channels are just one way to interact with government.
• We are grounded. We are policy engineers, we work on applied policy. We are motivated by practical change, not winning abstract intellectual debates.
• We consider the wider system. We understand that making improvements to public services often requires looking beyond the remit of a single team or service. Citizens and service users don't experience government as an individual piece of legislation, service or department.

3. Harness the power of boundless horizontal communication

• We look outwards. We are unassuming about the role of civil servants in the policy development process and know there is no monopoly on wisdom. We are in touch with the best knowledge outside government.
• We are open. Wherever appropriate we are engaged on social media and following guidance we share our working, our challenges and our solutions. We know that making things open can make things better.
• We collaborate. We draw together information and share experiences and communicate effectively within our teams and professional communities through digital tools and meetups. We use open policy making processes to engage the broadest input possible in the development of content.
• We borrow. We build upon the successes of others and don't start from scratch unless there is no choice.

4. Embrace the tools and working practices of the internet era

• We are as digital at work as we are at home. We make full use of digital tools on the web and we don't let sub-par government IT, where it still exists, be an excuse to resist reform.
• We do the hard work to make things simple. We take pride in moving from complicated underlying situations to achieving clarity of vision and purpose. We prefer simple language because public services are for everyone.
• We present clearly. We follow basic rules when we present so we communicate effectively, and wherever possible we show the thing we are working on rather than explain it in abstract.
• We publish, don't send. There are often better tools to communicate with colleagues than email.

5. Use data to inform decisions

• We use data to drive both policy and services. We appreciate that analytical insight is as valuable embedded within frontline digital services as it is used in its more familiar setting to inform policy choices.
• We are alert to new data techniques. We look to data science to find new insights from data, and we consider the value from non-traditional sources of data. We appreciate but do not solely rely on the traditional analytical professions in government.
• We make our data available to others. We know that data can soar in its potential when combined. We publish open data and other content in open formats wherever we can, and make use of authoritative registers to underpin our work. Data security and privacy are critical and we use alternatives to bulk data sharing wherever possible.
• We draw on a wide range of analysis: We underpin our work with a variety of analytical techniques, including behavioural science, randomised controlled trials, and evidence from academia and the what works centres .

6. Pursue an iterative, agile approach to delivery

• We start with a presumption to prototype. We believe reforms to most public services can benefit from rapid iteration, grounded in user insight and a relentless focus on rapid, tangible delivery. When we fail we hope to do it in the right way.
• We seek continuous insight. We reject a presumption of multi-year policy cycles, and the notion of a simple linear direction from ministers through policy and then on to delivery. We aim for more than policy work to be just informed by digital delivery, we aim for them to become seamless.
• We embrace agile processes to manage our teams and projects. We appreciate practices that reinforce strong team communication and iteration, and not just for digital teams but for any situation where uncertainty is expected.
• We get stuff done. We subscribe to the JFDI school of government, over wait and see. We would rather learn by doing than acquire theoretical knowledge.
• We are OneTeamGov.We reject a hard barrier between our professions. By bringing teams together to work in a truly multidisciplinary way we can offer better services to the public, give better advice to ministers, and make the civil service more effective and efficient.