📓 Rob Whiting

It's great to see that accessibility compliance monitoring of UK public sector websites has now moved to WCAG 2.2 AA. Council Platform sites are already compliant to this standard, and we'll be monitoring client sites to ensure that existing content is also compliant. #LocalGov #Accessibility

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If you have experienced or witnessed bullying, harassment or discrimination against LGBTQ+ staff in the Civil Service, you can record it within the a:gender reporting tool: https://lnkd.in/ef4YUtVs It can also record historical episodes. If this kind of reporting is left to individual government departments then it can be exceedingly difficult to understand the national picture. Likewise many of those who have tried to report discrimination to their home departments have become inured to the process, because they rarely see it handled appropriately. Reporting to a:gender ensures your report goes to people who care, even if they can't impact your own case directly. Always do both if you can!

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Some groups of people benefit more from services than others. Some people are harmed. I've written an article to talk about what we mean by equity and justice in relation to government digital services, why it’s important and suggest 6 things that leaders and decision makers can start doing about it right now: 1. Measure the outcomes of services in terms of equity 2. Build equity and justice explicitly into our work 3. Prioritise and fund work on equity and justice 4. Talk about equity and justice whenever we can 5. Find, uplift and fund people already working on these issues 6. Hire diverse teams I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. I wrote this because I couldn't think of anywhere were we are talking about why these things matter in our industry, but if I've missed something, please let me know! Thanks to Alistair Greo, Sonia Turcotte, Kara Kane and Ignacia Orellana for your help in shaping these ideas and getting this article published 💫

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If you’re looking for the easy explainer on the Data (Use and Access) Bill, and what it means for digital identity; Inika has you covered! New on the ‘Enabling digital identity’ blog https://lnkd.in/eCT85Zi6 #digitalidentity #legislation

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💭 What makes digital projects different when trying to evaluate impact? 💭 Our recently published Evaluating Digital Projects guidebook explores just that. Aiming to build on existing guidance developed for public sector teams, like the Magenta Book, our new guidance is ideal for teams looking for specific advice on how to evaluate their digital and technology projects. Digital projects are diverse in their aims, delivery methods, and technology types, but there are a number of common factors that set them apart from other types of projects. These may include how digital projects are often: 🔀 Designed to be iterative and agile; changing quickly to meet user’s needs and wider organisational contexts. 🚀 Impacted by rapidly changing technologies; meaning new things can become possible or affordable during the lifecycle of a project. ⚙️ Accompanied by broader changes; to process, to organisational culture, or to technical systems. That's why digital projects need a distinct set of evaluation tools and approaches to navigate these challenges - but without much dedicated guidance for these kinds of projects, we’ve turned our digital evaluation experience into a practical set of steps that digital and evaluation teams can use as a starting point 📈 Find out more about our 18 core principles below, or read the full guidebook for an easy-to use guide that we hope can help teams assess the impact of their digital projects ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/ensY-qjE 💡To discuss how we can help with your evaluation challenges, get in touch with our Director of Commercial, Spend & Impact Johnny Hugill (johnny@public.io) #DigitalEvaluation #PublicSectorEvaluation #MonitoringAndEvaluation #DigitalProjects #EvaluatingDigitalProjects #Evaluation - Steffen Triebel Sam Mingoia Florence Mayo Leyre Villaizan, Disha Shanbhag Toluwanimi Segun Marco Iovino Mirat Hyder Binka Lubica Hamarova Natasha Wren Ryan Shea Alexander de Carvalho

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🚨 Latest guidance drop 🚨 We, the Government Data Quality Hub at the Office for National Statistics, have just released our latest guidance piece on: “Inclusivity and accessibility in survey development” ℹ️ This guidance outlines the inclusivity and accessibility considerations that need to be made during survey development ℹ️ It aims to increase the understanding of inclusivity and accessibility in survey design, and the risks of not incorporating them ℹ️ Inclusivity and accessibility are very much intertwined, so both should be considered from the start of your survey design Credit: Alice Toms, PhD, content lead. https://lnkd.in/esfSzBjV #inclusivity #accessibility #inclusivedesign #accessibledesign #survey #surveydesign #surveydevelopment #questionnaire #questionnairedesign #questionnairedevelopment #respondent #socialresearch

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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is recruiting more members to join its Resources and Waste user panel to test and enhance its new digital services. The services members can preview in advance include the Local Authority Payment (LAP) scheme, among others. Members of the panel will have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experiences of the new services through various means, including online or in-person discussions, prototype testing, and surveys. To sign-up and/or to find out more, you can click the following link: https://lnkd.in/ey_jKQrn Additionally, DEFRA has provided an update on local authority payments from Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging. Following a review of delivery plans for the go-live of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) next year, the release of the Local Authority Payments (LAPs) digital function of pEPR will now take place in Spring 2025. This will allow DEFRA to release more functionality at once, which means a more complete user journey. It will also help to ensure that the right users register at the right time. This will not impact the timelines for receiving payment estimates or payments. Authorities will receive their payment estimates in November 2024 and be paid towards the end of 2025. Year 1 payment estimates will be emailed to local authority Chief Executives. Authorities can still contact the pEPR helpdesk about their payment estimates. The helpdesk’s contact details will be released soon. #DEFRA #LARAC #EPR #pEPR #LAP #ExtendedProducerResponsibility #Waste #Recycling #Resource #CollectionPackagingReforms #LocalAuthorities Sophie

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GOV.UK Design System Community Principles: 1. Start with what exists 2. Contribute back and help others 3. Prioritise openness and honesty https://lnkd.in/gYiZPZsg

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This is great. How to think about the paradigm and role in different contexts.

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Enjoyed Matt Baird's The Social Housing Round Table this morning on Hannah Absalom's Home Encounters research. Lots of discussion around stigma and listening to tenants. It got me thinking (and apologies, Hannah, for going on a bit of a tangent to your research, which all those in housing and asset management should read) about who is working for tenants and (as I have been doing some work on education recently) the differences between the Ofsted inspection framework and that for social housing. Ofsted "inspect services that provide education and skills for learners of all ages in England" and the Regulator of Social Housing "regulates for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants". Recently, Ofsted completed their Big Listen, "a comprehensive consultation that asked for people’s views on how to improve our approach to inspection and regulation". This involved specific research with "the people we work for: parents, carers, and children and learners themselves". The Regulator of Social Housing has only just being able to start proactively inspecting consumer standards, and includes tenants as part of this. I wonder if, now they have these powers, the regulator will start specific consultation exercises with tenants? For a long time, the focus on regulation of social housing has been making best use of public finances, hence looking at the economic standards. This, and the previous legal framework, reduced focus on the services provided for tenants, the consumer standards. It is the regulator's standards that set the tone for social housing landlords. Yet education is publicly funded, and Ofsted talk about their work being *for* parents, carers, and children and learners. Do we need a greater shift from the Regulator to seek views of tenants? Is their work for tenants? Or is it the Housing Ombudsman? You can read Hannah's research here: https://lnkd.in/efBrkAMS And more about the Big Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eGXYbiYn

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Applications for User research fundamentals are now open! Are you working in the devolved Welsh public sector and looking to create user-centric products and services? Our User research fundamentals course will help you enhance your skills and make a real impact. Here's what past participants have said: 🗣️ “It moved just right, was pitched perfectly for my understanding, and was fun! I felt supported throughout.” 🗣️ “I got a lot out of the course. The way it was put together was very different, and I feel I could put this into action in my role.” 🗣️ “The varied content and practical elements really helped embed the learning and put it into practice.” ⏳ Applications close 17 January 2025 at 11:59 PM! 🔗 Course details and application link in the comments. 💬 Have a question? Drop me a DM. Take the next step in delivering better services for your users. Apply today!

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🔍 June Data Insights Dashboard: Key Living Standards Issues in Wales Living standards will be the defining issue of the upcoming general election. For people in Wales, making your household budget add up is the primary concern right now. The problem is clear: Does my income cover my expenses? Can I live comfortably, or am I just scraping by? See our June Data Insights Dashboard below for an insight into 3 key living standards issues people in Wales are coming for advice on: negative budgets, energy debt, and housing issues. English: https://lnkd.in/eFEswh4B Welsh: https://lnkd.in/eEr3EEEY

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Public sector data is often locked away in lots of individual systems, across many different organisations, and isn’t in a format that makes access or integration easy. Launched in 2021, Research Data Scotland (RDS) helps researchers find out what’s out there, how good it is and how to get hold of it quickly. In our latest guest blog, Professor Roger Halliday, RDS’s Chief Executive Officer introduces the organisation’s pioneering Researcher Access Service and looks forward to its future innovations. https://lnkd.in/e47p3xZW

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Did you know that with each change in monarch, the crown icon on all the GOV.UK websites changes too? A big change right? Well no actually. The recent change took place through a single update to the Gov UK design system, a single repository of digital design assets that links to all government websites. So the change only needed to be made once which then rolled out across all government platforms. The Gov UK design system allows hundreds of departments and digital content owners to build consistent, authoritative and accessible websites. To learn more about the Gov UK’s design system, check out our latest blog post: https://lnkd.in/euvw7FQT Or if you’d like to see the Gov UK design system in practice? Then click through to our case study with the transit data experts at ITO WORLD, delivering data to stakeholders like Google, Apple, and the Department for Transport: https://lnkd.in/eHyS5qpn

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