What will the next generation of public services look like?

Content, content, everywhere but nothing makes you think!

That’s how it often feels living in the Gen AI era. How refreshing then when you find yourself enveloped in a book that triggers ideas, optimism and excitement - that’s what happened when I got my hands on Richard Pope’s new book, Platformland: An Anatomy of Next-Generation Public Services.

This is an important book. Not just because it's going to result in a paradigm shift for digital leaders across government. It's important because it provides an excellent articulation of the mandate that digital leaders need in order to deliver transformational public services. 

All too often, the aim of digital programmes is to deliver the status quo, but more cheaply. This might look good on a business case, but the result is the same services for the public, only in a digital format. No one working in a digital capacity wants to deliver the status quo in digital format. We want to make services better and consequently improve lives. 

To break free from status quo in digital services, there needs to be a system level change, so that the incentive for improving services is greater than the incentive for producing cost savings. It is difficult to affect this change, but this book will go some way to helping decision makers shift their thinking to the former.

Pope achieves this by presenting a picture of the possibility space and a roadmap for getting there. If the right people are introduced to the concepts in this book, there is every chance that it will have a major impact. 

The book covers a broad range of topics including:

• Chapters 1 to 3 describe how public services can be better designed;
• Chapters 4 to 6 describe the fundamental parts that next generation public services will be built from;
• Chapters 7 to 8 touch on the relationship between the citizen and the state and the implications for the design of public services; and 
• Chapters 9 to 10 detail some concrete ways that a digital public sector can be understandable, accountable and trusted. 

The book deals with complex technical and political issues but presents them in a readable and digestible format. If you’re involved in the delivery of public services, make sure you pick up a copy, read it and pass it on.

To find out more and to order your copy of the book, visit the Platformland website