In the public sector, building digital delivery capability isn’t just about getting things live. It’s about embedding the right culture, capability and ways of working to deliver long-term value for users, while growing the internal capacity to do so sustainably.
Whilst many departments now have sizeable digital teams, many still struggle to build long-term capability because they jump straight to big transformation plans or new structures. By skipping important milestones like solving a tangible problem, building the right team, and earning trust, we risk burning goodwill before delivery has a chance to prove its value. The good news? It doesn’t have to be that way.
Based on my experience, a phased, pragmatic approach can help establish and scale digital delivery in government. It starts with a small team tackling a live problem and growing into a mature, multi-disciplinary function that supports continuous improvement and innovation of public services.
Navigating the current landscape is daunting
Complex legacy systems, fragmented service ownership, restrictive governance, resource constraints and delivery fatigue. If you’ve worked in a digital team in government, you’ll recognise the challenge and the potential.
Despite growing maturity in delivery, digital is still too often brought in downstream in the process after key policy or budgetary decisions have already been made. This approach limits the digital team’s ability to shape outcomes, challenge assumptions, or align services with user needs from the start.
Adding to this pressure, many public services today offer a modern, user-friendly experience on the surface. Behind this ‘digital veneer’, legacy systems still play a critical role. These systems, often decades old and difficult to maintain, can make responding quickly to changing needs harder.
Many departments are still shaped by policy boundaries, funding lines, and governance processes that pre-date the internet—not by what users need to get done. This can lead to fragmented ownership, a slower pace, and friction between teams.
Compounding matters, there is often a sense of delivery fatigue. Digital teams have been balancing the continuous improvement of existing services alongside the delivery of new services, often without headcount to deliver properly. They’ve been through multiple rounds of discovery or reorganisation without seeing lasting change.
Meanwhile, expectations are only increasing. Government services must be:
- User-centred
- Accessible
- Secure
- Interoperable
- Data-enabled
- Integrated with AI
- Continuously improved
- Delivered at pace
Some of these aren’t nice-to-haves; they’re mandated through the Service Standard and the Technology Code of Practice. And they’re the right standards to aim for.
All of the conditions above have placed a significant burden on teams. Meeting this requires more than just vision. It needs well-supported, multi-disciplinary teams embedded across departments, operating with agility and accountability. That’s a challenge—but also a clear opportunity to invest in technology and skills that future-proof government services for the long term.
When this is done correctly, with teams taking a service-led view by joining up digital, policy, ops and delivery, we’re seeing a growing number of success stories, from accessible licensing services to better common tools. As the National Audit Office (NAO) puts it, leadership and investment in digital skills are now essential to unlocking the next wave of transformation.
1. Start with a brownfield problem, not a blank slate
The best way to build capability is to start with a real, painful problem. Ideally, it should be close to policy or operational delivery. Set up a small team to address it. Don’t wait for the perfect greenfield opportunity, it rarely exists in government. Real capability is built by solving real, messy problems where change is most needed.
This team becomes the proving ground for your delivery approach. It’s where you test new roles, tools, governance, and ways of working to solve a real issue that matters.
Take the “Check if you can get legal aid” service developed by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). This started as a brownfield problem—a legacy online form with poor usability, low completion rates, and high call centre volumes. Rather than waiting for a perfect greenfield opportunity, a small digital team was formed to tackle the live problem head-on.
Crucially, this small intervention provided a safe space to test roles like product manager and content designer, introduced agile ways of working, and gave delivery credibility within the department. Source
2. Prioritise practitioners over managers
A common misstep is to fill limited early headcount with vertical roles, e.g., Heads of capability and Deputy Directors of functions. In my experience, you get better results when you hire people who do the work: product managers, user researchers, designers, developers, delivery leads, and business analysts.
Practitioners:
- Deliver visible value from day one
- Establish team culture through how they work
- Attract other skilled professionals
- Build credibility with stakeholders
You can layer in management and strategic roles later, but strong delivery starts with skilled people doing real work.
3. Embed Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) roles and agile ways of working
Adopting DDaT roles isn’t just about aligning to a framework. It’s about forming multi-disciplinary teams with a shared purpose, clear roles, and collaborative working practices. Most importantly, they must have all the skills they need to deliver the service.
This approach means:
- Empowering teams to make decisions and take ownership
- Using agile ceremonies (stand-ups, retros, show & tells) to create rhythm and transparency
- Working in the open, with shared backlogs and documentation
- Ensuring product, policy, and operations are working together, not in silos
- Start small, iterate and build confidence over time.
4. Work with suppliers strategically
Suppliers play a vital role in building and scaling delivery capability. The goal is to use their expertise to accelerate progress while gradually growing internal capacity.
A typical approach might look like:
- Start with a small supplier-led blended team
- Recruit and train in-house staff alongside
- Over time, shift suppliers into specialist or innovation-focused roles, where they can support cutting-edge work or tackle complex legacy challenges
Suppliers often bring experience from across government and industry. They can challenge legacy thinking, experiment at a pace, and introduce new techniques. Done well, working with suppliers not only delivers outcomes but also builds internal capability.
5. Make blended teams work
The most effective delivery teams combine civil servants and suppliers in a shared mission. But getting this balance right takes intention and care.
Good blended teams are:
- Clear on roles, responsibilities and authority
- Aligned on delivery practices and tools
- Built on mutual respect and psychological safety
- Supported by a mature digital culture
Psychological safety is one of the most important – and most overlooked – ingredients in a successful blended team. It’s especially critical in blended teams, where suppliers and civil servants may have different cultures, incentives, and levels of familiarity with the organisation.
When people feel safe speaking up, sharing ideas, admitting mistakes, or asking for help without fear of blame or judgement, the whole team performs better. Without psychological safety, team members may avoid healthy challenges or default to hierarchy, all of which slow down learning and delivery. Leaders must actively create space for open dialogue, recognise vulnerability as strength, and role-model the behaviours they want to see.
This culture is foundational to building high-performing teams in complex environments.
Avoid putting a lone supplier or civil servant on a team. This can lead to isolation and a lack of accountability. Pairing across roles, joint ceremonies, and co-location (where possible) all help create one team.
Some roles are more effective on certain sides. For instance:
- Product should sit client-side, with decision-making power
- Technical Architecture needs a long-term departmental view
- Delivery Management may benefit from supplier leadership early on to drive pace and manage commercial accountability
6. Avoid single-supplier dependency
Commercial colleagues are right to worry about over-reliance on one supplier. The Technology Code of Practice and spending controls reinforce this with good reason.
You can reduce risk by:
- Working in the open (shared tooling, accessible documentation)
- Running joint agile ceremonies
- Pairing across roles (e.g. civil servant and supplier developers or delivery leads)
- Ensuring civil servants retain product ownership and delivery oversight
If a civil servant developer reports to a supplier tech lead, ensure authority lines and responsibilities are clearly defined.
7. Scale sustainably through governance, communities and consultancy
Once delivery works at the team level, scaling is about coordination and sustainability, not just more headcount.
Three levers that help:
- Delivery-aligned governance: Lightweight, enabling oversight that supports decisions rather than blocks them
- Communities of practice: Create and invest in DDaT communities where practitioners can learn, mentor and grow
- Internal consultancy: Use experienced delivery leads to advise and support newer teams, spreading knowledge and reducing duplication
These levers help you embed delivery as a capability, not a one-off project.
8. Building more than just services
This approach doesn’t just get services live; it creates conditions for innovation, resilience and long-term public value.
With the right capability in place, departments are better placed to:
- Respond to emerging priorities (e.g. new funding for AI or innovation)
- Reduce technical debt sustainably
- Avoid supplier lock-in
- Grow the next generation of digital leaders
Done well, delivery capability becomes a real asset to the organisation, helping government departments meet their goals, earn public trust, and build things that work.
Building delivery capability in government is possible, but it takes more than strategy. It takes teams, tools, and trust. Start with real problems. Hire great practitioners. Blend teams wisely. Share what you learn.
Delivery isn’t a one-off transformation. It’s a habit, a skillset, and a culture that’s always worth investing in.
Need help building your digital capability?
We have deep experience embedding and scaling world-class digital capabilities in the public sector—check out our case studies with various government departments.
