## Notes from 29 May 2025 [[2025-05-28|← Previous note]] ┃ [[2025-05-30|Next note →]] ### Mechanisms and governance design in UK GovTech Reading [[Public Digital]]’s article on _[What's next for GovTech](https://www.public.io/blog-post/innovation-programmes)_ is an exercise in attentive reading between the lines. While the text focuses on GovTech and startup-government collaboration, what emerges (perhaps unintentionally) is a detailed map of the administrative capacities required to make innovation work at scale. Below is a synthesis of those latent capacities, grouped not by sector or theme, but by some core _functions_ (procurement, staffing, budgeting, technology and organizational culture). #### Organizational culture and learning orientation One of the central arguments in the piece is that government innovation requires an internal disposition to explore and adjust. Rather than framing this as an abstract "culture change," the piece exemplifies it with two initiatives that operationalize it. - The **[Digital Secondment Programe](https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/ddat-digital-secondment-programme/)**, which brings startup professionals into government teams, exposing departments to external mindsets and tools. - The **[Percy Hobart Fellowship](https://www.public.io/case-study/the-percy-hobart-fellowship)**, which does the reverse — sending civil servants into startup environments to experience a different rhythm of work. #### Staffing and temporary capacity The case of **[Patchwork Health](https://patchwork.health/use-cases/north-west-collaborative-bank/)**, which supports 24 NHS trusts in sharing a pool of 6,000 temporary workers, illustrates a sophisticated approach to public staffing. Instead of managing each unit’s workforce separately, this model enables horizontal movement of personnel, not just contractors, but shared operational talent. It’s not just a story about one vendor. It reveals a **government capacity to coordinate shared HR pools**, something that remains rare in most federated or fragmented public systems. In Brazil, for example, this kind of arrangement would face legal and institutional friction, particularly around the interpretation of temporary hiring laws. #### Procurement and supplier sensing PUBLIC makes a strong case for going beyond compliance in procurement. One of the more elegant ideas in the article is the notion that procurement systems need both **long-term contracting infrastructure** and **market sensing mechanisms**. The UK’s use of **pre-market engagement**, including structured conversations with potential suppliers, pitch-style formats, and “early signal” procurement processes shows that procurement isn’t just transactional, it’s strategic. This requires internal teams to develop **supplier literacy**: knowing who’s out there, what the ecosystem is producing, and how to maintain visibility outside the procurement cycle. It’s an administrative skill that often goes unacknowledged. #### Technology investment and financial architecture While the private sector is at the center of the GovTech framing, the real insight lies in how government itself positions investment. PUBLIC calls for a **dedicated GovTech fund-of-funds** - a public instrument to de-risk private capital and signal long-term intent. The idea here is that tech adoption in government is not only about capability, but about **financial alignment**: if capital is structured to avoid risk, and government purchasing remains fragmented, then even high-potential technologies won’t scale. This points to a need for **financial engineering capabilities** inside government — not only to spend better, but to co-invest, sequence funding, and work with longer time horizons. #### Budgeting and mission-oriented funding Two innovations stand out: - The **[Shared Outcomes Fund](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shared-outcomes-fund-round-three)**, which supports projects that span multiple departments, allowing funding to follow problems rather than bureaucratic structures. - The **Integrated Settlement** mechanism, which consolidates different budget lines for local authorities into a single block, enabling place-based strategy design. These aren’t simply budget reforms. They are governance tools - using fiscal instruments to reinforce cross-sectoral collaboration, and to create room for locally driven experimentation. #### Institutional memory and knowledge systems A final, quieter point: the article acknowledges that many of these efforts are isolated or experimental, and that **what works is not always documented or shared**. Their proposal to house startup-government case studies within GOV.UK might sound modest, but it reflects a core administrative challenge: **diffusion**. Without intentional systems for surfacing and transmitting operational knowledge, successful models remain trapped in their point of origin. --- I realized how rich the article was when I read it with this reframing in mind: startups to statecraft. Although the article is about GovTech, the underlying question is: What kind of administrative machinery is needed to make innovation structurally viable within the government?