Why the government can still succeed in digital without Mike Bracken
It is an unenviable task to be Bracken's replacement, but whoever takes the mantle will have a foundation to work with that Bracken himself never received, says Sooraj Shah
There is no doubt that Mike Bracken has transformed the way that government has approached all things digital. He has masterminded the extension of public services online and has been a part of presenting a huge opportunity for the UK, by touting the ‘government-as-a-platform' vision - a common core infrastructure of shared digital systems, technology and processes.
You only have to look at Twitter to understand how highly he was valued. Tributes rained in from his colleagues and those who have admired the work he has put in to the Government Digital Service and to Whitehall overall - he has been labelled as Britain's most effective civil servant, a visionary and a champion of technology. And because of how highly he is regarded, many are now switching their attentions to the doom and gloom of a government without a leader who really "gets it".
But I believe this is misguided. For all of the admiration Bracken has received, there doesn't seem to be a belief that he has built a team at GDS that is ready to continue with the great work that has been put in so far, or that someone else with the same leadership qualities, and political clout can carry them forward. Perhaps it's just a lack of the latter.
Either way, Bracken has achieved more than many government leaders will have throughout their careers in a relatively short space of time. As Phil Pavitt, the former CIO of HMRC, and current global CIO of Specsavers told me, Bracken's biggest achievement in government "was to change the conversation".
"Digital-by-default was not just a vision it rightly became a call to arms, a mantra, a way of design. For that, the UK government, and us as citizens have much to thank Mike for," Pavitt said.
John Jackson, CIO at Camden Council, told me that Bracken has changed the way IT leaders think about digital.
"He has placed a relentless focus on customers and usability at the heart of government transformation. By doing so he has enabled the delivery of significant and sustainable efficiencies at the heart of government and lifted the strategic debate from one about technology to one about a different and better way of delivering services," he said.
But, for all of his supporters, Bracken and his team haven't always managed to succeed with what they're doing - indeed, no one would have expected a 100 per cent success rate.
It is for this reason that while Jackson is looking forward to the benefits of government-as-a-platform, and the continued role of GDS in government, he admitted that "not everything has worked out as originally envisaged".
Indeed Pavitt once claimed that government had pimped out its front-end but not changed its legacy engines, and that is why departments were likely to fail in their quest to be truly digital.
"That will fundamentally catch them out as it has caught out many companies in the UK and Europe already," he said at the time.
Pavitt told me since Bracken's departure, that dealing with the government departments was a "daily challenge" (something he has experience of as CIO of HMRC), and suggested that while Bracken's vision was on point, it was Whitehall's execution of it that he had always challenged.
Indeed, Robin Pape, public sector adviser at hosting provider Memset, added that Bracken's focus on "whizzy web front ends - low hanging fruit" did not address the more complex issue of how to make legacy systems work better to support user-facing services.
Pape suggested that Bracken may have focused far too much on what the user wants, and not enough on promoting cost-saving and measuring success in terms of pounds - particularly as saving money is the top priority for government.
He also said that the large team of developers that Bracken had built in the Cabinet Office would also come under scrutiny - especially as the Cabinet Office is a small department which doesn't usually do delivery.
But despite this, Pape said that Bracken had put in place a "huge change in culture in central government" and is rightly getting recognition for this, and so these "mistakes" should be put into perspective.
And they should. The reason these "mistakes" are being brought to light are to put some of this doom and gloom away. Bracken, like anyone else, made mistakes. And yet he achieved an awful lot. It is an unenviable task to follow him - but it shouldn't be.
As Jackson said, the overall accomplishment of Bracken is a "sustainable legacy for government" - echoing the official line from government which is "don't worry we're not going to abandon what Bracken has started, we're going to build on Mike's work".
Of course, whether this happens or not is something that is unknown at this stage. It may seem like support for GDS is diminishing, as it hasn't proven itself worthy to the government - indeed, Francis Maude leaving his role as Cabinet Office minister earlier this year had people murmuring discontent at what was happening to GDS and questioning whether or not it would still exist in the months and years to follow.
But according to Bracken himself, government's digital delivery is in "capable hands" - particularly with the support it is getting for the future of digital transformation from the new minister of the Cabinet Office, Matt Hancock.
In fact, Bracken's blog post explaining his departure is more about the fact that the government is ready to progress, than it is about Bracken leaving. It seems as if he believes, at least if no one else does, that government is ready for that shift.
Chi Onwurah, the MP for Newcastle Central and shadow Cabinet Office minister, told me that she believes government and GDS can succeed without Bracken.
"He wouldn't have been a good leader if he hadn't built an organisation which could survive it's own departure," she said, before emphasising the need to choose the right successor.
"The job requires tech, policy, political, organisational and implementation skills and the ability to inspire others. It's going to be hard to find those skills especially if the minister is providing the right level of support and given what private sector systems integrators can and will pay for that skillset," she said.
But she is still fearful of the impact on the government-as-a-platform programme.
"I fear it's going to turn into government-as-a-monolith, some mega project outsourced to the private sector," she stated.
There are fears, but as Memset's Pape suggested, Chief Digital Officers are now embedded in government departments, meaning that the digital drive will continue without Bracken, and departments are building their own digital development capability meaning that they are less reliant on GDS's developer team.
It will be tough for government to replace Bracken. They will need someone with the skills Onwurah mentioned above, along with some political clout, digital know-how, and someone who those in GDS and government can look up to and follow. Most of all, they will need someone who is able to withstand an enormous amount of pressure - because, unlike Bracken, who has been forgiven for his mistakes, his successor may not be given the same time to prove his or her worth. For the new CDO and head of GDS, it is ironic that they will need an awful lot in their artillery, but the one thing they will ask for in return (aside from a decent pay packet), is the one thing they may not be given - patience.
As Pavitt concluded, Bracken was a good tonic for the UK government, but only time will tell whether this was based on one personality.