June 30, 2025
A modern public sector organisation needs to deliver effective digital services for its citizens. With the UK government under increasing pressure to improve digital services and artificial intelligence beginning to redefine how public services are designed and delivered, data and digital skills are increasingly in demand.
For long-term success, the public sector must ensure it has the capabilities to keep up with the pace of change, equipping each department with the skills needed to deliver better, faster and more user-centred services.
But building capability is more than headcount or technical training. It’s about empowering public servants with the confidence, context, and skills to act as intelligent clients. With the right skills and capabilities, organisations can set strategic direction, make informed decisions, and take ownership of their organisation’s digital and data destiny.
In the recent State of digital government report, talent was highlighted as one of the five root causes of the challenges the public sector currently faces in the move to more digital and data-driven services. The report noted that a “lack of integrated cross-government workforce strategy limits recognition of specialist skill needs” and highlighted gaps in areas such as leadership, data product ownership, delivery governance and agile team experience.
Alongside funding limitations and headcount restrictions, this skills gap has led many public organisations to rely heavily on temporary external contractors and suppliers. But this short-term fix has become a long-term crutch that is now costing the public sector in several ways.
By investing in internal capability through skill development, mentoring academies and long-lived product teams, the public sector can not only reduce supplier dependency but create resilient, confident teams ready to lead digital transformation from within.
To support this, an organisation’s data strategy and governance must also evolve. Modern governance needs to enable teams, not limit them. With a “paved road” approach involving clear standards, reusable workflows and the ability to self-serve, teams can work faster and innovate safely and take greater ownership of their outcomes.
Building internal capability enables public sector organisations to become more effective “Intelligent Clients” capable of taking an active and well-informed role in the ownership, management and delivery of their digital services.
With a clear understanding of business requirements, appropriate standards and best practices, intelligent client organisations can become more effective in the management of external contractors. Building this in-house capability empowers civil servants to retain strategic control, shape their data environments, monitor delivery outcomes, and manage vendor relationships to maximise value. It rebalances the relationship between government and suppliers from dependency to partnership.
“Capability is more than skills. It’s confidence, ownership, and the power to make good decisions. We don’t just deliver; we leave organisations stronger than we found them.” — Simon Case, Head of Global Data, Equal Experts
At Equal Experts we focus on delivering long-lasting value to our clients by ensuring we leave behind a legacy of learning, knowledge sharing and self-sustaining growth. With deep experience and a focus on client outcomes over our short-term interests, we act as strategic partners, not just technical experts and work to upskill internal teams throughout our client work to build lasting capability and value.
Seeing the value of this approach, HMRC turned to Equal Experts when it needed to grow its internal engineering talent to meet the increasing demand for its data platform services team. Recruiting experienced data engineers is always a challenge, and HMRC knew that training engineers in-house would yield massive economies of scale and secure the organisation’s technical future. With our technical expertise and history of coaching in-house teams, we designed a tailored academy approach combining technical training with real-world placements within HMRC. Participants learned agile development and cross-functional collaboration while gaining hands-on experience pairing with experts. The data academy grew from 7 to 47 engineers in 18 months, with the first 20 graduates securing permanent roles within the government department, embedding within HMRC the data capabilities needed for the future. Read the full case study.
Similarly, we’ve helped a team within a Government organisation transform from a project-based to a product-led organisation. Through a joint value initiative, we provided bespoke product training for the team’s Product Managers. This training provided them with skills to move towards better prioritisation and decision-making, faster time to value and a better balance between user, financial and technical perspectives.
We’ve also supported more government organisations to build their internal data capabilities and create award-winning digital products and services. Following support from Equal Experts to transform passport application processing with a cloud-based solution, HM Passport Office (HMPO) has picked up numerous awards for its work, including Public Sector Project of the Year at 2024’s UK IT Industry Awards and Best Use of Data and Technology at the 2021 Civil Service Awards.
As technology continues to evolve, so too must the skills of those delivering public services. While core capabilities like data engineering, data governance, product thinking and agile delivery remain essential, the rise of AI has raised the bar and placed even greater importance on data skills to be adopted effectively in the public sector.
The Government Digital Service’s Artificial Intelligence Playbook for the UK Government identified the need for new AI-related skills as one of 10 common principles to guide the safe, responsible and effective use of artificial intelligence in government organisations.
Beyond technical skills, organisations must also invest in commercial skills and strategic capabilities for long-term success. This includes:
With the demand for digital government services growing and AI adoption high on the Government’s agenda, public sector leaders need to start building their in-house capabilities to ensure sustainable digital transformation today and into the future.
But building capability doesn’t mean going it alone. The right partners can accelerate your progress and upskill your internal team faster than ever before.
Through our data health check, Equal Experts helps public sector organisations assess their current capability, define where they want to be, and create a practical plan to get there. Whether through mentoring, tailored academies or team coaching, we help you build a confident, skilled, and resilient internal team.
Contact us to set up a data health check and take the first step in building a mature data capability to unlock the full potential of data.
All business models have their pros and cons. But, when you consider the type of problems we help our clients to solve at Equal Experts, it’s worth thinking about the level of experience and the best consultancy approach to solve them.
If you’d like to find out more about working with us – get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
