Not one government department can say all of its staff have basic digital skills

In annual reports, each government department says it is still attempting to get all of its staff to level 7 on the digital inclusion scale

Not one government department can say that all of its staff have the basic digital skills required under the Government Digital Strategy, but most are aiming to hit that target by the end of 2015.

A set of reports published earlier this week show the progress that government departments have made in this area, and plans for the year ahead.

The reports released state the targets that each department set in 2013 and 2014 and the amount of progress they have made in meeting them. These are under 16 specific actions outlined in the Government Digital Strategy.

One of the key actions of the strategy is that all departments are to ensure that they have appropriate digital capability in-house, including specialist skills. But each department claimed that it was trying to get all of its staff on level 7 of the digital inclusion scale - where level 1 means actively engaged, level 4 means willing but unable, and level 7 means that the employee has the basic digital skills required.

The Department of Health (DoH) claimed that in the 2013 Annual Skills Review, it identified 59 per cent of staff self-reporting as lacking basic digital skills, with the number falling to 17 per cent in 2014. The department established a "digital champions" programme in January with a pilot of 70 members of staff to up-skill employees, and in November it launched its digital passport, which sets a minimum standard of digital capability within the DoH.

In 2015, the department will form a further "digital champions cohort" of 100 staff, build digital requirements into job adverts, and develop the skills of communications and policy staff.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it will significantly increase the numbers of staff who go through one of its academy courses that cover Digital by Default Service Standards. It said it will also run the first cross-government digital academy in January.

Both the DoH and DWP said they wanted all of their staff to have reached level 7 on the digital inclusion scale this year.

In 2014, the Cabinet Office started to build an internal specialist digital capability team dubbed the Cabinet Office Digital and Technology Team (CODATT), it said in 2015 it will recruit to bring the CODATT unit to full capacity. The department said it would work with Civil Service Learning and other departments to analyse the results of the annual skills review and address and gaps in basic skills so that all its civil servants reach level 7 on the digital inclusion scale.

Last year, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) started advertising every post currently filled by a contractor, and the department said it would continue to do so in 2015 until its digital service is fully staffed by civil servants.

Meanwhile, the Home Office said it would continue to recruit digital specialists but will remain dependent on interim skills "for some time".

"[The Home Office] will explore offering more competitive salaries and career progression opportunities to attract and keep the best digital talent," it said.

The department is also planning to attract graduate talent by developing an alpha model for partnerships with London universities.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said it increased its development capability by opening two digital delivery centres in 2014. It claimed that it improved digital capability at practitioner level among staff directly involved in digital transformation, using agile training and closer working with exemplar service leads and server managers.

"HMRC significantly increased digital awareness and capability, with 95 per cent of HMRC meeting level 7 of the digital inclusion scale," it said in the report.

The department said it would continue to build in-house expertise by creating an additional six sprint teams in the Newcastle delivery centre. It will also develop digital capability at "working" level for all staff. And it wants to tackle the remaining five per cent of staff who are not yet meeting level 7 of the digital inclusion scale.

Other departments including the Department for Transport and the Department for Education also explained that they wanted to increase the number of staff who could be counted as level 7 on the digital inclusion scale.