Digital Devolution: Exploring the reform narratives to drive the AI roadmap and power devolution

The UK state is undergoing a significant period of transformation. The government is committed to “Rewiring the State”, devolving power away from Westminster and Whitehall. This political shift is being carried out against the backdrop of rapid development and adoption of artificial intelligence across the public sector and society at large. This will require fundamental changes to how government works and how our public services are delivered.

This report explores how narratives can be used to drive reform, and help navigate the shift to a more digital and devolved state. It is informed by a full-day workshop hosted by Demos in partnership with the Government Digital Service (GDS) and attended by participants from across the civil service, the think tank community, and the digital and AI sectors.

This report also draws on a range of Demos papers, including Liberated Public Services and Northcote-Trevelyan 2.0.

This paper forms part of Demos’s Powering Public Service Reform programme, which looks at how the centre of government, particularly Whitehall, needs to change to achieve that shift and improve the quality of public services at the front line. Previous reports in the programme have examined the cultural and narrative shifts needed and the most recent paper, Powering Prevention, set out a suite of measures which, if taken together, help develop a funding architecture that shifts resources towards preventative measures.