Why the public sector must accelerate personalised services
In today’s world, people expect services to be tailored to their needs. Grocery delivery apps allow customers to choose delivery slots, streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube offer ad-free experiences and offline access through premium subscriptions, and budget airlines offer seat selection and extra legroom as optional upgrades. These services are designed around the customer, anticipating their needs - and people are prepared to pay for the convenience.
Citizens want similar responsiveness in public services that they use regularly. So the Chancellor’s announcement in the recent Spending Review of up to £10 billion for the NHS app to enable patients to personally manage their medicines and prescriptions and increase their access to medical services such as tests directly via their smartphone is a positive development. Dealing with tax issues could become easier too, with the Chancellor also confirming that HMRC will receive £500 million to introduce an AI assistant to reduce waiting times for people with tax enquiries.
There are a handful of examples of where public services are embracing digital transformation and as with commercial services people are prepared to pay for convenience: the DVLA offers optional premium services such as faster document delivery and personalised number plates, while the Passport Office provides one-day and one-week fast-track passport services for an additional fee.
But such examples remain the exception rather than the norm in the public sector. A government review earlier this year found that even where digital services exist, they’re fragmented. Moving house still requires contacting 10 different agencies. On average, UK citizens spend a week and a half each year navigating government bureaucracy. Nearly half of central government services still lack a digital option. The Chancellor herself is well aware of this, having tried to change the address on her driving licence after taking up residence in No 11 and finding she had to physically go to a post office to do it.
The UK should look to Estonia, one of the world’s most digitally advanced nations, for inspiration. Every citizen has a single digital ID granting access to all government services—tax, healthcare, benefits, and more. Estonia has fully digitalised its public services and launched over 100 AI initiatives, including Bürokratt, a network of voice-activated chatbots, and AI tools for border control and medical diagnostics. With 99% of health data digitalised, Estonians enjoy seamless access to care and faster, more accurate diagnoses.
As a senior civil servant at the Home Office, I also saw how public services could be transformed by using private providers. Visa services, for example, evolved from slow, paper-heavy processes to more streamlined, user-friendly systems through outsourcing. VFS Global, which manages visa services for 69 governments including the UK, introduced an AI-powered chatbot providing conversational support to UK visa applicants, as well as SMS messaging providing updates on peoples’ visa applications. At additional cost, it also offers optional services that make the application process more convenient for customers, such as a ‘visa at your doorstep’ service where visa staff visit the applicant, rather than them having to go to an application centre. Similar options, as long as they don’t allow queue jumping, would likely be attractive in other public services – and crucially could provide much-needed revenue within a budget-constrained environment.
Examples like these show what’s possible when public services are designed with the user in mind. Such services reflect a growing expectation: that public systems should be as responsive and flexible as the best private ones. The next phase of transformation must build on these successes - scaling what works, integrating fragmented systems, and designing services around the diverse needs of the people who use them.
Tony Mercer is a former Senior Civil Servant at the Home Office.
