TransformGov Talks

Riz Parveen, Department for Work and Pensions, on 'People at the heart of change'. Julia Finch, Director, Athene Leadership, on 'Eggs in One Basket: Strategic Risk in an Age of Volatility'.

Gordon Guthrie on his research project, Foundations of the Digital State, examining the role of parliament and government in creating and coordinating state digital systems. Ann Kempster and Dafydd Vaughan, Transform Wales, on Transform Wales's work on the organisation of digital services to deliver transformation change.

Catherine Elms and Damien Hatton, Welsh Revenue Authority, on their user-centred approach to designing the visitor accommodation register. Lee Williams and Rebecca Morales-Reeves, Shared Resource Service, on how they've been 'Giving Council Tax a 21st Century Facelift'. Jo Carter and Dafydd Vaughan, Transform Wales, on the conditions Wales needs to make digital transformation possible.

Hosted by Gavin Freeguard, Director, State of the Future. Charlie Browne, Managing Editor: Hansard, UK Parliament (House of Commons) and Michael Kibedi, User Researcher, UK Parliament (Digital Service), on 'Beyond and Between Our Screens: how design ethnography is informing the evolution of Hansard's technology' ( slides ) Katie Thorpe, Learning Consultant and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Go...

Our first speaker was Caitlin Wakeford, Product Manager, LNER, on 'Fancy Sketches: how to use AI to prototype quickly, centre the user and not get stuck in magical thinking' Following that was ​Jagpal Jheeta, Chief Product Officer at the FCA on how his organisation is incorporating the safe us of AI into their organisation.

Lisa Trickey and Rebekah Wilson, Local Government Association on the state of digital Local Government and LG2040: The State of Things to Come ​Jonathan Slater, Visiting Professor at King's College London and QMUL, on civil service reform

Lara Groves and Oliver Bruff, Ada Lovelace Institute, on Scribe and prejudice? Exploring the use of AI transcription tools in social care ​Owen Prendeville, Group Manager – Public Affairs (Parliament), Information Commissioner's Office, on the ICO's Better Records Together campaign to drive improvements for access to care records ( https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/campaigns/better-records-together...

Liam Hawkes, Principal Service Designer, and Violette Gadenne, Senior User Researcher, Policy and Innovation Lab (CoLab), Home Office, on setting the scene, not running the show: service design in a spending review. James Plunkett, Kinship Works, on the energy at the edges - and how the centre can spread it.

Our event from the 28th of January 2026. Matt Wood-Hill , MHCLG, and Linda O'Halloran , TPXimpact on public service market-shaping ​ Patrick Diamond , Professor in Public Policy, Queen Mary, University of London, on what we've learned from 25 years of research on government effectiveness

Caroline Star, Operations Director at School of International Futures, on Governing Beyond the Now: Why Policy Needs a Long View and How We Get There ​Derek Alton, Host & Chief Explorer at Civic Punks, on A Journey Into the Future of Government: What does 21st-century government that works for people and the planet look like?

Rachel Coldicutt, Careful Industries, on local government AI procurement and a new version of Consequence Scanning ​Katy Beale, Chief Delivery and Engagement Officer - Digital and Innovation, Westminster City Council, on Rethinking Local Government Technology

Ed Humpherson, Office for Statistics Regulation, on why 'transformation' has been so challenging for official statistics. ​Dr Lauren Petrie, Government Internal Audit Agency, on the GIAA's work with data and AI

Dr Moira Nicolson, Lead Behavioural Scientist (Cabinet Office) and Honorary Research Fellow (UCL) plus Holly Marquez, Senior Behavioural Scientist, (Cabinet Office) on "Failing Forward: Why Planning for AI Disasters Unlocks Breakthrough Innovation" ​Ben Sauer, author/speaker/coach: teaching people the art of strategic storytelling, on 'Always Be Creating Clarity: Daily habits for strategic storyte...

Antonio Weiss on his new book, "AI Demystified" ​Becky Miller, Defra, on designing policy with complex evidence

Our sixth event took place at the MoJ on the 28th of April 2025. First up was Noel Hatch from Adur & Worthing Councils who spoke about how they are redesigning their organisation to have a strong neighborhood focus. This was followed by Lucy Makinson from the government's AI incubator i. AI who spoke about Consult — an AI tool for enhanced public consultation analysis.

Wednesday 30th April 2025. Catherine Day, Cabinet Office, on participatory government ​Kara Kane, also Cabinet Office, on Test, Learn and Grow

For our fourth event we have the following two excellent speakers. ​Henry Midgley, Durham University, on Holding Government to Account: Democracy and the National Audit Office ​Kirsty Innes, Labour Together, on the future of Digital ID

For our third event we had the follow two excellent speakers. ​Miriam Levin, Director of Participatory Programmes, Demos, on 'Involving citizens in policymaking - the Citizens' White Paper and beyond' ​Sarah Crandall, Engagement Lead and Senior Digital, Data and Technology Adviser, DSIT, on 'The new GDS'

For our second event we have Simon Manby and Holly Simpson from the MoJ speaking about digital and policy teams working together. Also Isadora Schappell and Anna Goulden from UCL's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose on missions and the Public Sector Capability Index .

TransformGov Talks first event. Andreas Varotsis speaking about the government's AI incubator and Jeni Tennison on the new DSIT external advisory panel.