I find it quite surprising that this is the 400th week note I have written for this blog. I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep it up. The downside is that I think I am writing less standalone articles for the blog. Some weeks are easier to get something down than others. There are times when I have a story to tell, but it probably is too long for a weeknote, I then need to remind myself to write it up at a later date, that doesn’t always happen. Though I publish the week notes on the Friday, they sometimes get finished later, either over the weekend or on Monday morning.

This  Monday I was in the Bristol office, as it was the beginning of the week it was somewhat quiet.

I was in the London office for two days this week. I haven’t actually been to the London office for over a year now, well the last time was October 25th 2025.  On the first day the office was very quiet, on the second day we had a team away day, this was the first meeting we have had as a team. It was a good day and we made progress on who we are going to work together going forward.

This week saw the budget, the first of Burnham’s government. Though there was many mentions of AI and innovation, there was less about higher education. One paragraph in the budget I found quite interesting in relation to the transformation of the Civil Service.

The Cabinet Secretary is leading the transformation of the Civil Service so that it is recognised for excellence in delivery, innovation and improved productivity. This includes a process – supported by departmental Non-Executive Directors – to deliver significant reductions in the size and cost of the Civil Service, through maximising the opportunities presented by AI adoption and digital transformation.

What I find interesting about this, is they recognise the need to do things differently in a tighter fiscal climate, so they know the necessity to transform, as they want to reduce size and cost, but maintain excellence in delivery, innovation and improved productivity.

The solution is seen to be both adoption of AI and digital transformation. I find it interesting that the solution to reducing costs is seen as digital transformation. Sometimes when talking to people about digital transformation they see it as an investment decision, something that needs an increase in budget (costs) to achieve.

Back in 2022 I wrote about my personal view of digital transformation. In the post I draw out that merely making something digital, doesn’t mean you have transformation. The example I used was about the authorisation of leave. Transformation is something that needs to happen, digital can enable that. In the past we may have wanted to transform, but we didn’t have the necessary tools to make that happen. Today we have the tools, the question is, do we have the will?