Posted Jul 10, 2026
Government is funding transformation. But who is going to deliver it?
The public sector delivery gap – why transformation funding alone will not fix delivery failure.
Public sector transformation is receiving unprecedented levels of government investment, but funding alone will not deliver lasting change. As organisations tackle legacy technology, productivity pressures and growing skills shortages, success will depend on having the right people, leadership and delivery capability to turn ambitious plans into measurable outcomes.
Spinwell Global · 9 min read · Offices in the UK, Dubai and Singapore
Introduction
The public sector does not have an ambition problem. It has a delivery problem.
Across central government, local government, healthcare and arm’s-length bodies, the direction of travel is clear: modernise services, improve resilience, tackle legacy technology, raise productivity and make better use of data and digital tools. The rhetoric is no longer cautious. Transformation is now positioned as a practical route to reform, efficiency and better outcomes.
The issue is that funding and intent do not automatically translate into delivery. Programmes still stall. Legacy estates still consume time and money. Commercial dependency still grows when internal capability is thin. And too many organisations are trying to transform under operational pressure with insufficient specialist capacity in the roles that actually make transformation work.
That is the public sector delivery gap. It is the space between what government wants transformation to achieve and what delivery teams are realistically equipped to execute.
The ambition is real – and so is the money
The Government’s Spending Review 2025 makes clear that transformation is not a side project. It confirms a £3.25 billion Transformation Fund to support the reform of public services and the modernisation of the state. It also sets out an additional £1.2 billion across the Spending Review period to drive cross-cutting digital priorities.
This matters because it shows that transformation is no longer a marginal agenda. It is now central to how government intends to improve service performance, productivity and value for money.
But investment alone does not solve delivery risk. It creates expectations. The minute funding is committed, organisations need credible delivery plans, realistic operating models and the right people in place to convert policy intent into operational results. When that delivery capability is missing, transformation becomes a high-cost ambition with a weak execution engine.
Productivity pressure is keeping transformation on the agenda
There is a hard reason transformation remains such a priority: productivity has not recovered to where government needs it to be.
The Office for National Statistics reported that total public service productivity was 3.4% lower in 2024 than in 2019. In other words, even after the immediate post-pandemic disruption has passed, the system is still operating below its pre-pandemic productivity baseline.
That productivity gap changes the tone of the debate. Transformation is no longer a “future improvement” conversation. It is part of the present-day response to performance, affordability and service pressure. Public organisations are being asked to do more, do it better, and do it with clearer evidence of value. That places a premium on disciplined execution.
This is why transformation roles should not be treated as optional programme support. The right Programme Managers, Business Analysts, PMO specialists, Change Managers and Digital Transformation Leads are part of the productivity response itself.
Legacy technology is still slowing the state down
A major barrier to transformation remains the technology estate itself.
The State of Digital Government Review found that critical services still depend on decades-old legacy technology. It estimated that legacy systems comprised around 28% of systems in central government departments in 2024, up from 26% in 2023. The same review noted that the wider public sector often has an even more uneven picture, and that the full scale of the problem is not consistently measured.
Parliament’s 2026 report Rewiring the state: Delivering digital government reinforced the same message. It concluded that outdated and insecure systems remain common across the public sector and warned that failure to address legacy will hamper delivery of the government’s digital ambitions.
This is important because transformation is often discussed as though it is mainly about innovation. In reality, a large proportion of public sector transformation is still about remediation, integration, migration, service redesign and risk reduction. It is the hard work of moving from fragile, siloed operating environments to service models that are more resilient, measurable and joined-up.
That kind of work does not succeed on enthusiasm alone. It requires people who understand delivery structure, dependencies, governance, business change, technology risk and stakeholder management.
The people challenge is now impossible to ignore
One of the strongest conclusions in the parliamentary report is also the most commercially significant: the public sector needs more of the right people to deliver digital transformation of the state.
That sounds obvious, but the detail matters. The Committee said there are around 100,000 digital and data professionals across the public sector, but not enough are in leadership roles and too many key positions are still filled by generalists. It described the combination of non-expert enthusiasm at the top and insufficient capability at the coalface as a dangerous one.
The State of Digital Government Review gives further context. It found that of the £26 billion public sector digital and data spend in 2023, less than 20% – around £5 billion – was spent on permanent public sector staff, while 55% – around £14.5 billion – was spent on contractors, managed service providers and IT consultants. It also reported that the average contractor in central government costs roughly three times as much per year as the average civil servant.
This does not mean contractors are the problem. Often they are the solution to immediate capability gaps. But it does show a system under strain. Headcount controls and talent shortages have pushed organisations towards more expensive external support while also weakening institutional continuity.
The real challenge, then, is not whether to use interims, contractors or external specialists. It is whether organisations have a deliberate workforce strategy that combines permanent capability, specialist temporary expertise and clear knowledge transfer.
Supplier dependency is a delivery issue, not just a commercial one
Where internal capability is thin, supplier dependency tends to rise. Again, the research is sobering.
The State of Digital Government Review found that only 28% of survey respondents believed their organisation had sufficient internal capability to monitor, track and drive supplier performance. It also noted that only 40% of leaders believed third parties were performing in line with expectations. In 2023, actual digital spend with managed service providers exceeded contract value by over 50%.
Those are not just procurement problems. They are delivery problems.
If an organisation cannot challenge suppliers effectively, manage scope rigorously, interpret delivery data or hold third parties to account, transformation becomes harder to control. Timelines slip. Costs rise. Internal confidence weakens. And senior leaders end up with less visibility over whether a programme is actually delivering what it promised.
That is why transformation hiring should include not only technical or programme delivery resource, but also the people who create delivery discipline around it: PMO, Business Analysis, governance, commercial oversight and change capability.
Local government shows the delivery gap at its sharpest
If you want to understand the pressure facing transformation teams, local government is one of the clearest places to look.
The National Audit Office’s 2025 report on local government financial sustainability found that between 1 January 2018 and 31 January 2025, nine local authorities issued 13 Section 114 reports between them. It also cited October 2024 survey evidence showing that as many as 44% of single-tier and county councils felt they would be likely to issue a Section 114 report at least once in 2025-26 or 2026-27 if Exceptional Financial Support did not exist.
At the same time, the Local Government Association’s State of Digital Local Government report makes clear that councils face a digital agenda with unique challenges. Local government is expected to modernise services while dealing with financial constraints, varied technology maturity, resident-facing service complexity and the need to prove value quickly.
This is precisely where the delivery gap becomes visible. Councils need transformation. But they need transformation that understands local operating realities: governance sensitivity, frontline service pressures, commercial constraints and the practical limits of overstretched teams.
For organisations supplying talent into this environment, generic “digital” recruitment is not enough. Public sector context matters.
What organisations should prioritise now
For public bodies and programme leaders, the implication is clear: do not treat transformation capability as something to fix halfway through a struggling programme.
The strongest organisations are likely to focus on five priorities.
First, they prioritise delivery leadership early. Transformation work should start with the roles that define scope, sequence, governance and outcomes – not just with technology procurement.
Second, they build complete delivery teams rather than isolated hires. Programme Managers, Business Analysts, PMO professionals, Change Managers and Digital Transformation Leads do different jobs. Leaving one of those disciplines underpowered can slow the whole programme.
Third, they strengthen commercial and supplier management capability. If the programme depends on third parties, then internal oversight capability is part of delivery, not an administrative afterthought.
Fourth, they use flexible workforce models intelligently. Permanent staff, interim specialists and contractors each have a role. The key is to use them by design, not by panic.
Fifth, they recruit for public sector complexity. Transformation in government and local authorities is shaped by governance, transparency, scrutiny, risk, service continuity and accountability. The right hire is not just technically strong; they need to be effective in that operating environment.
Conclusion
The public sector does not need more commentary telling it that transformation is important. It already knows.
What it needs is delivery capability that matches the level of ambition now being set by government, departments and public bodies. Funding is increasing. Expectations are rising. The operational case for change is well established. But without the right people in the right roles, transformation risks becoming a cycle of over-promising, under-delivering and relying too heavily on expensive external fixes.
That is the real public sector delivery gap.
For hiring managers, the message is simple: transformation success is not only about tools, platforms or policy intent. It is about whether the people responsible for shaping, governing and delivering change are in place early enough and with the right support around them.
And for transformation professionals, the opportunity is equally clear. Public sector transformation is no longer peripheral work. It is some of the most operationally important, visible and high-impact delivery work in the UK market today.
For hiring managers
If you are a public sector organisation looking to resource a change or transformation programme through DOS7 or RM6277, contact us.
www.spinwellglobal.com · +44 203 510 9454
For candidates
If you work in programme delivery, change management, business analysis, PMO or digital transformation and want to explore public sector opportunities, we would like to hear from you.
www.spinwellglobal.com · +44 203 510 9454
About Spinwell Global
Spinwell Global is a specialist recruitment consultancy with offices in the UK, Dubai and Singapore. We place professionals across digital, technology, risk, security, and specialist disciplines into public sector, private sector and startup organisations worldwide. We are an approved supplier on the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7 (DOS7) framework and on RM6277 (Lots 2, 3 and 5) through the Government Commercial Agency (GCA).
Source list
- HM Treasury, Spending Review 2025 (updated 30 June 2025): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html
- Office for National Statistics, Public service productivity, quarterly, UK: July to September 2025 bulletin (published 6 February 2026): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/publicservicesproductivity/bulletins/publicserviceproductivityquarterlyuk/julytoseptember2025
- Department for Science, Innovation and Technology / GOV.UK, State of digital government review (January 2025 PDF): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/678a47649752f24aa1573589/state-of-digital-government.pdf
- House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Rewiring the state: Delivering digital government (3 June 2026): https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5902/cmselect/cmsctech/61/report.html
- National Audit Office, Local government financial sustainability (28 February 2025 PDF): https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/local-government-financial-sustainability.pdf
- Local Government Association, State of Digital Local Government (21 January 2025): https://www.local.gov.uk/publications/state-digital-local-government
