Mark Stanley: Trust, Users, Delivery

15-05-2023 • 30 mins

Mark is a Deputy Director at the UK Government’s Ministry of Justice, where he leads Probation Digital.

Mark studied law and became a barrister, drawn to the humanity exposed in criminal cases. However, he found it difficult to make a living in this field and moved into commercial law, where he “lost my passion”. He found a new calling in government and joined the MoJ in 2010. Since then, he’s been given the brief of operationalising GDS as its first Head of Agile, launched DfE’s flagship Apprenticeships Service and now leads the delivery of the digital Probation portfolio at MoJ.

Our co-founder met Mark at the Government Digital Service in 2013 and he's been privileged to work with him and learn from him at several government departments since then.

They had a slogan at the Government Digital Service - Trust, Users, Delivery - and in this episode they talk about how these three concepts are at the heart of Mark’s approach to developing government services and and how bringing policy, delivery and operations together can be a game-changer.

0:00 Intro

0:50 Mark’s backstory

3:37 Climbing on the AlphaGov bandwagon

6:17 How trust can be given, rather than earned

8:05 Why empowerment is essential for agile ways-of-working

10:40 Why government struggles to focus on end users

12:39 Leading the digital Apprenticeships service

14:35 Being in the hot seat on a priority government delivery

18:30 How digital helps deliver MoJ’s probation strategy

23:25 Digital is the business

24:00 What’s next for Probation Digital

26:20 Inspirational leaders