Earlier this year, the government announced plans to release a new Digital Strategy in response to the seismic change that has torn through the UK. The true value of modern technologies had become only too apparent; as Secretary of State for Digital Oliver Dowden said, it’s technology that “kept our economy ticking over”.

Across the public sector, services and operations have been digitalised extraordinarily quickly. Parliament has met virtually. Parts of our healthcare and education systems have been reimagined for a remote world. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it in April, “we’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” The government’s updated Digital Strategy will be welcome; a clear roadmap is needed to help the UK economy navigate what comes next.

We wanted to understand how public sector leaders were thinking about digital transformation after several months of adjusting to the ‘new normal’. Throughout October, working with YouGov, we surveyed 247 public sector organisations. We asked about their tech priorities, challenges and concerns.

Our findings paint a picture of a sector that is pressing ahead with digital change, wary of cybersecurity threats and understandably concerned about the financial implications of emerging from the pandemic.

To read BT's full public sector report, please click here.