Document 3:16 (2024-2025) / Published The authorities’ efforts related to seamless digital services
The efforts related to life events have largely failed to provide residents with improved and more seamless digital services. The main problems are uncertain funding and poor coordination.
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(PDF, 1.54 MB)
The pdf is in Norwegian
Brief background
- Public services are to be seamless and comprehensive, regardless of the entity with which you are interacting. This makes everyday life easier, especially for persons in a vulnerable life situation.
- The seven identified life events are to be prioritised in the efforts to create user-friendly digital services. We examined four of these life events: having a seriously ill child, losing and finding a job, death and inheritance, and starting and running a voluntary organisation.
- The investigations spans from 2019 to 2024.
Overall assessment
It is unsatisfactory that
- by the end of 2024, the work on the four examined life events had yielded limited benefits for users
- there is a risk that several of the minimum solutions that have been developed will not be operationalised or further developed
- coordination and management of the efforts on life events have been insufficient to resolve known cross-sectoral challenges.
Conclusions
The efforts on life events have largely failed to provide users with seamless digital services
- The authorities have considerable insight into users’ needs, but fail to meet them.
- A number of new digital solutions are under development, but most are not yet operational.
- The work has been consistently delayed.
The need for legislative amendments has delayed the efforts on life events
- There has been and continues to be a need to review the legislation and clarify any amendments.
- Amendments necessitate co-operation between actors from various sectors.
- Clarifying how personal data ought to be processed is time-consuming. Sharing and using personal data requires authorisation.
Unresolved funding has delayed efforts on life events
- The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (Digdir) has funding schemes for the development phase, but these schemes are inadequately adapted to cross-cutting digital projects.
- Securing funding from various actors for the continued operation of developed digital solutions remains a challenge.
- Funds have been appropriated to develop digital solutions, but continued funding is uncertain and thus the projects may come to a halt.
Coordination, collaboration, and governance in the development of seamless digital services have been inadequate
- The Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance coordinates the digitalisation of the public sector.
- Cross-sectoral co-operation is a prerequisite for the realisation of seamless digital services. User needs cut across traditional areas of responsibility.
- Life events are not sufficiently embedded or prioritised by the various government ministries and agencies that work with them.
Recommendations
The National Audit Office of Norway recommends that the Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance
- intensify its efforts to implement comprehensive, seamless digital services that provide the greatest benefit for users and society, including by clarifying expectations to the other government ministries to provide seamless digital services to users.
- ensure that policy instruments are adapted in such a way that they better support the goals, including that:
- Digdir’s guidance to a greater extent be adapted to the needs of projects for the development of seamless digital services.
- the design of the financial schemes is better adapted to cross-cutting development projects.
- strengthen efforts to ensure that the seamless digital services that have been developed benefit users and the public administration, through:
- reliable funding to ensure the necessary transition from development to ongoing operation of cross-sectoral solutions.
- monitoring of continued development of the solutions necessary to realise the expected benefits.