Public Sector Technology

A public sector programme is moving through a governance structure built for accountability rather than speed, and the technology leadership in the room has never worked inside it before. Delivery partners promise timelines that assume a private-sector decision cycle. Or a department needs a senior technology voice who already knows how procurement works, where the political sensitivity sits, and how many bodies have to agree before anything moves.

Fractional, interim or advisory technology leadership shaped for public sector conditions, where the barriers are as often organisational and political as they are technical. Available across central government, health, justice, education and home affairs. Working alongside existing teams to translate between technical delivery and the governance, funding and accountability structures that shape whether it actually happens.

Senior technology leadership that does not need the public sector context explained to it. Realistic programme and procurement timelines, tested against how these decisions are actually made rather than how a private-sector playbook assumes they are made. Delivery partners held to account by someone who has sat on the other side of that relationship.

Programmes stop being planned against timelines that ignore governance reality, and stop losing months relearning lessons the sector already knows. Technology decisions get made with the political and organisational dynamics named up front, not discovered mid-delivery.

Neil Catton, GCG's Chief Technology Officer, leads this work. Thirty-eight years of senior technology leadership across central government, health, justice, education and home affairs, most recently as CTO for Home Affairs and Criminal Justice at Fujitsu UK. He now advises on Police Service of Northern Ireland counter-terrorism technology, police custody AI and data, and Martyn’s Law premises-protection design.