- PODCAST -
This episode welcomes Jacqui Leggetter and Tom Lawson. Jacqui is Deputy Director and Head of Data Platforms and Operations in Data and Analytics at DWP Digital, part of the UK’s largest public service department, serving around 20 million customers.
Her team of over a thousand digital experts in Newcastle help provide data for analytics, insight, audit, reporting and decision-making across a department operating at national scale.
Tom is the CEO of Opencast, one of the North East’s major technology consultancies and a trusted supplier to government. Tom became CEO in 2020, and the business has seen strong growth, including recognition in the 2024 Sunday Times 100, the prestigious annual ranking of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies.
Building on previous episodes that explored the North East through the eyes of enterprise, politics and regeneration policy, this episode focuses on the modern economy: data, digital public services, technology jobs and AI.
Together, Jacqui and Tom help us explore a crucial question: can the North East become a serious national centre for public service technology, data and AI – not as a branch office economy, but as a place that builds capability, talent and trust?
They discuss how digital technology is transforming public services for the benefit of citizens, first-of-a-kind scaled AI projects from the region, the Civil Service’s crucial role in employment in the region, links with universities, the importance and challenges in getting the next generation into digital roles, cyber security, ethical use of AI, the region’s claim to be a hub for public services tech, and much more.