Roadmap

About our roadmap

We are always working to improve the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Read about what’s been recently delivered, what we’re currently working on and what’s coming up next.

We aim to update this roadmap every 3 months and some items may change. The last update was 8 June 2026.

The Capability Framework's roadmap is currently focused on work in 4 areas that contribute towards these high-level objectives:

Improve recruitment and development outcomes for the profession

Support users to recruit and develop the digital, data and technology professionals their teams and organisations need, for example by:

• regularly updating descriptions of digital, data and technology roles and skills to align with government needs and industry trends
• defining the capabilities required by digital, data and technology leaders
• helping organisations make decisions on which roles and skills they need
• connecting with related workforce planning and organisational design resources, such as functional standards
• helping people discover potential digital, data and technology roles their skills are suitable for

Enable more efficient profession capability processes

Free up time for public sector capability teams and reduce administrative workloads when managing the profession, for example by:

• making it simpler to integrate the latest framework content into internal systems, such as resource planning, recruitment and learning and development systems
• making it easier for departments to accurately map their job descriptions to role levels in the framework
• enabling standardised capability assessment and workforce planning tools for use across government

Area 1: profession role and skill descriptions

We usually publish updates to role and skill descriptions every 3 months. We are working on giving users a way to see what changes are in development.

Recently completed

• published updates to framework content on 29 May, including changes to the list of skills required by the ‘content designer’ and ‘data engineer’ roles - summary of all updates
• edited descriptions of cyber security roles in the new Government Cyber Profession to be more consistent and easier to read by following the established guidelines for this framework

Working on now

• working with profession subject matter experts to draft updated descriptions for ‘data ethicist’, ‘business relationship manager’, ‘business analyst’, and a new role of ‘agile coach'
• assessing how to develop the Capability Framework for the Cyber Profession to better meet the needs of users and government
• continuing to support groups proposing changes to the framework
• updating the ‘most common job grades’ included with each role level, based on latest government workforce data

Working on next

• planning further content updates in 2026 in response to community feedback and change requests
• adding either general or level descriptions to skills that are missing them
• exploring how to increase the responsiveness of the framework’s delivery, governance and operations

Area 2: digital and data leadership

Recently completed

• published a new role description, chief digital and information officer
• research on digital leadership models across public sector and industry

Working on now

• establishing governance for current and future SCS role descriptions within the new cross-government leadership model for the Digital and Data profession and function

Working on next

• drafting more prototype roles at Senior Civil Service (SCS) level to test with the profession
• exploring how to better support organisations to make use of the descriptions of SCS digital, data and technology roles

Area 3: experience and navigation

Recently completed

• independent audit of the accessibility of the framework website
• clearer information on ‘support’ channels related to the framework, for example, directing users doing ‘capability assessments’ to their internal HR teams for support
• research with users to help us better understand how well the framework is performing

Working on now

• designing and testing potential new ways to help users find roles and skill descriptions, especially when they are not sure what they need
• improving how users can understand how to effectively use the role and skill descriptions for different purposes
• implementing accessibility improvements to the website

Working on next

• changing the website domain to better reflect the official name for the profession
• testing new interface functionality
• exploring changing the framework’s content management system

Area 4: related service areas and connected user journeys

Recently completed

• research to support development of the Digital, Data and Cyber Pay business case
• supported GDS Pay and Reward team to rework Digital, Data and Cyber Pay Framework guidance so it is easier to use and better aligned with this framework
• made previous versions of framework content accessible to government organisations through the profession’s Knowledge Hub group

Working on now

• building connections with other teams across the Government Digital Service who manage related products, such as the Service Manual
• prioritising the user journeys the framework supports for improvement, for example, finding jobs or recommended learning and development
• researching the structure and characteristics of effective digital teams in the public sector

Working on next

• exploring how to connect users to valuable next steps, for example, finding open job vacancies for each role
• exploring potential for more interoperability, such as API development
• reviewing the taxonomy, ontology and metadata of role and skill descriptions to better support interoperability

Latest release

For detailed information on our latest releases, see our release notes.

Help improve the framework

To help us improve the framework you can:

• register your interest in taking part in user research by emailing digitaldatacapabilityframework@dsit.gov.uk
• tell us what you think using our feedback survey

Further information

The Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework is maintained by the Government Digital Service.

If you have a question about the framework’s roadmap, you can:

• email the Capability Framework team at digitaldatacapabilityframework@dsit.gov.uk
• get in touch on the Government Digital and Data profession Slack channel

You can also find previous versions of this roadmap in the UK Government Web Archive.