Welcome to the RTFM Club
(No, not that one. Ours stands for Regulate Tech For Managers.)
We’re here to help public services buy and use technology that actually works.
🤔 What’s the big idea?
You know the story. We all carry supercomputers in our pockets, making it easy to share cat videos or order a taxi in seconds. That tech is fast, cheap, and simple.
So why, when a nurse tries to check a patient record, are they fighting with a system that feels like a clunky, overpriced Nokia from twenty years ago?
It’s absurd. Public services end up with slow, baffling tech that staff hate using, and taxpayers pay a fortune for it.
The RTFM Club is here to fix this. We dig into the details (we’re the ones who actually read the manual!) so that managers can make better, smarter choices.
Our goal: Make public tech simple, useful, and at least as good as the app you use for your weekly shop.
🛠️ How we do it
We’re data detectives. We run projects that uncover what’s really happening with tech in a specific area (like the health service or local government).
We don’t write 200-page, dust-gathering reports. We build straightforward guides, maps, and tools that show what works, what doesn’t, and why. No jargon, just clear answers to simple questions.
🧔 Who’s behind this?
The club was set up by Richard Allan.
After more than 25 years of trying to connect the worlds of tech and politics—working in Parliament, at big tech companies, and now as a regulator (he’s on the Board of Ofcom)—he decided it was time to build a “friendly manual” for public service tech.
🚀 Our First Case: The NHS
We started by diving into the tech used in health and care, asking what a lack of progress on “going paperless” really costs.
See what we uncovered at: nhstech.uk/paperless