Point 4 of the Service Standard requires that you "make services simple to use" – and that applies to spreadsheet templates too, so let's start the conversation about how to do spreadsheet templates well. If you're going to use a spreadsheet template in your service, there are a few design accommodations that you can make to improve the experience for users.

We've seen the challenges that pop up when relying on spreadsheet templates and the resulting frustration from users when they are forced to grapple with submitting their data using one.

We've come to a worrying conclusion: asking users to fill out spreadsheet templates in the way we do it today does not meet user needs and should not be used as a design pattern in usable and accessible government services.

For many organisations, building a data-driven culture that everyone truly embraces is a difficult task. To understand this further and to explore different ways to encourage this culture change, let’s first understand what we mean when we talk about a data-driven culture.