Download the latest editon of the Socitm newsletter Issue 109 June 2009 PDF 252kb
Index
Socitm 2009: re-inventing local public services — radical thinking, practical solutions
Socitm Learning Update
Placing IA Centre Stage for Wider Government
Microsoft and OGC New Deal, April 2009
Green IT
Accessibility Performance
Councils on the Web... Start of a New Era
What is “Local Directgov”
Socitm National Conference at Stoneleigh Park
IT Trends 2009-10: call for data
Martin Ferguson appointed as Head of Policy
The ‘Total Place’ initiative
ACCREDIT UK The Fire Group
The Fire Group
The MBA — finally finished!
President’s Diary
Socitm Consulting update: Managing ICT suppliers — outsourced and otherwise
Implementing the EU Services Directive by December
Organisational Efficiency Programme...
The 2008 Transformational Government report
Regional and Group Meetings
Gartner Advise Skipping Windows Vista
New Microsoft Public Sector Agreement Announced
Socitm 2009: re-inventing local public services — radical thinking, practical solutions
Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 11-13 October 2009
The recession and subsequent impact on public spending — at a recent Socitm event local government expert Tony Travers predicted 0% growth for the next 10 years — means all public services must ‘think radical’ about how to meet future demand.
Socitm 2009 has been designed to thrust delegates into the heart of the debate about how services from the public sector can be re-invented do so much more for so much less. We have invited a uniquely qualified set of speakers to share their ideas and experience about the very different future faced by those delivering and using local public services.
Delegates will be able to explore, among other things, the outer limits of sharing and partnership, ‘extreme’ outsourcing, maximisation of customer self-service, unseen levels of virtual working, and meeting unprecedented demands for transparency and citizen engagement.
Confirmed speakers and topics include:
(watch the website for updates)
Charles Leadbeater, innovation and creativity thinker and writer: Charles is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and drawn on that experience in writing his latest book We-think: the power of mass creativity, which charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning. As well as advising a wide range of organisations on innovation including the BBC, Vodafone, Microsoft, Ericsson, and Channel Four, Charles has been an ideas generator in his own right — including helping Helen Fielding devise Bridget Jones’s diary — and wrote the first British report on the rise of social entrepreneurship. Charles has worked extensively as a senior adviser to the governments over the past decade, advising the 10 Downing St policy unit, the Department for Trade and Industry and the European Commission on the rise of the knowledge driven economy and the Internet. He spent ten years working for the Financial Times where he was Labour Editor, Industrial Editor, Tokyo Bureau Chief and Features Editor. In 1994 he moved to the Independent as assistant editor and became an independent author and advisor in 1996.
Jason Lowther, Director of Policy and Delivery, Birmingham City Council: Jason is responsible for strategic policy, performance management, customer insight, the local strategic partnership, leadership and council development, and service improvement activities. Jason came to BCC in 2004 after a decade at the Audit Commission in a wide variety of roles, most recently as national lead on community safety issues including developing the CPA approach to this topic. He was part of the national study team on GP prescribing and managed all “value for money” work on local public sector organisations in the East and West Midlands. Jason trained as a statistician and economist at Warwick University, and later gained an MSc in Operational Research at Lancaster and an MBA from Nottingham University. He has become a qualified PRINCE2 practitioner. His working life started in the Metropolitan Police with the easy job of re-arranging the traditional shift system for police officers across the capital, and the pleasant task of testing human body bags. He then worked in the banking sector with HSBC looking at customer behavioural modelling, before joining the Audit Commission.
Robina Chatham, author, Corporate Politics for IT Managers: Robina is author of Corporate Politics for IT Managers: How to get Streetwise. As the title suggests, the book addresses some of the most persistent problems faced by IT managers, problems that undermine their power and influence in their organizations and prevent them from obtaining a seat on the board. The book draws on her own career in IT during which she rose to become European IT Director for a leading merchant bank. In 1996 Robina joined Cranfield School of Management as a Lecturer in Management Information Systems where she created the life changing programme Organisational Politics and IT Management. Her book Corporate Politics for IT Managers followed in 2000. Robina now runs her own training company and is also a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management. Her prime focus is on helping senior managers to develop political acumen, to master the art of influencing others and hence increase their personal impact at board level. Robina’s session will be about How to tame those political animals within your organisation. Organisational politics are a fact of corporate life. We all need to be adept at dealing with organisational politics; however there is no single formula for success. Outcomes in the political arena depend upon the subtle interactions and interplays between people. Each situation will be different and unique and what proves successful in one situation may prove disastrous in the next. In essence organisational politics is an art rather than a science! During this session you will learn how navigate the stormy waters of organisational politics, how to enhance your reputation and have greater impact and influence within your organisation.
Su Sayer, Chief Executive, United Response — supporting people with disabilities to live in the community: United Response supports people with learning disabilities, mental health needs and physical disabilities to live in the community. It does this in many different ways, from supporting people in their own homes to working with people to access training and work opportunities. Set up over 30 years ago, United Response works with around 1,500 people at any one time.
Neil Hocking — dealing with a wide scale natural disaster: the Australian bushfires
Adrian Joseph, European Managing Director, Google Enterprise
Public Sector Broadband Aggregation — case study on roll out of enabling technology for improving public services across up to 6000 sites in Wales
Other topics to be featured:
• Joining up local public services
• Outsourcing - the evidence
• Security and information sharing update
• Serving people with disabilities - the role of IT
• Customer access and self service
• Web 2.0 & citizen engagement
• IT profession
• Re-use of public information
• Milton Keynes wimax/citizen broadband project
• Sustainability & the green agenda
• Delivery Management (DOH & Cabinet Office)
• The Ocean Project
• Pan Government Security & Federated IT Management
• Cloud Computing & Infrastructure free IT
After dinner speaker
Fred MacAulay, comedian and regular on Just a Minute, The News Quiz, The Unbelievable Truth, Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week and QI.
Also:
• IT Excellence Awards 2009
• Graham Williamson Challenge
• International programme
• Partner programme
New!
• Supplier showcase sessions
• Expert clinicsDelegate fees
Fees (per delegate excluding VAT). ‘Socitm delegates’ enjoy a discount on normal fee rates and are defined as delegates from any organisation employing one or more Socitm members.
Full package, Socitm delegates* £575
Day rate, Socitm delegates* £205
Partner package, Socitm delegates *£160
Full package, other delegates £680
Day rate, other delegates £250
Partner package, other delegates £180
Early bird discount (full package only, applies until 31 July) £645, £540
Second and subsequent delegates: £640, £535
Special offer: all delegates from third sector organisations may attend at Socitm delegate rates.
Socitm Learning Update
The frequency and variety of Socitm Learning courses and workshops continues to expand. As well as delivering on-site courses, we are also starting to organise workshops for Socitm regions. There is particularly strong interest in IT professionalism and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
The course schedule for the remainder of the summer is:
10 June, Birmingham: Implementing ITIL Change Management Workshop
17 June, London: IT Professionalism And Skills Management
23 June, London: Business Development and Account Management
30 June, Birmingham: Managing the Environmental Aspects of ICT
8 July, Manchester: Designing and Managing a Strategy for Mobile and Flexible Working
9 July, London: ICT Strategy Workshop
14 July, Birmingham: Information Assurance Overview
16 July, Manchester: ITIL Management Overview
Further details and the full forward schedule can be found at www.socitmlearning.co.uk.
Please contact mark.wheatley@socitmlearning.co.uk if you have any enquiries or to discuss you organisation’s learning needs.
Placing IA Centre Stage for Wider Government IA09, 6- 7July 2009, QEII Conference Centre, London
Richard Steel, Socitm immediate past president and CIO for the Borough of Newham is urging wider government representatives to attend IA09: “This is the government’s premier Information Assurance event this year, featuring a dedicated one-day stream focusing on wider government. This presents the opportunity to take a major step towards a consensus for a pan government security vision.” As IA09 approaches we look at the new emphasis placed on IA by local government. “There is no doubt that government budgets will come under great pressure over the next decade. Achieving efficiency savings in delivering services will be a serious imperative,” says Tim Allen, Director Analysis, Research and Knowledge Management at the Local Government Association. “There will be increasing pressure to focus resources on front line service provision — the demand for greater efficiency will require greater information sharing and shared services with a priority placed on doing it once and doing it properly,” he said. “But in this new world the public rightly demand guarantees about the security of personal and sensitive data. This will drive the need for greater information risk management and Information Assurance.” Information Assurance (IA), essentially the management of risk across all aspects of information capture, storage and use, is viewed in Whitehall as part and parcel of bringing in transformational government — so maximising the use of that information while putting the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Many public sector ICT systems were designed and built as silos with little commonality and organisational boundaries are such that inter-department link ups are often difficult while a lack or standardisation means high management and integration costs. The government wants to introduce one public sector network (PSN) to pave the way for full transformational government — a move that will also eradicate duplication, drive down costs and mean greater efficiencies. If successful, PSN will be fast, efficient and secure.
CESG, the government’s National Technical Authority for IA and the IA arm of GCHQ, is working with Socitm and the LGA to develop the IA agenda in local government. At this year’s CESG-hosted IA conference — IA09 — a dedicated stream will look at the implementation of IA across local government. Jos Creese, head of IT, Hampshire County Council, will chair the Wider Government stream at IA09. To be held on Day Two at IA09 this Stream will include a presentation by Tim Allen, LGA, covering ‘Information Assurance, the Local Authority narrative’.
There will also be an update on collaborative initiatives that leverage wider government involvement, including an overview of Government Connect, the pan-government programme led by the DWP, which will provide a secure network between central government and every local authority in England and Wales. A third session will act as a guide to keeping up to date with changing policy and making access to information easy for wider government. IA09, which takes place on July 6-7, brings together more than 500 senior figures from all sections of government and industry. Kevin Hayes, CESG’s local government specialist, said: “CESG has responded to the needs of local government and we have made significant strides in working with local government and local CIOs, which is why we are bringing together a strong panel of speakers for the wider government stream at IA09. “The main message is that there are significant advantages to local government in moving IA up the agenda — and that better IA measures improve access to government. “It’s not just about sharing information securely — it’s also concerned with sharing infrastructure and reducing costs. “There has got to be more emphasis on a common approach to managing shared risk. There are different challenges to bringing in transformational government to local government — but we need to start meeting those challenges.” He also said there was a need to pay more attention to the risk management of ICT systems, echoing the current initiatives in central government. But at the same time the centre recognises that achieving savings is already a serious imperative for local government, he added. Through engagement with PSN, local government could potentially make significant savings through procurement when introducing new systems, he said, including buying maturing technology such as VOIP (voice over internet protocol) telephony services or updated email systems. According to Tim Allen of the LGA, there is an imperative for local authorities to focus resources on front-line service provision.
“We will only achieve this through effective information sharing,” he said. “There will be significant increased demand for shared services.” But running parallel to this must be guarantees on how public data is handled, he said. “We must never forget that behind data entries are real people whose lives we can damage,” he added. A two-day workshop is being staged by the Local Public Service CIO Council in September to explore these issues in more depth.
IA09, which takes place at QEII Conference Centre in Westminster, will be chaired by GCHQ director Iain Lobban. Its prestigious line up of speakers includes Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, and Paul Murphy, Secretary of State for Wales and Minister for Digital Inclusion, who will look at the DHR one year on from its publication.
David Smith, Deputy Information Commissioner will speak on the new IA regime and what has been learnt in the year since IA08 and Director of Governance and Security at HMRC, Mary Aiston, will present a peer-to-peer case study.
A special single-day delegate rate has been agreed for wider government representatives, allowing them to attend just Day Two of the conference for £295 (exc VAT), negotiated with the LGA and Socitm. To register contact the IA09 registration hotline on 020 7089 5806 or email enquiries@ia09.org.uk.
For more information on IA09 go to www.IA09.org.uk
This article was written by Ian Muir of Brandon Hill Communications.
Microsoft and OGC New Deal, April 2009
“Victory” over open-source
Microsoft secured a strong victory over its open-source software (OSS) competitors recently when the UK government’s procurement offices agreed to sign a 3-year software deal with the company.
Although terms of the agreement haven’t been revealed (analysts say it’s worth at least several million dollars), the deal is especially valuable because Microsoft competed with open-source vendors for the contract. Following several high-profile losses in Europe, most prominently with the city of Munich, Germany, Microsoft’s UK victory suggests that the company can still compete with open-source competitors on price and value.
Microsoft’s competition with OSS, which is freely licensed but generally includes installation and support costs that meet or exceed those for Windows and Microsoft Office, has come to a head in recent months. Numerous governments around the world have investigated open-source solutions. Microsoft has responded with lower costs and by offering governments access to OS and application source code.
There is a very interesting debate on the merits of this deal written by Mark Ballard and posted on Computer Weekly web site on 8 May 2009. One aspect debated is the fact that many authorities dropped out of the old deal to avoid paying annual charges, it is expected that the new deal will have controls in to prevent this and to ensure the lock-in is more robust. Ed.
Green IT
Please be aware of consultation from BERR on revisions to the WEEE regulations:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file50817.pdf
Accessibility Performance
Local government performs better than private sector on awareness of accessibility policy and its implementation says Socitm Insight briefing: Survey shows 174 councils (41% of total) did as well as or better than the best in the private sector.
Local government has outperformed a sample of private sector organisations in the finance, retail and travel sectors (including Northern Rock, EasyJet and Tesco) on awareness of accessibility policy and its implementation. This is the key finding of research by Socitm Insight on website accessibility statements which, according to the latest guidance from the Central Office of Information (COI) and the British Standards Institute (BSi) play a central role ensuring that an organisation’s website is actually accessible to all users.
The research is published in “A world denied: a supplement for Better connected 2009 on accessibility statements”. This looks at one of the key elements of accessibility practice, and follows last year’s more general guidance on making websites accessible. If accessibility good practice is not followed, and websites are not designed to accommodate their needs, disabled people and others can find difficult or even impossible to use.
The findings published in the supplement come from a short survey of 12 questions testing organisations’ conformance with the BSi PAS 78 guidance about accessibility statements. This was supported by two mystery shopping e-mail tests, the first of which requested help for a blind person, and the second which asked about the organisation’s plans for improving web accessibility.
The supplement lists councils exhibiting good practice and highlights examples. It also provides tables showing the test results of all councils and private sector organisations covered (among private sector organisations tested are Lloyds TSB, Northern Rock, Tesco, Boots, IKEA, WH Smith, EasyJet, Lastminute.com and the AA.)
The research found that:
• Having a good accessibility statement is linked to better accessibility performance overall: organisations that passed the accessibility standard in Better connected 2009 performed 23% better than the rest on this new piece of research
• A much higher percentage of local authority websites (79%) have a link on their home page to an accessibility statement than private sector websites (44%). Links via the navigation were stronger in council websites
• Council accessibility statements met specific PAS 78 criteria marginally better than private sector ones and 47% of council accessibility statements were excellent or satisfactory compared with 16% in the private sector
• 53% of councils gave a satisfactory reply to our
• e-mail about help for a blind person with using the website, compared with 23% in the private sector
• 50% of councils gave a very good or satisfactory reply to our e-mail enquiring about plans for improving accessibility (we did not test the private sector on this).
According to Martin Greenwood, Programme Director for Socitm Insight and author of the supplement, all organisations should create an accessibility statement based on the criteria in the COI and BSi documents, or if they already have a statement, review it against these criteria: ‘The accessibility statement plays a key part in any campaign for raising awareness internally, and possibly externally, of the importance that the council attaches to this issue. It goes without saying that none of this is any use if the intentions in the accessibility statement are not properly implemented, but nor should we overlook the fact that the statement itself is the first step in the right direction.’
“A world denied: a supplement for Better connected 2009 on accessibility statements” is available free of charge to Socitm Insight subscribers and can be downloaded now from the Socitm website. Non-subscribers can buy a printed version of the briefing at a cost of £50 (£40 for Socitm members whose organisations do not subscribe). It can be ordered from www.socitm.gov.uk.
Martin Greenwood, Programme Manager, Socitm Insight Tel: 01926 498703 or 07967 383755
E-mail: martin.greenwood@socitm.gov.uk
Councils on the Web... Start of a New Era: low-cost, but wasteful
Self-service becomes the major route for delivery of all public services. That has to be the sub-title accompanying the £15bn public sector savings required by the Chancellor in his 22 April budget.
The latest figures from Socitm Insight confirm that the cheapest channel by far is the web at £0.27p per transaction compared with £3.22 for the phone and £6.56 for face-to-face. Yet we can also show that, although the web attracts the highest volume of interactions, it also attracts the lowest level of satisfaction and failure to find information or complete a service transaction. This can lead to costly and avoidable contact via other channels, most likely to be the phone as customers look for alternative ways to resolve their enquiries. The web may be a low cost-channel, but unless it works right first time and every time, it just adds costs.
Failure to find information — an example. It is important to understand the scale of the issue here. The Socitm Insight Website take-up service provides all the evidence of a major problem If we take the case of Salford City Council, this is one of the best council websites according to the annual Better connected survey, classifying it as ‘excellent’ for the second year running. Yet, when we look at the responses to our user survey, we find that nearly 19% of visitors do not find what they are looking for. With the number of unique visitors exceeding 104,000 in March 2009, this means that 19,900 visitors failed in finding information or services.
The Website take-up service also asks visitors what alternative means of contacting the council visitors they might have used, had the website not been available. Over 40% say the phone, 19% say e-mail and 9% say a personal visit. These equate to 8108 phone calls, 3840 e-mails and 1694 personal visits, or, relating it to daily figures, up to 364 phone calls (approx 45 an hour), 175 e-mails or 77 visits per working day. Even if some do not carry out this intention, this avoidable contact amounts to a great deal of wasted time for both the website visitor and the organisation, not to mention much inconvenience all round.
As you might expect, there is a strong correlation between failure to find information and dissatisfaction with the website. For visitors who find what they are looking for, the Website take-up survey shows that overall satisfaction runs at 74.1%; if they do not, it runs at minus 52.6% (calculated as those satisfied with the experience less those dissatisfied).
In fact, Salford’s performance here on success of the visit at 19% is a little better than the average in our March sample of over 120 councils. The lowest failure rate recorded is slightly over 12% and the highest just under 30%. If successful private sector companies dependent on the web for their profits scored even this lowest rate of failure, then they would act swiftly to stem the losses. The problem is clearly endemic and requires a radical review as to the importance of the website and the way it is managed. For most councils this means major changes in thinking, culture, and practice for web governance, management and delivery.
A major re-think Our annual report on the state of local authority websites, Better connected 2009 argues that to get self-service right, councils need to become obsessive about making online journeys really work for the customer. That means developing a new rigour, based on testing, around design of ‘top tasks’. Our Website take-up service gives us much evidences what these top tasks are, among them, looking at jobs, finding schools information, paying council tax, viewing planning registers, and paying parking fines.
Real commitment to self-service means pruning content ruthlessly, focussing heavily on these top tasks and reducing the prominence and space given to information and documents about council organisation, policy and strategy.
Need for corporate focus Achieving this cannot be delegated to web managers. Councils must embrace a new, strategic approach to their websites that comes from the top and is managed corporately, within the council’s customer service and channel management strategies. A base set of management information about take-up, satisfaction and costs for all access channels is needed to inform these strategies. Web and contact centre managers must communicate regularly about the volume and nature of incoming enquiries and how they can be handled more efficiently. Managers of front-line services need much stronger direction to become web-focused and to recognise the website as the vehicle for radical service redesign.
Strategic blueprint In Better connected 2009, we set out a strategic blueprint about how websites should be managed based on some clear principles. One example is that governance should recognise that the website is a corporate asset and needs to be managed corporately, otherwise the quality and coverage of its content is likely to be uneven. Web managers need to work within a management framework set by the organisation. If not they will find it difficult, for example to influence the quality and usability of information put up other managers, or to prioritise when all departments feel their items should be given prime positions on the home page.
Following on from governance, the strategic blueprint covers channel management, community engagement, structure, web team focus, service manager engagement, content management and website testing.
Website testing and task management
As a second example, we can look at website testing. Stronger governance and commitment to reducing failure to find information sets quite a different tone for a newer, more professional and harder-edged approach to website testing. With the need we have highlighted for councils to achieve a major shift by service users to the web channel, we are advocating a new, much more rigorous form of testing that records how quickly and accurately users are able to complete the ‘top tasks’ they come to websites to do.
If websites are to deliver what councils need them to deliver, matching, for example the performance of the best airline or insurance sites, they need to start measuring every step of the ‘customer journey’ their users need to make from entering the site until completion of the task. Analysis based on recorded data is what matters here, and this is a process that involves observation, stopwatches and writing up charts.
How long did the transaction take? Where do users falter? Is the wording ambiguous or are they confused by the layout? Have any changes introduced as a result of the testing made a difference to user performance?
In conclusion The context for local government on the web has changed. The recession, and the inevitable squeeze on public spending, now confirmed by the Chancellor, means that all public sector organisations will struggle to meet future demand without some radical thinking about service delivery. Developing self-service through the council website must now have greater priority on every council’s strategic plan. The objective is clear. Done right, self-service is much, much cheaper, enables transformation and, above all, saves time and enhances the experience for the general public. Local public services should now be positioning themselves to follow the lead of the best of the private sector.
Martin Greenwood, Socitm Insight Programme Director
[See also the item in this issue regarding the EU services directive and the push toward e-government. Ed]
What is “Local Directgov”
The Local Directgov programme supports the Local Directgov application, which takes customers from the Directgov website to the most relevant web page on their local council’s website in just four mouse clicks. It is used to provide relevant information about council services at a local level. Sometimes referred to as “deep links” the idea is to take the user directly to the most relevant page based on what they input on the Directgov site.
This technology is also to be deployed as part of the implementation of the EU Services Directive (see item in this issue) which will involve a portal called a Point of Single Contact (PSC) in each member state with links to the relevant local authorities and other competent authorities. In the UK, the PSC will be based on businesslink.gov.uk; I understand Local Directgov is already in use in England, but that this process will be new for authorities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
To find out more about the Local Directgov programme see http://www.localdirect.gov.uk/ .
Access to the Local Directgov newsletter Local Connect, a case study about joining up council services using Local Directgov links, based on Hampshire County Council case study. Plus general advice and good practice guidance to help build and improve council websites.
Socitm Annual Conference at Stoneleigh Park
This report aims to give those of you who did not attend a flavour of what you missed. It does not cover all the presentations, and the reports are based on my notes, however all the slides are available on the Socitm web site at:
http://www.socitm.gov.uk/socitm/Events/Spring+Seminar/National+Conference+2009/Conference+presentations.htm
The event opened at 9 for coffee and at 10 we had the Chairman’s introduction to the day from Jim Haslem. Jim spoke of a packed day and important milestone in the history of Socitm, he cited lots of new developments like the new web site, the appointment of a head of policy (see item in thus issue), the re-branding from dot.gov to dot.net. It was expected the new website would be ready for the October conference and the new PD model ready. Jim was the first of many to suggest that the credit crunch was an opportunity to show how to use ICT to drive change. He announced that we now have a Patron Anthony Tudor St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso who is to be our “friend in high places”. You may recall that he gave the key presentation at Conference in Brighton in 2005 He will be the guest of honour at the conference in Edinburgh in October. Finally Jim thanked the board, Boilerhouse (communications), Socitm’s own events team and gave a special thanks to members. Before handing over to Richard Steel to deliver the welcome, Jim congratulated him on a great year in office.
Richard Steel welcomed the voluntary sector and charities and suppliers as full members for the first time this year. He spoke of the pressure on budgets and the increasing squeeze to come, with 0% council tax increases, less grants and services struggling with higher case loads and less income.
He spoke of the back office as being under scrutiny. He said it was also an opportunity to do transformational changes and to use technology as cost fall and it becomes more affordable — mobile technology in particular, allowing more connections at lower costs.
He went on to say that it needs the capability of Socitm Members to make changes happen, to make better use of our people — we can do it faster, we have new options to help excluded citizens, the elderly etc, and our services must be VFM and best of breed. We need to engage with supporting organisations too and secure commitment to create changes: we need to listen and learn.
Before handing back to Jim, Richard made a special reference to the new seminars being tried today for the first time, with sessions by the main sponsors Jadu, IBM and Intercept.
Next we had a very topical first session from Tony Travers, Director, Greater London Group, London School of Economics, all about the Implications of the Credit Crunch:
Tony must have spent much of the previous day scanning the budget report; he spoke of the virtues of using the find function to look for keywords. He spoke about the projected shape of the UK economic recovery as this lies at the heart of the budget – what he described as a V shape predicted by the chancellor, with a rapid decline and equally rapid recovery, a view that has little support. He suggested a U shape might be more likely or even an L where the economy remains depressed, and he tried to describe a scenario for which he does not have a letter in our alphabet quite like it: a letter L, but where the horizontal line continues to fall...
Speculating on the implications for local government, he expected most finance managers to attempt to act like “squirrels” and build up reserves by swingeing spending cuts now. In the short term he suggested things might not be too bad, as the inflation settlements meant that in real terms some funding goes up (if I understood him correctly). However, post election (in May/June 2010?) and into 2011, he expected much lower rates of inflation to reduce public spending in real terms. Capital spending would fall too much — as it did in the 1970s. All of this at a time when demands for services are increasing.
He listed all the pressures on public spending, some of which I remembered. Pensions was a key one that he felt might lead to the concept of pensions being challenged. Others included child care, aging and demographic trends, NHS costs rising with new drugs and treatments, drops in LG fees income, and pressure on the LG elements of highways and the environment.
He predicted a desire to support the housing industry may lead to the Government starting to fund building again. He also suggested investment in regeneration where public funding would need to be injected into PFI and PPP deals. He saw some scope to maintain projects that focus on economic reconstruction, and a reinforcement of the role of governments.
He spoke of the need for changes and the pressure to innovate. He referred to the pressures to use outsourcing to save money and the fact that Essex was named in the report. He anticipated on-going pressure to do more with less and for more joint working (he cited Herefordshire where primary care and local government are seeking to work in a “deep partnership”).
His longer term projection saw LG spending held at 0% in real terms for 10 years — much more severe that it was under Mrs. Thatcher. He also suggested this was an opportunity for ICT to lead the way to greater efficiencies, with pressures to cut back office spend and the growing pressures on front line services. For NGOs, too, he predicted greater pressure, both in terms of increased demands for services and reductions in grants.
His summary referred to unpredictable rate of recovery. He expects at least 18 months much slower than the 3.5% reflected in the Budget, He spoke of rising national debt of £175bn and approaching 48-50% of GDP and tax payers may decide they prefer cuts in service to rising taxes. He forecasts cuts over the next 8-10 years regardless of political power before we can restore 2008 levels and over 20 years to clear the debt. Or we become a high debt community. He predicted new methods of auditing and control, and new ways of service provision.
Maybe these are the opportunities for a radical change in the way public services are provided at this difficult time. In question time, the issue of outsourcing was discussed. Should it be a corporate move like at Essex or department by department. In his reply, Tony referred to the market and its capacity to take on a “basket of services”; he expects a “bit of both” maybe with a more mature market seeking to offer a whole range of services including the voluntary sector.
Also he was asked if the transformation agenda was now a thing of the past and his reply was far from it, the budget has added 1% to 3% Gershon targets and the NAO has been cautious over the “real” efficiency saving figures so we will always have a policy of an efficiency drive.
Ed’s Comment
As some of you may be aware, the Essex CC deal with BT may not be the best example. It is the subject of a recent FOI request (by whatdotheyknow) to disclose the total payment by Essex CC to BT. The Essex CC legal department have pleaded exemption from the FOI on this matter, on the basis that they are “currently engaged in negotiations with BT contingent upon the termination of the contract between us.” Maybe government will pick a better example next time...£26 million estimated in one year across all of Essex County Council’s services, including through the transformation of back office functions and the introduction of a supplier relationship management programme, therefore unlocking benefits by promoting a joint approach to continuous improvement and innovation.
After Tony’s session there was time for a refreshment break and a visit to the exhibition and, for this year, the new “less intimidating” supplier demonstrations. These were designed to allow suppliers to display their services and products without having to entice the audience to actually visit their stand.
I cannot speak for the other sessions, but the one over lunch suffered from the fact that it was an open topped enclosure within the main exhibition and the general hubbub of visitors to stands and people networking all around us threatened to drown out the speaker from Jadu. I am sure the events team will find a solution next time.
After the break it was down to Richard Allan, Chair, Power of Information Task Force, to explain about Unlocking the Power of Local Information:
Richard used a tag PoIT (power of information technology?) that they have now formally adopted that was new to me. In 2007, the cabinet office became aware of the issue. About that time in a report called “they work for you” we were shown statistics of MP’s performance in the house. Most MPs have now accepted this approach. (However this was before the expenses scandal broke. Ed.)
The Power of Information Task Force was set up in 2008 as part of a series of positive responses by Government to the report. Over the last 9 months, the Task Force has attempted to develop further the agenda set out in the report.
Richard spoke of a competition to find new examples to how to re-use information in new ways, such as finding recycling sites by post code, or “find me a loo”, or “find me an allotment”, “school catchment areas”, etc.
He spoke of the criteria applied to the entries which included: engagement with a community, discovery, use, re-use, mapping, sustainability.
He referred to the report at http://poit.cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
You can also see Richard Allan discussing the Power of Information work on Youtube. http://uk.youtube.com/user/POITaskforce.
See also http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/power_of_information.aspx.
Then the only person between us and the AGM was past president, Rose Crozier. Rose spoke about Building the IT profession in the public sector — the role of Socitm membership:
Rose started by correcting Jim that she hails from Belfast not Dublin! She spoke of the critical assets (people) and how we need to develop the capacity of people. There are 50,000 + IT professionals in the public sector. Rose said we must work to change the perception of IT staff as geeks and to improve their position and influence.
She spoke of the challenges in terms of building trust, encouraging a focus on serving citizens and embracing suppliers. See her slides at www.socitm.gov.uk. Rose will continue her lead role in this area in the new presidential year as a Vice President.
Before lunch it was the Socitm AGM then another chance to visit the exhibition or see the demonstrations. The AGM was attended by about 80 people by my count, and the elections of new officers went ahead unopposed. The chain of office was handed over by Richard to Steve Palmer.
Steve recognised Richard’s most energetic year, steering Socitm through traumatic times, Steve said it was a tribute to his skills, experience and knowledge.
The adoption of the accounts included the excellent news that Socitm had broken even, and it was pointed out by David Houston that this was in part down to the 15% contribution from Consulting.
After lunch, we had a session in two parts about Channel management, avoidable contact and transformation. In part one, Martin Greenwood revealed the messages from Socitm Insight’s Customer Access Improvement Service. Then, in part two, Dhanushka Madawala, Training and Development Officer at Hillingdon contact centre, talked about how LB Hillingdon is using the concept of ‘avoidable contact’ to reinvigorate their transformation programme.
Digital inclusion, local authorities, and the third sector was introduction by David Clayden, Chairman, Charity Consortium IT Directors Group and a case study was presented by Chris Deery, Head of ICT for Solihull Community Housing, part of a successful recent bid for Beacon Council status for digital inclusion.
Then it was over to the new President of Socitm, Steve Palmer for some closing remarks. Steve thanked the events team and suppliers for their support. He referred to ICT’s key role in the enablement of change, and the challenge for us to win hearts and minds. He referred to the budget and investing in solutions to the Climate Change agenda and the need for solutions that saved both carbon and money. He spoke of the funding available “Smarter Services Stimulus Package” for building a low-carbon recovery, Steve asked for representative to contact him to get involved in a “call for funds” that was to be launched at the House of Commons in June.
IT Trends 2009-10: call for data
We are just starting to collect the IT trends data for the 2009/10 survey. The current economic downturn could be a make or break period for public sector IT. We need as many returns as possible so that our report is an accurate record of what is happening in the sector. This year the Excel survey form has been shortened and made easier to complete. Organisations that have submitted data in recent years have been sent a copy of the survey form with the last recorded data loaded into the form. If you have not received one and think you should have, please contact ittrends@socitm.gov.uk. If you are new to the survey and need an IT Trends 2009-10 survey form, you can download one from this page. http://www.socitm.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1C8B0581-F6B4-48F5-A734-B527816ABDA9/0/Formtemplatev2.xls
Forms need to be returned to ittrends@socitm.gov.uk by Tuesday 30th of June.
Martin Ferguson appointed as Head of Policy
Socitm has signalled its intention to increase its influence on public sector policy around ICT, efficiency and information management with the appointment of Martin Ferguson as its first Head of Policy.
In this role, Martin will lead the development and promotion of Socitm responses to major issues such as the collection and management of personal data; approaches to sharing data across different agencies; the scope for resource saving through shared services, partnerships, outsourcing, self service and flexible working; and the pan-government security vision.
He will also drive associated stakeholder engagement with central and local government, and the third and private sectors, further developing Socitm’s existing relationships with bodies like the LGA, SOLACE, and IDeA, as well as the Cabinet Office and other central government departments. As a result of the Society’s recent merger with CITRA (Charity IT Resource Alliance) he will develop increasing activity within and across the ‘third’ sector.
The policy role, shaped by immediate Past President Richard Steel during his 12 month secondment to Socitm from his ICT Director role at the London Borough of Newham, is seen by Socitm as central to its work in representing and promoting the work of ICT professionals in the public sector.
Over the last 12 months, Socitm has taken a leading role in drafting local government’s response to the Data Handling Review, representing local government interests to the Government Connect programme, and forming the Local Government CIO Council. Socitm sees the appointment of its Head of Policy as key to maintaining and increasing this momentum.
Martin Ferguson brings a wealth of experience to the role. Between 2003 and 2005 he was Assistant Director, e-government, at the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), leading strategic support to councils’ plans and implementations of local e-government. Prior to that he was Chief Information Officer at St. Albans District Council and was elected a president of Socitm. For over 10 years, he has held the post of Associate Senior Lecturer in Information Management and e-Governance at the Institute of Local Government Studies, The University of Birmingham, teaching Public Service MBA students from local government, the voluntary sector, housing associations, the police and the Hong Kong government.
“Given the extreme financial challenges to be faced by public sector organisations over the next few years, its never been more important for us to have our thinking absolutely straight on key issues like data security, information sharing, partnership working and customer access to services”, says Socitm President Steve Palmer, “Martin is exactly the right person to help us do that, and we are delighted to have him on board”.
The ‘Total Place’ initiative
It was reported in the budget that the local incentives and empowerment workstrand, led by Sir Michael Bichard, Executive Director of the Institute for Government, had examined how to provide the incentives for greater collaboration and innovation on the front line, with systematic front-line engagement alongside a reduction in burdens to create the space for progress.
As a first step, the Government will launch the ‘Total Place’ initiative, looking at public spending and local leadership in 13 local areas to identify how collaboration and prioritisation can lead to greater efficiency and value for money. The areas taking part in ‘Total Place’ are:
Birmingham
Bradford (linked to the city-region pilot)
Coventry
Croydon
Dorset
Poole and Bournemouth
Durham
Leicester and Leicestershire
Lewisham
Luton and Central Bedfordshire
Kent
Manchester city-region
South Tyneside
Gateshead and Sunderland
Worcestershire.
The Government will report on the interim findings of this work in the 2009 pre-budget report.
See also coverage of the Annual Conference and the session by Tony Travers.
ACCREDIT UK: improving Confidence in ICT Suppliers
Accredit UK provides a standard for ICT suppliers that is designed to give purchasers greater confidence in the providers of ICT solutions for their business. It is designed to give suppliers the edge over their peers. The standard was developed by Accredit UK with funding by the NCC, Advantage West Midlands and the ERDF and it was supported by BSI professional services.
The standard will eventually cover all 9 “segments” of the ICT industry as defined by the NCC, currently these are available
1. Communications (Network Design and Installation)
2. Software Product Design and Development
3. ICT Consultancy
4. Solutions Design, Integration and Deployment
5. New Media & e-Commerce
6. Information Assurance
The standard was designed via consultation with small and large suppliers (such as SMEs, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.), representatives from purchasers and the public sector (e.g. Rugby County Council, Business Link etc) along with input from organisations such as BSI, Intellect, UKITA & the NB2BC. Originally marketed within the West Midlands region, Accredit UK is now available across the UK.
The Accredit UK scheme is a quality standard that is designed to allow businesses to prove their excellence. Holders can prove that they have the right people, excellent processes and a track record of first-class performance. To get certified to the Accredit UK Standard, any supplier must prove that their processes stand out from their competitors. In addition to being a quality standard, Accredit UK has also been designed as a business improvement tool. It enables applicants to identify their strengths and weaknesses and provides the tools to turn any weaknesses into strengths. Feedback from companies to date is that they have achieved more streamlined processes and therefore improved internal efficiencies as a direct result of going through the certification.
Purchasers of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can use the Accredit UK mark to identify the best Suppliers in the industry.
One angle that interests me in particular is how this all works within the Public Procurement regime. The Accredit UK advice in The Guide to Purchasing ICT can be downloaded from the Accredit UK web site. (www.accredituk.com)
A fundamental principle of Accredit UK is that a Supplier Standard alone is not enough. For any ICT project to bear maximum dividends the relationship must be two-way — the Supplier and the Purchaser both have key roles to play.
For that reason, they have developed the Guide to Purchasing ICT. It helps Purchasers by giving them useful advice on how to get the most from their ICT Supplier. The Guide is split into three broad areas:
1. A Good Practice Guide for Small Businesses
2. A Good Practice Guide for Public Procurement
3. Segment-Specific Advice.
Accredit UK has made this statement about Public procurement: “Public procurement in the UK could play a significant role in stimulating innovation in the supply market. However, in order to do so, the emphasis in the public sector needs to mature, as it already has in much of Europe, from minimising costs in the short term to obtaining better value over a much longer period (‘lifetime value’).”
However a word of caution seems in order as the public sector cannot simply mandate for suppliers to have been certified to Accredit UK as it is a UK national standard and as such does not satisfy the EU Directives. Even contracts below the OJEU thresholds need to comply with the rules of non-discrimination. The guide is carefully worded and contains this one reference to the Accredit UK standard which is: “Encourage SMEs to bid wherever possible, especially those with relevant quality standards such as Accredit UK”.
Even this advice needs to be treated with care because the process of advertising and selecting suppliers must be open and fair. If a purchasing authority is seen to favour suppliers in some way then they could be exposed to a challenge, so it is important that any SME’s encouraged to bid are seen to have responded to the OJEU advert and to have been selected fairly. It is also important that other quality and performance standards that are equivalent to Accredit UK are treated equally.
In this situation, in addition to making reference to Accredit UK it may be beneficial to use the standard as a form of script or checklist to help generate your own requirements and evaluation criteria.
In the private sector there is much more freedom unless your funding comes from the EU and/or your organisation is treated as being a public sector body by nature of the proportion of public ownership or how the management are appointed, as in some cases the EU rules still apply.
So how well is the standard working Organisations have been certified since 2007 and so there is a significant number to enable a survey to be undertaken. Accredit UK asked BSI to conduct a survey to assess the value of its standard and certification process to applicant businesses that have recently received a decision from the Accredit UK Awards Panel regarding certification. The survey questions were developed by BSI with the input and approval of Accredit UK.
The overall goal of the survey was to demonstrate the effectiveness of Accredit UK to its stakeholders, particularly its sponsors, partners and potential applicants. The survey was open to all businesses who had participated, either successfully or unsuccessfully, between November 2007 and January 2009.
According to the Survey 96% of companies would recommend ICT suppliers seek Accredit UK certification. 93% of companies felt that working with Accredit UK had either met or exceeded expectations in terms of Continual Improvement of the business. Not a single applicant company responded that their expectations had not been met. 90% felt that working with Accredit UK had either met or exceeded expectations in terms of helping to identify strengths and weaknesses of the business. Not a single applicant company responded that their expectations had not been met.
Before Accredit UK Certification, the majority of respondents rated the overall performance of their businesses as either good (37%) or acceptable (57%). After Certification, 69% of respondents rated their business performance as good, an increase of 32%.
For further information regarding the Survey, or Accredit UK in general, please contact the office on: 02476 496 217. If you know any suppliers who are interested in improving their performance, why not mention Accredit UK to them.
Terry Street
terry.street@socitmconsulting.co.uk
The Fire Group
In May, the Fire group held its annual ICT management conference. This year saw a departure from the previous three day event at the Fire Service College to a more compact two day programme. Early feedback indicates that the change has been a big success.Attended by over 80 delegates from fire services across the UK (including Scotland and Northern Ireland), the agenda picked up a security and information assurance theme including presentations from the public services network (PSN) programme, the national resilience extranet (NRE) and CESG (the information assurance arm of GCQH). The theme was effectively brought together on day two with a presentation on the response from the chief fire officers association (CFOA) on work towards defining a protective security strategy for the UK fire service.
The conference allowed time also for discussion on the Firelink and FiReControl projects and the implementation of the Government IT Profession within the fire sector. Despite the new look programme plenty of networking time was incorporated plus what has become a core tradition of the conference, the after dinner prize quiz.
The next quarterly meeting of the fire group is 15 July at CFOA headquarters, Tamworth. Contact Neil Moore (neil.moore@hantsfire.gov.uk) for details.
Neil Moore, ICT Manager
Tel: 023 8064 4000 ext 2122
www.hantsfire.gov.uk
The MBA — finally finished!
Back in mid-2005, Dave Sutherland pointed out to me that the Society of IT Management (Socitm) was doing an MBA sponsorship programme via the Open University (OU). Since I left school with just O-levels (yes, what us oldies called GCSEs), and had already done two degrees from the OU, we both thought this might be a good way of developing my skills further.
Socitm kindly agreed to sponsor me, and Bridgend Council agreed to pay the rest of the fees — I’m very grateful to both as I certainly could not have afforded to pay for myself! So, on a cold November day in 2005, I received the first of the course materials, reassuringly requiring the delivery person to make two trips as he couldn’t carry them all in one go...
Six courses and three years later, including a year-long mandatory course requiring a practical project within the council, I received confirmation that I’d been awarded the Master of Business Administration with Merit. The merit bit was a pleasant surprise as the learning had seemed the most difficult I’d ever done; this from someone who did a Master in Mathematics for fun; requiring me to think every day on deeper and different levels about everything I was doing. I even failed and had to re-sit one course — the first time in my entire life such a thing had happened.
The final project course was called “Making a Difference”; because that’s what we are supposed to do — make a difference to our customers, our employer and our profession. Doing the MBA certainly made a difference to me; it gave me a whole new toolkit for thinking about what I do, taught me how to look deeper at the issues I see day-to-day and gave me confidence in my own ability to “make a difference”. Compared to that, the bit of paper now on my office wall and the photo of me in the silly dress seem a bit of an anti-climax.
Cheers,
Steve Durbin
Group Manager: Applications Delivery/Cyfarwyddwr Grwp: Trosglwyddo Rhaglenni Bridgend County Borough Council/Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Pen-y-Bont ar Ogwr
President’s Diary
An extract of Steve Palmer’s notes
On Friday 24th April I attended part of the Eastern Region event at Chilford Hall. Unfortunately, because of some domestic issues I had to leave after I spoke, but I was impressed by the attendance and the quality and variety of the agenda. It was clear to me that this meeting represented some of the “lifeblood” of the Society. Diverse topics covering technical and business issues illustrating what our members do best — delivering despite everything. I am now about half way through agreeing dates for my attendance at regional meetings (I hope to get to them all during my year of office).
The ongoing management and administration of the Society, balancing the need to retain our hard won financial viability with the development of a programme of enhancements to our membership offering, continues apace and we will be bringing proposals forward to an EGM at the Annual Conference which this year is in Edinburgh from 11th to 13th October. Ken Boxhall and his Team are working hard on the agenda and we hope to be in a position to start to publish details in the coming few weeks. Keep the dates in your diaries.
On 29th April I participated in the judging for the Guardian sponsored GC awards for 2009 and the announcements of the winners and presentations took place on 20th May. Some excellent projects and very well deserved winners but I am going to make special mention of a project run by St.Anne’s Community Services in Leeds for their work on using ICT to support People with Learning Disabilities. They won the customer services category and I hope they won’t mind me quoting part of their submission (taken in isolation it doesn’t do the whole submission justice but it is illustrative): “In one service a young gentleman with learning disabilities had been knocked down twice near his home. An interactive program was linked to a multi media PC with a touch screen to promote road safety. With his support staff the program does not move on to the next stage until he has found somewhere safe to cross or used a crossing. The software can be adapted to different levels of complexity. It promotes independence whilst balancing the risks that true independence brings about...” Just one shining example of innovative ways in which technology can be used as an enabler to change people’s lives positively, surely what we in the public services must have as an absolute priority.
Steve Palmer [spalmer@hillingdon.gov.uk]
Socitm Consulting update: Managing ICT suppliers — outsourced and otherwise
The news that one of the government’s favourite outsourcing success stories is actually more of a horror movie will not surprise many Socitm members. Just looking at costs, the conclusion from Socitm benchmarking is that it is not always possible to gain savings by outsourcing — certainly it isn’t any cheaper.
Spending more on ICT can of course yield better end results, and most of us would like to see councils spending more on ICT (and on consultants, too, for that matter...), but this may not be politically acceptable just at present.
Despite the news from Essex, many councils will continue to regard outsourcing as a panacea. After all, there’s a strong theoretical case in favour and occasionally there are real-life success stories. So, in the current crisis, pressure to consider an outsourced solution is mounting. Colleagues want radical moves and urgent savings, suppliers are desperate for business and promise the earth.
However, for most CIOs and Heads of IT, deciding whether to out-source or in-source the ICT service is a rare — possibly one-off — event, even in a long career, so it’s hard to learn from experience. Some of us Socitm consultants, however, spend much of our time appraising the options for local authority clients, negotiating and renegotiating contracts and reviewing outsourced ICT services, both from a benchmarking and a best value perspective.
Our experience confirms that whether you’re dealing with an outsourced ICT supplier or simply an external supplier of ICT-related services (software vendors, for example, or hardware maintenance providers) there’s an awful lot that can go wrong, especially when suppliers themselves are feeling the economic pinch. Some of the ‘issues’ that can arise include:
• The contract is based on an out-of-date service definition and obsolete technology.
• You’ve bought 3,000 licences for a cancelled project and there’s no refund option in sight.
• The deal you inherited equates to paying a huge margin over employing the staff yourself and the promised value add is never seen or only offered at highly inflated day rates.
• Open books accounting means you are expected to fund inflation-busting overhead increases, but there’s no evidence that these charges are anything more than an indirect profit stream.
• Shortfalls in service delivery are backfilled by your own IT staff, ending up with you getting that ‘Why am I paying twice?’ feeling.
• How do you find someone with the skills to act as corporate client, and where do you find the money to pay them?
• How do you adjust expectations from a highly responsive in-house service to a contracted situation where every change has to be negotiated and may be an opportunity for a supplier to increase charges?
• Your account managers want to move away from the technology solution you accepted in the bid, and you get sucked into a technology debate no one in-house understands
• Your supplier restructures services to national pools, taking local staff away or using them to support other clients. Do you get compensated?
• A subcontractor performs poorly — does the lead contractor manage the situation well or at all?
In the case of outsourcing, where we have been able to advise clients at the outset to opt for shared risk/reward conditions this has worked well. The KPI approach — making payments dependent on achieving upper quartile performance by the council in certain key areas which are dependent on IT — can also produce extremely good results, but requires careful negotiation.
All in all, the good news is that there are often significant savings to be made without impacting quality of service, but ICT suppliers are rarely a soft touch. If you’re under pressure to examine outsourcing options or to cut costs, why not take advantage of all the expertise out there?
Doug Maclean, Consulting Manager
doug.maclean@socitmconsulting.co.uk
Implementing the EU Services Directive by December
No — not procurement, the one concerned with making it easier for businesses to deliver services across Europe.
Hopefully most of you are aware of the deadline to implement the EU Services Directive by 27 December 2009. I say hopefully because I realise it’s possible with all the initiatives going on that some ICT and web site managers have not been involved despite efforts by the Department for Business (BERR) to consult and inform. A survey by a Socitm Consultant on behalf of BERR last year, showed patchy awareness and a risk that some local authorities were either not up to speed on requirements or did not have the capacity or capability to meet the deadline.
BERR have since requested a single contact person or primary liaison point (PLP) from all UK local authorities (yes, this applies to those of you in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales too). I am told that only a handful have yet to respond so it might be worth asking who your PLP is if you don’t know already — environmental services or legal services and those who deal with licences for local traders would be good people to ask. (PLPs are the route by which BERR communicate with local authorities and part of the PLP’s role is to ensure that the key players in their own local authority across the various work streams are engaged during the implementation period e.g. finance, licensing, environmental health, legal, ICT, etc.)
The Directive is a pan-European initiative that was adopted in 2006, (see extracted text). it basically requires that the authorisation and administration procedures for a wide range of services are able to be supported electronically. So, that means that people must be able to apply for wide range of licences and registrations - from licences for Animal Boarding establishments through to certificates for Weighbridge Operators - online, including paying any fees, as well as finding all the relevant local information, guidance and conditions. This has required extensive reviews of legislation to remove the requirements for paper documents and written signatures. It also requires each member state to create a “Point of Single Contact” (PSC) web site that will either handle enquiries and applications or signpost the applicant to the relevant authority’s own online systems. BERR are leading on this for the UK and have undertaken extensive consultation and publicity and continue to do (see recent actions listed below) and have commissioned the setup of the UK’s PSC. So, each local authority has the choice of implementing the electronic services directly on its own web sites or of using the PSC as a kind of gateway or portal.
Either way, this is something that ICT and Web services need to be aware of. There is a risk that the Services Directive implementation is primarily perceived as an ICT project and that everything is under control whereas in fact the lead needs to come from the licensing departments.
The Directive aims to open up the European internal market to cross-border trade in services by making it easier for service providers to set up business or offer their services in other EU countries. It imposes a number of requirements on all EU countries. The main ones are:
- to screen UK legislation and amend or repeal non-compliant provisions.
- set up the Point of Single Contact, which will enable service providers to find out what they need to do to operate legally in the UK and to complete applications electronically
- enhance Administrative Cooperation between regulators across the EU by facilitating the use of the Internal Market Information (IMI) system and having a UK National Liaison Point
- Ensure consistency in the quality of information provided by service providers and transparency of redress procedures via the setting up of a Consumer Portal
The deadline for implementing the Directive is 27th December 2009. BERR offers authorities the option of using a forms service that it supplies at no charge, using standard nationwide forms for every application caught within scope of the Directive, or of developing their own forms, or indeed mixing the two for different sorts of applications. Initially, the forms service will require authority users to log-on to the web and download completed application forms and attachments. An interface for back office system integration will be made available in 2010. If you plan to use the BERR forms service, the IT work for online applications will be minimal, just ensuring users can access the internet and have appropriate versions of office software.
Areas where ICT might have to get involved depend on whether your authority plans to take advantage of the PSC or to use (or develop) your own online systems and include the following:
1 Where an authority opts to implement its own forms, adapting forms if required to meet the new designs, and in converting forms that are only available to download into fully transactional on-line processes. This could have implications on web site performance, hosting and security issues.
2 Developing the interfaces to back office systems, where the volumes of transactions justify the investment. This will probably use XML schemas to avoid the need to change application or third party packages but they will still need testing, and need some capacity to support them, if the authority does not already have XML skills. This could easily involve more than one back office system (e.g. Flare (Civica APP), CAPS, M3/MVM or Lalpac etc) therefore a standard schema would be key in facilitating any future interfacing. However this work cannot commence before 2010 when the BERR forms service is used.
3 Ensuring that the authority can process on-line payments for licences and permits either directly or via a third party.
4 Establishing and maintaining sustainable deep links with the Point of Single Contact (PSC) (see item on “Local Directgov” in this issue).
5 Use of Government Connect — GCSx — will probably not be mandatory; however, the PSC is still undergoing its security accreditation, so work to link users to it cannot yet be ruled out completely.
6 Registration and access to the IMI (Internal Market Information system) which will give secure access to EU counterpart authorities via a secure web portal, thereby facilitating any checks necessary for the processing of the licence application. Interestingly, the IMI will translate queries so language is not an issue in this instance. This system is already in use throughout Europe for the “Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications” Directive.
7 Where an authority opts to use one or more PSC forms, they will have to enter their specific information to “localise” each form such as adding the authority’s crest or logo, contact details, fee and determination time details.
While ICT is engaged in the above there are other implications to keep the primary liaison point (PLP) busy: this arises as many local authorities have local rules and even local legislation that need to be checked for compliance. BERR has published detailed guidance to help local authorities in England screen rules, local legislation and other requirements to make sure they are in line with the Directive and this can be found at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/europeandtrade/europe/services-directive/local%20authority/page51536.html.
Similar guidance will be issued to authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland shortly.
Recent announcements by BERR include:
The Draft Services Regulations and Draft Transposition Note have been published on the BERR website. Observations were requested before 9th June 2009 5.00pm. http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/europeandtrade/europe/services-directive/implementation/page51289.html.
Socitm is helping BERR create standard Local Authority forms for the PSC forms service where no standard is already available. BERR is inviting comments and suggestions on the drafts that have been created. Please visit www.socitmconsulting.co.uk/pscrfc to view the forms and leave comments. This consultation closing date is 5th June 2009.
BERR published a newsletter setting out the latest news on implementation. Update on implementing the EU Services Directive: April 2009 (74KB) and the May update was published on Friday 29th May 2009.
If you have any questions or concerns that are not addressed by the guidance provided by BERR or if you feel you might not have the capacity and capability to address this subject please contact Socitm Consulting on 0845 450 0904.
Report by Terry Street with input from BERR and Joanna Gilliat (Socitm Consulting)
Organisational Efficiency Programme...New KPI’s for Heath LA Police Schools
See http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/oep_back_office_pu730.pdf
The government has published its report on back office efficiency. The report contains findings and recommendations on both back office operations and IT. The report runs to over 100 pages. Here are some highlights:
Back Office: One implication is yet more KPI’s: the report recommends that the five audit agencies’ value for money indicators in HR, finance, procurement and estates management should be used by all public sector organisations. This should take effect by June 2009 for central departments, agencies and NDPBs, and by December 2009 for the wider public sector. The report cites experience of those who have joined the Operational Efficiency Programme in claiming that this is not burdensome.
Here is the detail of how benchmarking will be achieved:
Some organisations in local government, the NHS, police and fire and rescue have voluntarily started to use the audit agencies’ value for money indicators. This progress should be extended, and all central government departments should ensure that organisations in their delivery chain are collecting and benchmarking this data. Different mechanisms for achieving this objective will be appropriate for different sectors, for example in local government, Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPS) should use peer review of back office data in their areas, and their outputs should be available for review by the Audit Commission in its “use of resources assessment; for schools, benchmarking data should be collected at an aggregate level through local authorities, who should work with DCSF and RIEPs to benchmark and reduce back office costs across schools in their area; all NHS organisations should sign up to the audit agencies’ value for money indicators in order to benchmark themselves and identify scope for improvement, including through use of the NHS shared business service. Delivery of savings in back office operations should be incentivised through the tariff;
In the police service, the indicators should be included in the value for money profiles that are produced by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). The Home Office should create expectations and incentives for forces and the police service to place a premium on having cost-effective back office functions, ensuring that the availability of resources for operational policing is maximised; and in the Further Education sector, the Learning and Skills Council should drive better value for money in back office operations. The Higher Education Funding Council for England should do the same in the Higher Education sector.
IT: recommendations The report suggests that, compared to our peers, the UK readiness for e-government is high, but also the per capita spend on IT is high. This then leads to a jump to the conclusion that public sector IT is not value for money. And so they want efficiency improvements of 45% to bring the UK in line — what a surprise. To be fair, this is supported by reports from a number of different sources including Kable, Gartner and OEP. It concludes that
“A 20 per cent saving on £16 billion spend (equivalent to £3.2 billion) appears achievable.”
It then refers to The Transformational Government strategy (see below) and the CIO Council, which, through its Supply Transformation Programme, has a target to reduce overall IT costs by 20 per cent over the CSR07 period, including a reduction in the cost of desktops by 40 per cent. A key element of this is the Public Sector Network.
The report also cites cases studies from local government: Service Birmingham and Lanarkshire CC. The conclusion drawn from these is based on an assumption that the savings cited are real and that they can be replicated elsewhere.
“The replication of such good practice case studies across the public sector provides the potential to deliver cost savings of at least 20 per cent.”
Benchmarking with the Private Sector: For this exercise they have chosen private sector comparisons with a narrow range of services and the ability to select clients, factors which can significantly skew the results. Nevertheless the conclusion is drawn that the public sector is inferior and can improve. The outsourcing case study uses a global company overwhelmed by rapid business growth — I’ve not met many public sector organisations that fit this profile.
In total, the phrase “cost savings of at least 20 per cent” appears 8 times in the report. This is an interesting literary style. Is it based on belief that repetition adds to the validity, or was the target pre-determined? Were only case studies and evidence with greater than 20% savings included?
I am cynical of how the comparisons have been used and the conclusions drawn. Having said that, I believe there is scope for continuous improvement, given flexibility to transform the approach and the resources and capacity to transform the processes.
The 2008 Transformational Government report - Delivering better, more efficient services for everyone (in 2008)
See http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/cio/transformational_gov/annual_report2008.aspx
This is the third annual Transformational Government report, setting out the progress that has been made during 2008. There are 4 documents in all; in view of space constraints have limited comments here to the summary.
There are three themes:
1 A focus on the citizen — not the supplier of public services.
2 Joining up — to reduce wasteful duplication and enable personalisation.
3 More professional project delivery:
• through better staff skills and more
• effective programme monitoring.
In addition In March 2009 the Government published Working together — Public services on your side setting out how the delivery of this approach will be accelerated over the next year.
Innovation has also been an important part of what has been achieved in 2008 — for example, in March we saw the Government establish a new independent expert Power of Information Task Force.
Several other initiatives are mentioned including:
• Tell Us Once — a major example of service redesign based on the effective use of customer insight
• Directgov — now has over 15 million visits a month
• NHS Choices (Choose and book)
• Data handling review and IA (see www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/data_handling.aspx)
• Shared services
Within Shared Services there is a specific reference to local government, the Front Office Shared Services (FOSS) programme which investigates opportunities for local authorities to deliver more integrated and efficient services through shared front-office arrangements.
Examples include one-stop shops, contact centres, web portals and home visiting schemes. Case studies and guidance can be found on the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) website (see www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8551949).
IT specific items include:
IT and IT professionalism. The ambition for widespread technology-enabled business change is challenging, yet achievable if accompanied by a step change in the professionalism with which it is delivered. This year saw the Government IT Profession develop an interlinked framework to help drive, support and embed professionalism across the public sector.
ICT strategy: Better services for the citizen are being supported by our strategic approach to information and communications technology (ICT). This means flexible systems with open, common standards that support the delivery of streamlined, joined-up and efficient services. Initiatives include: an Open Source Action Plan to improve value for money in the use of software for government; a strategy to ensure that we work more efficiently with key suppliers; and the development of an action plan that will lead the way in green IT.
Part 2 of the report contains an increased number of public sector contributions, showing the substantial progress that has been made in transformational activities across the whole of government. The contributions cover health, education, justice, business, local government, our overseas interests, and the three devolved governments of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Welsh Assembly.
There is additional information on the work of the CIO Council and Transformational Government, and access to a range of Transformational Government case studies, on the CIO website.
Regional and Group Meetings
East David Hopkins Ray Ware
East Midlands 12/6/09 Warwick Andrew Steve Sankey – steve.sankey@nottscc.gov.uk
– 08449 808080
London 16/7/09 Steve Pennant Geoff Connell -
geoff.connell@newham.gov.uk 0208 430 2000
North East 12/6/09 John Littleton Peter Gallon –
peter.gallon@northumberland.gov.uk –
01670 533260
North West 10/7/09 Vacancy Vacancy
Northern Ireland Marie McCrory Caron Alexander - Caron.Alexander@dfpni.gov.uk
Scotland Ivan Condon Alan Kirkwood alan.kirkwood@moray.gov.uk
tel 01343 563222
South 12/6/09 Marilyn Rogers Nick Roberts - nick.roberts@surreycc.gov.uk
- 020 8541 8067 -
South West 26/6/09 Stewart Jackson Vic Freir
Wales 11/6/09 Bryn Morgan Philip Evans –
01446 793427 evansps@caerphilly.gov.uk
/07816650680 01443 864005
West Midlands 9/7/09 Linda Bird Steve Halliday 0121 704 6196
01827 715341 shalliday@solihull.gov.uk
Yorks & Humber Tony Riding Chris Partridge
tony.riding@socitm.gov.uk chrispartridge@barnsley.gov.uk
01226 787776
Socitm London: The House of Lords was the venue for the London Socitm meeting on 7 May 2009 sponsored by 2E2. Councillor Michael White, Leader of Havering Council, outlined the Connected London programme and wowed the audience by demonstrating how he personally used a digital pen to take notes during the day. At the end of the day he uploads all his notes to Council staff. Nancy Johnston reported on Age Concern’s support for older people using technology. Geoff Connell described how Newham has enabled 70% ratio of desks to staff, a paper light office and improved staff communications. All rounded up by a sparkling presentation from 2E2 on their view of the opportunities presented by social technology.
Slides are available on http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/events/event.htm?pk=48 except for 2E2 which are available by request to andre.tytheridge@2e2.com
Experian hosts the next meeting on 7 July. The theme for the event is use of people geography statistics in improving service delivery. As a bonus Tell Us Once will be presenting the latest on the national pilots. The event will be appearing on http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/capitalambition/events/
Steve Pennant
Programme Lead, Connected London
Gartner Advise Skipping Windows Vista
IT analyst firm Gartner has published its views on an issue that frequently comes up in relation to desktops. Certainly in many benchmarking responses I saw last year authorities had no plans to migrate to Vista, despite the forthcoming end of support of XP. The Gartner statement comes on the back of the announcements about the public availability of Microsoft’s Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) operating system.
On 13 May 2009 in a paper by Michael Silver and Stephen Kleynhans, Gartner said Microsoft expects to ship Windows 7 in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season. The report went on to say that organisations with a Windows Vista project well underway should stay the course, but most others should target Windows 7.
Their rational is simple in that for all organisations ranging from enterprises or SMBs not already midway into deploying Windows Vista it takes the same amount of effort planning a deployment of Windows Vista as Windows 7.
Indeed, even businesses that might be halfway through planning a Windows Vista migration are urged to consider scrapping the deployment plans. For organisations already in the midst of deploying Windows Vista, though, Gartner advises that they should plan to migrate to Windows 7 either in late 2010 or early 2011.
One report on the Gartner advice points out that “In addition, simply deferring any scheduled Windows Vista upgrade in favour of the arrival of Windows 7 would benefit users by reducing the number of changes they need to adapt to. Certainly, it would be easier convincing management over one operating system switch, compared to two that are practically back-to-back”. The Gartner paper has been widely debated and it seems clear that the availability of windows 7 is a prompt to revisit technical strategies and plans to migrate to Vista or, for those still without plans, another decision to ponder.
‘Socitm Consulting’s Doug Maclean comments: “The decision whether to skip Vista can be finely balanced and needs to be considered as part of a wider desktop strategy. There are always issues around Microsoft delivery dates and initial release quality to be considered, as well as internal factors such as how many licences are actually needed and the potential impact of new, greener hardware.”
Contact Socitm Consulting on 0845 450 0904.’
New Microsoft Public Sector Agreement Announced
The new Microsoft public sector agreement (PSA09) which replaces the old Memoranda of Understanding is now available to all public sector organisations. A range of tools have been developed to help you take full advantage of PSA09, including a user profiler, a cost calculator, and an order aggregator. These will be available via the Buying Solutions website shortly, however, in the meantime Buying Solutions have a dedicated team who are available to assist you at your offices. Further information on PSA09 can be found at www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk.
Contact: Buying Solutions on 01603 704707 or microsoft.agreement@buyingsolutions.gsi.gov.uk.
I understand that important changes that were negotiated by OGC include:
1. “Pooling” — the ability to transfer licences within the public sector;
2. You are no longer required to deal via resellers;
3. The ability to scale down licences for more basic users who do not need all the office products.
Editorial
Closing date for items for the next issue is 31 July 2009. Please send your letters and items of interest including interesting case studies, details of promotions, moves, etc to Terry Street, Editor.
Note: Comments published in Socitm News are those of individuals and may not represent Socitm’s corporate views.
Terry Street
Tel: 07785 916060
Email: terry.street@socitm.gov.uk