IT in Use - November/December 2010 issue

Technology & The Transformation of Frontline Services

ITU UKauthorITy IT in Use November/December 2010

Leaders in Change - ICT professionals well placed to lead change in their organisations

Publish & Be Praised ITU • November/December 2010

- Data protection officers under transparency spotlight

Neither Efficient Nor Desirable - Too much choice will impact efficiency says Socitm president

ITU Live: Open Government & Transparency - Data without context will not deliver transparency PLUS: UKauthorITy.tv round-up, News Update, New Look to Frontline Services, View over Westminster, Product Notes & Contracts Won.

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Features

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Products

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UKA Comment

November/December 2010 ISSN 1368 2660

On the Cover Are ICT professionals ready to lead?

Editor & Publisher

Helen Olsen E: Helen@infopub.co.uk T: 01273 273941

Contributing Editor

Tim Hampson E: Tim@infopub.co.uk T: 01865 790675

Special Correspondent

Michael Cross E: Michael@infopub.co.uk

Advertising & Circulation

Ann Campbell-Smith E: Ann@infopub.co.uk T: 01983 812623

Design & Layout

Informed Publications Ltd

Printers

DC Graphics

Editorial The Editors welcome editorial information on the use of Information and Communication Technologies in the transformation of frontline services. Please submit relevant material or ideas in the first instance by email to the editor, Helen Olsen: Helen@infopub.co.uk

See page 10.

©iStockphoto.com/VisualField

Contents Comment News Update

Informed Publications Ltd PO Box 2087 Shoreham-By-Sea West Sussex BN43 5ZF

© Informed Publications Ltd All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, storage in a retrieval system or transmission in any form, of any material in this publication is prohibited without prior written consent from the Editor. The views expressed by the Editors and writers are their own. Whilst every care is taken, the publishers cannot be responsible for any errors in articles or listings. Articles written by contributors do not necessarily express the views of their employing organisation. The Editor reserves the right to edit any submissions prior to publication.

ITU Live: Open Government And Transparency

Subscribe Now See inside back cover for details of free public sector subscriptions

UKauthorITy.tv

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Round up of video news available on ITU magazine’s TV portal.

Choice: Neither Efficient Nor Desirable

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Jos Creese, president of Socitm and CIO at Hampshire, says that too much choice is counter-productive and impacts efficiency .

Special Focus: Web Conferencing

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Next generation cloud-based web conferencing offers greater benefits than videoconferencing at a fraction of the cost, says Adobe’s Prelini Udayan.

Sharing Will Bring New Structures

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The spending review is bringing a new look to local government, says Tim Hampson.

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The view from Westminster, Tim Hampson reports.

Publish And Be Praised

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Michael Cross argues that open government and transparency agendas have thrust data protection officers onto the front line of service delivery.

Company & Product Notes Contracts Roundup

01983 812623 November/December 2010

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Michael Cross says that council IT professionals have the unique and vital skills to lead this revolution in frontline service delivery.

To advertise in ITU call Informed Publications on:

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8-9

The ITU Live panel agrees that data without context will not deliver open and transparent government for the general public. Helen Olsen reports.

The Commons Finds its Feet The Editor welcomes manuscripts and illustrations for consideration for publication, but on the understanding that Informed Publications Ltd cannot be held liable for their safe custody or return. The Editor’s decision on publication of said submissions is final.

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A round up of the news, headlines and trends affecting technology in frontline public services.

Leading This Journey of Change

Published by

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Evolution, authorities and IT in Use

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COMMENT

NEWS UPDATE

Virtual Future Online revolution not evolution

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nline revolution, not evolution, is what the government’s digital champion is calling for. And the cry echoing reassuringly back from the centre is the same.

There seems to be no other way: online is the preferred service channel. And rightly so in light of both the savings and targeted service improvements possible from the virtual world.

An interesting twist to the concept of shared services – virtual sharing opens up a whole new world of possibilities in terms of targeting scarce resources to those that need them most. For in the virtual world there are no boundaries: the single parent applying for housing benefit in Ruralshire has the same needs to be met – on the benefit front – as the single parent from Cityville.

And those unable to join the virtual world?

Facilitated access – in council onestop shop, in the home from mobile civil servants, or in citizen’s advice bureaux – means that no one stands to lose.

However, taming the vast and sprawling government web estate has been a long cherished goal of both current and former governments. It wasn’t easy then and it won’t be easy now. For not only is the content within these sites vast and the transactional services many, departments and agencies have invested their souls in these virtual personas. In moving services to one central site they risk virtually ceasing to exist.

Technically there is nothing stopping all these sites coming under one purview.

Culturally and politically, however, it may be a hard task to drive this challenge to fruition.

Helen Olsen, Editor

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igital government will become the first line of government under new plans, published by the Cabinet Office. Public services should, over time, be delivered on line or by other digital means, the government has announced in response to a report published by Martha Lane Fox.

consumers. Government should take advantage of the more open, agile and cheaper digital technologies to deliver simpler and more effective digital services to users, particularly to disadvantaged groups who are some of the heaviest users of government services.”

The digital champion is calling for a radical revolution in the delivery of the government’s internet services, making it the first point of contact for most people. In her report to the minister of the Cabinet Office, Lane Fox argues that as well as delivering better services for citizens, shifting 30% of government service delivery contacts to digital channels has the potential to deliver gross annual savings of more than £1.3bn, rising to £2.2bn if 50% of contacts shifted to digital.

Francis Maude stated his intention to use digital technology to cut down on costs and improve service quality. “The shift towards online services also has the power to transform the relationship between government and individuals,” he said. “Not only are services more convenient and cheaper, but they can be better and more personalised.”

Cabinet secretary, Francis Maude, has welcomed the report which proposes: •

Making Directgov the customer champion with teeth to drive up the quality of government’s online services.

•

Simplifying the user experience of digital public services by making all of government’s transactional services available through Directgov.

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Ensuring online government information and services are available wherever people are on the web by opening up applications and services to other organisations.

•

Recruiting an Executive Director for Digital and Information in the Cabinet Office to drive change and bring together existing teams working in this area.

Lane Fox said: “For years, businesses have been using digital communications to improve services and engagement with their

Hertfordshire and Redbridge win IT Excellence Awards 2010

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ertfordshire County Council’s Connect Digitally Online Free School Meals project and the London Borough of Redbridge’s Ilford Blueprint Online project have won the 2010 Local Government IT Excellence Awards. The Metropolitan Police received a special prize for innovation for its Focus Court Presentation System, while Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council was highly commended for its e-buy procurement system.

Organised by Intellect, Socitm and SOLACE, the awards have been highlighting public sector IT projects that improve the efficiency and delivery of services within local communities for 15 years. This year’s awards were supported by Best Practice Group, ITU magazine and UKauthorITycom.

View the Video Report on www.UKauthorIT.com/ITexcellence UKauthorITy IT in Use

However, he said, the digitally disadvantaged would not be excluded as government services had to be available to everyone even if they are not on line. http://download.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digital/ directgov-2010-and-beyond.pdf

DIRECTGOV TAKES CENTRE STAGE - AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE QUITS: Launch of the new strategy, a centrepiece of Francis Maude's programme to cut the cost of the government machine, has been marred by the unexpected resignation of Jayne Nickalls, Directgov's chief executive.

Nickalls became the latest senior figure in the Cabinet Office e-team to resign.

SUFFOLK JOINS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IT EXODUS: John Suffolk is to leave his post as chief information officer at the end of this year. Suffolk, 52, joined the central government IT team in 2004 when he became head of Criminal Justice IT. He took over as government CIO in 2006 when Ian Watmore, the first incumbent, moved to the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit. Under the coalition government, the office of the government CIO has become part of the Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group, which Watmore is now heading as chief operating officer. Suffolk is the second senior figure in the central government IT team to announce his departure in recent weeks.

Andrew Stott, director of digital engagement and Suffolk's former deputy, retires next month.

ORDNANCE SURVEY BREAK UP ON CARDS: Speculation is growing about an imminent announcement on the future of Ordnance Survey and the Land Registry of England and Wales under the plan to create a ‘Public Data Corporation’. The idea, which as UKauthorITy reported, featured in the Cabinet Office’s business plan published earlier last month, would create a single body in charge of ‘public task’ raw government data available free for re-use. Under the scheme, the ‘value added’ operations of bodies such as Ordnance Survey would be privatised.

November/December 2010

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NEWS UPDATE

ICO fines Hertfordshire

London boroughs save £2m by sharing IT spec

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ertfordshire County Council has the dubious distinction of being one of the first bodies in the country to be fined for data protection breaches under new powers available to the Office of the Information Commissioner.

The penalties are the first announced since new powers were granted to the Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, in April.

Hertfordshire County Council, which twice faxed details of sensitive child care cases to the wrong recipients, is to be fined £100,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act. The breaches occurred in June 2010 when employees in the council’s childcare litigation unit accidentally sent two faxes to the wrong recipients on two separate occasions. The council reported both breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

In another penalty, announced at the same time, a Sheffield-based firm, A4e, was fined £60,000 for losing an unencrypted laptop with the details of 24,000 people who had

CUT COSTS - AUTOMATE CALL CENTRES: Government and council call centres could save £13bn per year just by automating 50-60% of customer service interactions, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Automated systems would be particularly beneficial when dealing with spikes in call volumes at certain times of year such as at the end of each tax year. The money saved is equivalent to the cost of building more than 50 new super hospitals, says the research’s sponsor, Nuance Communications. http://improvecustomerexperience.co.uk/ research

used community legal advice centres in Hull and Leicester.

The Information Commissioner said that the penalties “send a strong message to all organisations handling personal information.

Get it wrong and you do substantial harm to individuals and the reputation of your business. You could also be fined up to half a million pounds.”

Meanwhile, Graham has concluded that there was a significant breach of the Data Protection Act when Google Street View cars collected payload data as part of their wi-fi mapping exercise in the UK. He has instructed Google UK to sign an undertaking in which the company commits to take action to ensure that breaches of this kind cannot happen again. An audit of Google UK’s Data Protection practices will also be undertaken. The commissioner has rejected calls for a monetary penalty to be imposed but is well placed to take further regulatory action if the undertaking is not fully complied with.

LIE DETECTION TESTS DROPPED: Lie detector tests - introduced by 24 local councils to trap benefit fraudsters - do not work and will be dropped, the government has decided.

More than £2m has been spent on trials of ‘voice risk analysis’ (VRA) since the move was announced by Gordon Brown’s government, two years ago. The technology measures voice patterns, while analysing behaviour and style of conversation. A DWP spokesman said: “We had trials of this technology to see if it would work, but there was simply not enough evidence that it does. The conclusion is that it doesn’t offer value-formoney in the benefit system.”

Smart+Connected post Olympics

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he Olympic Park Legacy Company, responsible for the long term development and management of the Olympic Park, is to explore opportunities for the park to become a Smart+Connected Community with Cisco following the games in 2012.

“London 2012 is a fantastic opportunity for this country to demonstrate innovation and increase investment,” said secretary of state for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt. “Working with Cisco to explore opportunities to develop the Olympic Park after the Games will allow us to use their technical innovation and expertise to help create a lasting legacy for the UK long after the Games have finished.”

Smart+Connected Communities are part of Cisco’s overall approach to making IP-based solutions akin to a fourth utility service for integrated city management. The vision for the park is to transform it into a state-of-theart community and model for innovation working to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability following the 2012 Games. Cisco also intends to establish an Innovation Centre on the park, creating a centre for technical excellence and development as well as a showcase for ways in which technology can continue to transform local businesses and communities.

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November/December 2010

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wo London authorities under opposing political leadership have made big savings by buying ICT services to a common specification from a single supplier. In a deal likely to be widely emulated, Bromley and Lewisham councils have concluded a joint procurement awarding separate contracts worth £3.6m to Sungard Public Sector for ICT services and telephony.

Labour- controlled Lewisham says it will save £1.5m a year by adopting a common set of standards; Conservative-controlled Bromley £500,000. In a joint statement, the councils said the venture would be the starting point for further joint projects. Cllr Neil Reddin, Bromley’s portfolio holder for resources, said: “This ground-breaking deal shows how we’re willing to work across borough and party political boundaries to get the best deal for our residents. By working with Lewisham we have achieved savings of around £0.5 million a year - or 25 percent of the IT and telephony budgets - double what we could have achieved on our own.”

Cllr Paul Maslin, cabinet member for resources at Lewisham, said: “Lewisham already has a strong record of delivering ICT transformation and reducing costs. When added to savings already made over the last five years this new contract will have reduced spending on ICT support services by around £4 million a year. Aside from the savings, this new partnership goes further by illustrating the scope for future shared initiatives through borough partnerships.”

DRAFT IT STRATEGY: A draft ICT strategy for central government, that includes cloud computing, has been completed according to a business plan published by the Cabinet Office. However the plan also admits that a key component of reform - publication of performance details of all ICT projects above £1m - has fallen behind schedule. The plan is one of 17 departmental plans published as part of the coalition’s transparency programme. The Cabinet Office plan stresses the role of its Efficiency and Reform Group in reducing ‘wasteful Whitehall spending on consultancy, information and communications technology, property and advertising’.

ID CHECKS FOR POLLING STATIONS: Voters will have to give their date of birth, supply a signature and national insurance number at polling stations by the next election, said deputy prime minster, Nick Clegg, in a speech to the Hansard Society. A constitutional reform bill will tackle shortcomings in the current electoral register, for example moving to individual rather than household registration. New security measures will be in place by 2014. However, from next year local authorities will be able to match other databases to the electoral register to identify missing voters.

NEWS UPDATE

Hertfordshire to trust future to Serco

A network for Devon

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ertfordshire County Council is to extend its relationship with Serco in a strategic partnership contract worth up to £200m over eight years. Some 400 staff will transfer to the private firm.

Councillor David Lloyd, the council’s executive member for resources, said that the contract would make “a significant contribution” to the savings required by the spending cuts. “In total, this new contract will save us at least £25 million during its lifetime, and I trust considerably more.”

Serco confirmed that the deal involves transforming Hertfordshire’s internal business processes, developing customer services and achieving efficiency savings of at least £25m. The company will provide ICT services, wider business processes such as finance, payroll and HR as well support services such as facilities management, customer contact centres and occupational health. Customer services will continue to be based locally with shared services and enhanced capabilities offered to other public sector bodies in the area, including district councils and the police authority.

POLICE LOCK FORCES: Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police forces are to set up a joint ICT department, which will initially save the two forces a total of £350,000 per year rising to around £1.7m within five years. The two forces already run a number of successful collaborative departments, including major crime, firearms support and dog units.

Stuart Nagler, chairman of Hertfordshire Police Authority, said: “Joint information and communication systems will improve the effectiveness of both forces, particularly for officers and staff on the front line, and it will enable us to maintain a good level of policing service to our communities in an increasingly challenging financial climate.”

ighty local authorities and public bodies from across the south west have met to map shared services within the ‘network of networks’ for the region.

Devon County Council’s deputy chief executive, Heather Barnes (pictured far right), described how the south west’s Public Sector Network (PSN) platform will deliver advances such as faster ICT networks and 24/7 resilient applications for councils and emergency services.

Ian Wilcox (above), local government representative for PSN at the Cabinet Office, told delegates that public bodies participating in PSN will gain transformational benefits such as data sharing that gives them a better view of property assets as well as

effective sharing of services across councils’ ICT systems, service or business processes. The first wave of PSN applications are expected to be tested at the end of this year, with shared applications and other innovations operating from the first quarter of 2011.

Andy Clark, head of public sector at event host, Siemens, said that south west authorities were at the forefront of shared services using connected networks. “Local government is leading the public sector on this but it’s clear that this approach will revolutionise service delivery both in the regions and with central government partners like DWP and HMRC.”

Highspeed broadband for Southwest One

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omerset’s 269 schools and educational establishments are getting a new highspeed broadband network.

Built on BT’s 21st Century Next Generation national fibre optic network, the project will give 70,000 pupils and 10,000 teachers and support staff data connection speeds of 100MB/sec. Roll out will be largely completed by 31 March 2011, giving schools the ability to use exciting and innovative learning resources via the internet and Somerset’s e-learning portfolio. The network will also provide a platform for new video and voice teaching applications in the future - for

UKauthorITy IT in Use

example videoconferencing for specialist teachers. “This is great news for Somerset and our schools. We hope this will be a catalyst that allows significant improvement to Somerset’s broadband and communications infrastructure enabling significant opportunities for Somerset’s future economic and social growth,” said Cllr David Huxtable, cabinet member for resources at Somerset.

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NEWS UPDATE

Share, innovate and streamline Mr Pickles sets out his recipe for living with the cuts.

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ommunities secretary, Eric Pickles, has advised councils to turn to the voluntary sector to fill some of the gaps left by the four years of budget cuts set out by the Comprehensive Spending Review. “Councils need to take this opportunity to re-examine the way they work that includes drawing on the enormous experience, reach and resources that the voluntary and community sector can offer,” Pickles said in a departmental statement on the cuts.

According to the statement, when money from other sources is taken in to account, the overall reduction in revenue grants is 26% over four years. Overall capital spending will fall by around 30% over the same period.

Councils, it says, can find savings through • • •

Smarter procurement, increased collaboration and economies of scale; Better management of assets; Streamlining and merging operations.

However the statement also recommends more radical plans. Suffolk County Council receives a name-check for its proposal to become a ‘virtual’ authority, divesting itself of all but a handful of services.

BROADBAND PATH TO BETTER PUBLIC SERVICES: Better public services enabled by broadband are in the vision of the future promised by the government’s first National Infrastructure Plan launched by prime minister, David Cameron. The plan aims to unlock public and private sector investment worth £200bn over the next five years and give the country the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015 with a ‘functional level of broadband access for everybody’.

Studies estimating the impact of broadband on output and employment suggest that rolling out superfast broadband could create growth and employment in both ICT and the wider economy. The Department for Business, Information and Skills will publish a national broadband strategy later this year.

The briefing contains several announcements designed to sweeten the pill. It announces 16 ‘Community Budget’ pilots of place-based funding for public services, along the lines of the previous government’s Total Place programme. They will be in Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Croydon, Blackpool, Islington, Hull, Kent, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Swindon, group of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Wandsworth, Barnet, Lewisham, Essex, Lincolnshire and Birmingham.

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The statement also says the government will make available £200m of capital funds in 2011-12 ‘to help support local authorities that undertake organisational restructuring’.

And, following the ending of ring-fencing for most grant income, local authorities will have greater control of funding worth more than £7bn from 2011-12.

However, the minister’s aides were quick to stamp on any hopes that the idea - part of a ‘New Burdens Doctrine’ - would become a lucrative revenue stream for cash-strapped councils. Instead, the aim is to persuade other government departments to simply stop demanding an endless increase in data; by forcing them to pay for it.

Pickles said: “Councils need to be innovative - to change the way they deliver services to get the most for their money and get at problems before they become entrenched.

We are supporting this by putting councils in charge of their money, removing bureaucratic burdens and giving them the tools they need to meet the needs of local people.”

The move follows the communities secretary’s pledge to abolish Local Area Agreements (LAAs), removing a substantial part of the performance reporting regime for town halls. In a letter sent to council leaders and chief executives, Pickles said the move would scrap more than 4,700 targets, allowing councils to concentrate on “the front line”.

LONDON MERGER NOT ALONE: Plans by three neighbouring London boroughs to merge services are a sign of things to come.

The three, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea, are to agree by February next year on a plan to merge some services, starting with children’s departments. A joint statement by the leaders of the Conservative-controlled boroughs said the plan would focus on ‘a few major areas where sharing and merging services is viable and good for the public’. The plans are unlikely to remain unique. Other partnerships are planning joint IT procurements and three Labour-controlled boroughs, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, are said to be in an early stage of exploring extensive sharing of services.

went Police used APD’s CORTEXremote to manage policing at the Ryder Cup. It helped over 150 officers and 300 support staff patrolling the 1,400-acre event and offered vital support in co-ordinating officers in the surrounding area who were responsible for traffic control and ensuring the safety of 135,000 attending fans.

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November/December 2010

Whitehall must pay councils for ‘unfair’ reporting burden

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own halls will be paid by Whitehall for delivering data that ministers agree is an unfair ‘burden’, under government plans.

Only the most basic information - their annual accounts, an annual report and the number of children eligible for free school meals, for example - would be demanded free of charge. All other datasets over and above that agreed minimum would require a payment to local authorities, communities secretary, Eric Pickles said.

He revoked all designations of local improvement targets, under section 109 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act, with immediate effect. The next step will be to agree a “single national dataset” that town halls will be required to hand over. Negotiations are ongoing with local authority leaders.

The Department for Communities and Local Government was unable to say what proportion of existing data submissions would still be required. However, a spokeswoman said: “Much less information will be asked for.

We recognise that, over the last six or seven years, the amount we have demanded has become burdensome.”

The ‘New Burdens Doctrine’ actually dates back to at least 2004, but Mr Pickles is taking the New Labour idea into new territory.

FIRST PAPERLESS NHS HOSPITAL: St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals Trust is claiming to be the first NHS trust to stop using paper in the treatment of patients. It achieved its move to electronic patient records largely by eschewing the systems it was supposed to install under the £13bn National Programme for IT. St Helens’ electronic record system is a hybrid of a document-management system, which handles electronic versions of conventional patient notes and a patient-administration system delivered outside the national programme.

NEWS UPDATE

Councils should have key role in health

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he Local Government Group has called on the government to give councils a key role in health services – and not just rely on GPs – in its response to the consultation on the coalition’s healthcare White Paper. The LGG supports plans to devolve public health to councils. It calls for town halls to play a key role in commissioning services – particularly in areas such as mental health, long-term conditions, drug and alcohol dependency and older people’s services.

Other key messages include: •

The increased public health role for local government is strongly supported.

•

Health and Wellbeing Boards must be given a statutory footing and be seen as equal to GP consortia and the National Commissioning Board.

•

The importance of scrutiny of the National Commissioning Board, Health

and Wellbeing Boards and GP consortia, and need for them to be locally accountable.

•

Urgent clarification is needed on funding of patient and public involvement next year. Funding for Local Involvement Networks runs out in March, but the replacement Health Watch does not go live until April.

Cllr David Rogers, chairman of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, said, “Councils need to be at the heart of commissioning, especially in the areas they have experience and expertise in like so-called Cinderella services for the vulnerable. GPs are inexperienced here and there’s a real risk they may not see the incentive of commissioning services where success isn’t easy to measure, or might outsource commissioning for these groups, breaking a vital link between an individual’s health and social care services.”

Data sharing tracks just ICT a challenge for Scottish central police support unit tip-of-iceberg fraudsters

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ngland’s councils detected fraud worth around £130m last year - but they are uncovering only the tip of a huge iceberg, according to the Audit Commission.

In its annual Protecting the Public Purse report, the soon-to-be abolished accounting watchdog says that in the past 12 months councils have uncovered benefit fraud adding up to £99m, council tax fraud worth more than £15m and £21m worth of other types of fraud including false insurance claims and abuse of the disabled parking blue badge scheme.

Michael O’Higgins, the commission’s chairman, says that councils are performing well in fighting fraud, but need to be more and more vigilant. Work by the watchdog has encouraged organisations to work together on sharing information and specialist expertise, he said. “Fraud prevention and detection requires a concerted response by local authorities and their partners.”

He warned councils to watch out for procurement fraud in purchasing, sub-contracting, outsourcing of services and the new social care budgets. “New processes and systems often open up new opportunities for fraudsters. For example, the number of people with personal social care budgets is increasing rapidly and councils must ensure that these vulnerable people are adequately protected,” he said.

The report finds that 1,600 unlawfully sublet social housing properties had been recovered. However it estimates that as many as 50,000 houses and flats countrywide may still be occupied illegally. www.audit-commission.gov.uk/ppp2010

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report by Audit Scotland warns that the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) is facing difficulties in its role of developing and supporting standard ICT systems.

The findings may provide ammunition for critics of any new attempt to standardise police IT systems in England and Wales.

Computer technology transferred to SPSA a year after it was formed, and the report reveals that there have been backlogs. ‘A number of important ICT projects, both at the national level and for individual forces, need SPSA’s input but it has had problems prioritising between these,’ the report stated. ‘The Scottish government recently published a review of police ICT completed by consultants which makes a number of recommendations on how SPSA and police forces can improve ICT provision.’

Audit Scotland found SPSA and its customers have the potential to save more money by working in partnership.

Technology drives down health costs but improves quality of life

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ncreasing the use of technology to deliver health care could save councils £270m per year - as well as giving citizens extra years of independence and dignity - says the Local Government Association.

David Rogers, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said that investing in technology has been proven to reduce the need for hospital admission, GP referral, home help, day care and residential care. “This saves taxpayers’ money in the long term at a time when the demand for adult care is rising and funding is falling,” he said. But he stressed that it is not just about saving cash, “Telecare and telehealth gives older people and those living with long-term conditions years more of independence.

“Later life should be as fulfilling, healthy and as active as a person wants it to be. New technology helps deliver round-the-clock support to users, allowing them to manage their own health budgets, ensuring timely and preventative care, and peace of mind for them and their loved ones,” he said.

The LGA said that technologies like electronic pill dispensers can save thousands of pounds per year and that £250 per week could be saved on day care costs through a personal satellite locator. A variety of other technologies have been implemented by councils.

Kent County Council’s two-year pilot was the largest in Europe and focused on savings related to heart and lung conditions and diabetes. Working alongside health trusts in the county, it found that an annual £7.5m of savings were made through reduced hospital admissions, accident and emergency, bed days of care, home visits and GP contact.

A number of councils have implemented telecare initiatives, including Staffordshire, North Yorkshire, Brighton and Hove, Blackpool and Stockport. Rogers added, however, that technology would never be seen as a replacement for human contact: “Nothing is more vital to keep older people independent and happy.”

Ynet and North Yorkshire County Council have beaten some of the biggest names in the computing industry to win ‘Community Project of the Year’ at the national BCS IT Industry Awards for their work to deliver high-speed broadband to remote parts of rural North Yorkshire that were previously unable to access the internet.

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The pair have also succeeded in a bid to participate in a major new government-backed scheme to transform broadband access for rural communities in North Yorkshire. The ‘Rural Market Testing Project’ will see superfast broadband introduced in up to 27 market towns where broadband provision was previously considered economically unviable.

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ITU LIVE: OPEN GOVERNMENT & TRANSPARENCY

Data, Data Everywhere. But Can You See Clearly?

What does it all mean? Data without context will not deliver open and transparent government for the general public, finds the ITU Live panel. Helen Olsen reports.

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Notwithstanding, Cooper is keen to see the level content on its own would be approprihortly after the election David Cameron site’s content reused as widely as possible: ate for transparency. declared that “The people are the “If somebody wants to take all of Directgov’s boss”. And communities secretary, Eric content and publish an alternative version Pickles, wasted no time in announcing his Reuse and standards of Directgov that’s great!” Around 80% of intent to open councils up to these bosses NI Direct, the equivalent of Directgov in – to a veritable army of “armchair auditors”.

Directgov predominantly carries content, Northern Ireland, is currently Directgov All data on spending above £500 must be now freely available as a syndication sercontent, replicated exactly – something published online “as a matter of course” vice. At first glance an easier task but, says that Cooper would endorse as a good use of by 1 January. His own Sharon Cooper, direcpublic resource. department took the OPEN GOVERNMENT: 67% SAY THAT OPEN tor proposition strategy lead over the summer GOVERNMENT REQUIRES BOTH RAW DATA AND and product design in doing precisely that. HIGH LEVEL CONTENT; 11% JUST RAW DATA at Directgov , “There Formats: horses for courses is sophisticated conAND 22% HIGH LEVEL CONTENT. And local governtent that must reflect Creese was adamant that csv files were ment is rising to the complex policy carried easy to provide for developers and the best challenge. In mid November South Ribble alongside structured data.” way forward. The more challenging task is Borough Council became the one hundredth to wrap context around that. Straat, pointed local authority to put its spending data up for This raises a thorny issue: liability. Much of out that the different requirements for conscrutiny on line. the content on Directgov has legal requiretent to be readable to both machine and ments that it must humans could not be be given only when TRANSPARENCY: 47% say that transpar- solved with one format: Content and context accompanied by speci- ency requires both raw data and “Typically if you want fied information – for high level content; 53% just high to make it consumable There are actually two agendas running side example, pensions. If level content. None felt that transto citizens you need to by side here, agreed our panel: open governthat information was parency could be delivered with make it easy to read.” ment and transparency. Whilst both require lost in syndication, just raw data. information to be made freely available to the who would be liable for Straat added that PDF public and developers, the audiences had the ensuing mistakes? Who, asked Cooper, is not only an open standard but that it can different needs when it came to consuming would compensate the citizen if the wrong function as a “map or dossier that can be that content. decision was taken on the basis of incorrect loaded with both the readable document and information? the xml data file – which looks more like a Freely published, raw machine data is essenpublished document from a government. tial for the open data agenda and much “If you come to the government you trust sought after by developers. But panellists them. If we make a mistake then that is our “Publishing data is different from producing agreed that, for the general public, context fault. But if we give that information away and processing data; and you do need difaround these raw csv files was also essenand it is branded as official information then ferent formats for that,” he added. “Handling tial to effectively deliver transparency. that is our liability. But what if it is being that with a single format is a myth.” reused in different ways that we don’t know “Some of (the audience) are technical geeks about?”

Creese agreed that content and context that are very good at analysing this stuff,” needed to be treated “as a separate exercise”. said Jos Creese, Socitm president and CIO at Some of these issues are covered in the His issue with PDF – met with agreement by Hampshire County Council. But transparency licensing but, as Cooper admits, it is difficult Straat - is that local authorities are using it as “is about making data available in a way that to control once it leaves Directgov’s hands. their primary way of publishing information. is more immediately understandable by a Meanwhile, Directgov is exploring how eleAnd they are using it “the wrong way”. human being rather than a machine. Both ments of content can be semantically tagged ways are valid, both of them are important, to make them consumable as data - treated The panel agreed that much depended on but I believe that they are distinct.” as data - rather than content. “We are lookhow the PDF was created in the first place. ing at adding different types of metadata and Done correctly, said Straat, “the data can Marc Straat, head of standards and intertaxonomy schemas to make that informabe extracted without any need for specialoperability Europe, Adobe Systems, agreed, tion, when syndicated, more useful to a local ised tools” while context could be wrapped emphasising the importance of having an authority.” around that content. How data can be held agreed structure and schema to go with data: and used and the accessibility of a document “Then you move away from independent pots Cooper emphasised the importance – and are all dictated by the way that document is of raw data into exchanging the raw data.” challenge - of adhering to strict schemas created. Many public sector organisations for the different audiences for Directgov were simply not building this functionality in, Our audience polls (in boxes) broadly condata. For example, “commercial aggregatherefore rendering the PDFs they produce curred with the panel, especially when it tors love motoring, family and health content, “unhelpful”. came to transparency: no one felt that this whereas very specific information about could be delivered just by providing raw benefits is probably a more niche, voluntary Said Straat, “Local authorities often think ‘I data; and the audience for this was clearly sector market”. need to publish something; let’s do a PDF’, but the citizen. Indeed, over half felt that high

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November/December 2010

UKauthorITy IT in Use

ITU LIVE: OPEN GOVERNMENT & TRANSPARENCY

On the ITU Live Panel:

Jos Creese, Socitm President and Head of IT at Hampshire County Council

Marc Straat, Head of Standards & Interoperability Europe, Adobe Systems Europe

ITU Live was sponsored by Adobe UK

Sharon Cooper, Director Proposition Strategy and Product Design, Directgov

is the world that we live in. The technology enabled society means that this will happen and we must respond to it.” He would, however, like to see FOI targeted somehow on Cooper pointed out that Directgov published “the things that really matter rather than the information in multiple formats, such as very vague questions – like how much we html and PDF, but used PDF to standardise spend on biscuits. That seems to be missthe citizen’s experience of forms: “You need ing the point about the boxes to appear the things that should in the right places for AUDIENCE FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT: 69% say both the developer community be scrutinised by the processing.” and the citizen; 16% the developer public.” they need to think about what their requirements are and select the right format.”

Cost to count

community and 15% the citizen.

Cooper felt that the cost of creation for this vast amount of content being published in a variety of different formats was “business as usual” for government. There were, she said, conversion costs in terms of creating scripts, maintaining these scripts, plus the cost of hosting it. But questions remained over issues such as how long data is stored, how long it is archived to be available on-demand, and how public sector organisations could budget for this.

One member of the audience suggested that the open data and transparency agenda was being seen by some practitioners as “creating an industry and a burden on local government”.

In response, Creese echoed Cooper’s sentiments: “Clearly there are costs in doing anything – cost issues in maintenance of the data, sorting out the quality of the data and no doubt in spurious FOI requests.

“Some of this should be a cost borne by our suppliers.” Speaking on behalf of Socitm, Creese added that he would like to see the big suppliers of IT systems taking some of the burden. “We should be going out to ask them, and it should make their competitive position stronger.”

Freedom of Information and Privacy What data should be redacted? asked a member of the audience. Creese did not believe that there was a blanket exclusion.

Protecting private data is key, he said, but “the issue is not resolved yet. My advice is to use the FOI model – if it would be available under FOI it should be up there.” FOI requests are going to happen he added. “It

Misunderstandings Over the summer a media frenzy ensued from Woking Borough Council apparently spending £18,254 on lingerie, according to Spotlightonspend. In actuality the payment was a refund of business rates but the use of Standard Industrial Classifications as the basis for analysis does not make this clear – and Woking meanwhile had to weather the media squall.

Helen Olsen, Managing Editor, ITU and UKauthorITy.com

and also be a driver for shared services.

Importantly, openness and transparency could be a driver for real change in placebased budgeting.

I think there are a lot of benefits for public services generally,” said Creese. “Clearly engagement is very important, and when we get through this ‘hump’ there is the potential to reduce costs.” The main benefit, he felt, was the potential for building trust with the citizen Straat agreed, “It is becoming more and more apparent that there is a ‘want’ out there for more data, and a desire to have data to reuse for other purposes.”

And pitfalls

Government has a duty to provide a ‘universal service’. This could be compromised if government was no longer in control of the interface, said Cooper. “There is an equality duty that requires us to provide Such misunderstandings will no doubt particular services in certain ways. If a combecome commonplace in 2011. Indeed, as mercial organisation takes on delivering Cooper pointed out, there a service for the was also the risk “of not AUDIENCE FOR TRANSPARENCY: 53% say public sector what even malicious changes. both the developer community goes with that?

The mistake, missing and the citizen; 47% say just the The obligation to something out, that could citizen. None felt that transparency make it accessible was aimed at just the developer have major impact.” to the community community. in a certain way?

And then, of course there Government can do is the compound error of mashing datasets what it can to make that information usable, containing small errors with other datasets but if we are not in control of the interface it also containing small errors. is difficult.”

Creese is pragmatic, “That’s the world we live in. And whilst that was a spurious question and turned out to be misplaced, there may be plenty of others that are not so misplaced. And if you see transparency as a cornerstone of democracy then actually it comes with some responsibilities. It is not that the question is asked, but how it is dealt with that counts.”

With much of the guidance still in development Creese told the audience that there was “An opportunity for local authorities, through the Local Government Association, through Socitm and the Local Data Panel to influence that development.” In the meantime, he said, “Get on and do it, do the bits you can do, use the guidance we have and seek further advice when you hit particular areas.”

Benefits The panel agreed that open data would ferret out some of the absurdities of the civil service code and purchasing processes; that it could dramatically improve procurement UKauthorITy IT in Use

View ITU Live now www.UKauthorITy.com/ITUlive November/December 2010

9

LEADERSHIP

Leading This Journey Of Change OPINION: Michael Cross says that council IT professionals have unique and vital skills to lead this revolution in frontline service delivery.

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n the weeks since the spending review, I’ve spoken to senior executives from across the public sector. While everyone has a grumble about their own set of cuts, there is a clear consensus about who is having the toughest time - the organisations where the buck stops at the desk of communities secretary, Eric Pickles.

“He’s a classic ‘I’m going to turn this organisation round’ type,” said one very experienced Whitehall-watcher. “It’s not going to be a very pleasant experience.”

We know the headline figures. Local government is facing four years of 7.25% cuts on top of a significant increase in workload (not least paying for redundancies and other up-front costs of restructuring). “A fair, though challenging settlement for local government,” in the words of Mr Pickles.

The good news, as he points out, is that the austerity will be “accompanied by new financial freedoms and flexibility”.

Pickles said that the emphasis now “must be on creativity and innovation”. Every aspect of service delivery must be put under the microscope - but the focus must be on early intervention and “drawing on the significant expertise, reach and resources in the voluntary and community sector”.

However, while it is still early days, there are precious few signs of authorities taking full advantage of the supposed new freedoms.

Since the review, there has been a small surge of announcements of joint working between local authorities (notably London boroughs). I was particularly impressed by two London authorities under opposing political leaderships announcing savings of £2m a year by joining forces to procure ICT services to a common specification from a single supplier.

The two, Conservative controlled Bromley and Labour controlled Lewisham, placed separate IT and telephony contracts worth £3.6m with Sungard Public Sector after a joint procurement made possible by a happy coincidence of timings and specifications.

In a joint statement, the councils said the venture would be the starting point for further joint projects. While we should applaud the effort behind the initiative (a great deal

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of work went in to making those happy coincidences happen) we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that such joint procurements are a way of shaving costs from what authorities do at the moment, not the level of creativity and innovation envisaged by Pickles.

To go further is largely a question of leadership. In his letter to local authority chiefs following the review, Pickles said that he has “every confidence” that those willing to tackle the issues head on will be able to “meet the expectations of local residents by protecting frontline services, hardworking families and the most vulnerable”.

Perhaps. But in Westminster and Whitehall there is little confidence that the current generation of chief executives is up to the job. A survey by the Institute of Government recently reported that only 16% of public sector executives believe their existing leadership team has the ability to make necessary radical changes happen.

The big change across the whole public sector will be a move from top-down leadership to a “regulatory” model. This implies a changing relationship between policysetting organisations, whether Whitehall departments or elected authorities, and the agencies actually running frontline services.

One buzzword is agility. Another is cocreation, a culture in which processes are designed with service users, not for them. Enabling this requires a readiness to encourage staff to think entrepreneurially, especially in terms of spinning off what they do in to new types of organisation. “Lots of people are capable of setting up social enterprises but don’t believe they are,” one chief executive said this week.

Most importantly, it requires an ability not only to take risks, but to tolerate - and nurture - risk-taking in others.

This implies a new type of leadership, not least because the new leaders must be absolutely confident in their understanding of what IT can and cannot do in driving change. However it is not clear where this new pool of talent will come from. Certainly the experience of recruiting big hitters from the private sector has not been an unqualified success.

UKauthorITy IT in Use

©iStockphoto.com/VisualField

Driving radical change needs not just ruthlessness and a clear vision, but the ability to communicate that vision in a language that frontline staff can empathise with it.

This is not easy if communicating the vision involves telling people that they are about to lose their jobs or have their career paths drastically changed.

To gain empathy in such circumstances, it is clearly helpful if the leader has demonstrable experience in the front line of public services themselves. (However the police service tradition of every chief constable starting out as a constable on the beat is hardly applicable to the sheer range of duties of a county, unitary or metropolitan borough council.)

The supposed substitute “emotional intelligence” is not necessarily importable from the private sector (on transparencyera wage packets, at least). The brutal fact is that the leaders capable of and willing to nurture co-creation, risktaking and entrepreneurialism will have to come from within local authorities themselves.

Now this may sound like special pleading, but I have an idea where some of those leaders are going to come from. Over the past 10 years, which team of local government managers has most regularly been required to think entrepreneurially, co-create with staff, citizens and the public sector, and generally been required to get things done by persuasion and cultural empathy, rather than Audit Commission driven dictat?

That’s right, the IT department. While the old anorak stereotype dies hard (and you’ll still meet examples in the dustier corners) successful authorities invariably have a new breed of IT leadership, with an ability to communicate outside their traditional silos bolstered by their confidence to communicate with channels such as electronic social media.

It strikes me that these digital native qualities are exactly those that will be required in the Pickles revolution.

UKAUTHORITY.TV

magazine’s new video news portal, UKauthorITy.tv, launches for the New Year. In the meantime our video news reports can be found on: www.UKauthorITy.com

ITU

Future Energy, the City & Green Technology

CHOICE

Choice: Neither Efficient nor Desirable OPINION: Jos Creese, president of Socitm, the society of public sector ICT professionals, and CIO at Hampshire.

Helen Olsen spoke with Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, at the European Future Energy Forum about the importance of green technologies to both the UK’s cities and its citizens.

Shared Leadership, Shared Resource

The London Boroughs of Newham and Havering have been sharing the skills and vision of one head of ICT, Geoff Connell.

UKauthorITy.tv caught up with Geoff to hear more about the benefits – including significant savings - to both councils from this innovative arrangement.

Building tomorrow’s public services today

Delegates gathered for Socitm 2010 in Brighton in October in possibly the most difficult times ever facing frontline public services. Helen Olsen spoke with both delegates and speakers alike to gauge what lies ahead post spending review.

Also showing: •

The Public Sector Network - a “great opportunity for local government”

•

Putting the citizen in control of their identity - a new model for ID

•

Local Government IT Excellence Awards 2010 - Innovation, ingenuity and intuition

•

Viewpoint: Public Sector Futures Rich Gwyther, Head of Regional and Local Government, Microsoft UK

www.UKauthorITy.com

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want to put forward an unfashionable view. For a long time there has been a mantra that choice is synonymous with competition and therefore is inherently ‘a good thing’, which ultimately results in a more efficient and customer focused service.

However, in the same way that capitalism has its limits, simply widening choice does not necessarily deliver better outcomes.

Take for example television channels. Would anyone seriously argue that the hundreds of channels available are improving the quality of the service? The problem is finding what you want to view and the dilution in the marketplace resulting in more repeats, and a ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’ mentality, at least in some areas.

The same applies to public services. It might sound like a good idea to be able to choose which hospital you go to, but for most people having a local hospital that performs well, when they need it, is the only choice that they want. A good local school is the same.

As public services are more constrained financially, they will have to shift the public from a dependence on more costly ways of delivering service such as face-to-face, to automated self-service. This does not mean that those who are unable to transact electronically should be left out in the cold.

Rather, it means that those who need faceto-face support can continue to have that level of attention, but for the rest of us fortunate enough to be able to self-serve, that is what we should be required to do.

For most people this will actually be popular if it works well, and it will save huge amounts of money. But there are distractions along the way. For example, the closure of high street banks in favour of ATMs is not universally popular and is used as an example of what not to do. The point is we are not ‘closing the high street’ just limiting access to those who need it.

Outsourcing is another distraction. If anything, some contracts set up in the past have failed to deliver change or savings, and may now even inhibit channel shift.

sector unless we can massively simplify what we do, and that won’t necessarily be efficient or desirable in complex service areas.

A better public service example is ASDA. They are involving the public in what products they sell and how they are designed - they have large consumer groups tasting food, and these appear on the shelves labelled as such. Brilliant! We should do this in every public service. Note, ASDA are not suggesting local communities run their local ASDA store, or that customers start buying products for the store… or that they should start growing their own fruit and veg for the store.

Designing public services around the needs of the citizen or customer and involving them in this, shifting delivery wherever possible to low cost channels, and making local services work well, is both desirable and efficient.

Too much choice is counter-productive, and the way public services are delivered must be constrained in the interest of efficiency.

For the most part this will improve, not damage, the public’s satisfaction with their local services.

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‘Easy Council?’ - a nice ‘sound bite’ with some sound elements, but I’m still to be convinced that it lends itself well to the public UKauthorITy IT in Use

November/December 2010

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SPECIAL FOCUS: WEB CONFERENCING

Changing Behaviour, Cutting Costs Next generation cloud based web conferencing offers far greater benefits than traditional videoconferencing but at a fraction of the cost, says Adobe Systems’ head of public sector marketing, Prelini Udayan.

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his new age of austerity and openness asks us to question where the current modus operandi can change in order to bring down costs in service delivery. This is no small challenge; but there will be many areas where innovation and small changes in culture and habit can bring both enormous savings and improvements in customer experience for our citizens.

I would put forward the public sector’s meetings culture as just one of those areas ripe for change. Travel and accommodation costs could be dramatically reduced, whilst collaboration and participation is improved, with the introduction of the latest generation of simple, low cost web conferencing tools.

Indeed travel costs are coming under scrutiny. Communities secretary, Eric Pickles, published details of his entire department’s spending over £500, revealing more than £1.5m spent on hotels and transport last year.

At Adobe we are firm believers that web and videoconferencing can make a real dent in these kinds of costs. Indeed, we have been proactive in integrating online conferencing solutions into our own day to day operations to ensure that colleagues can collaborate remotely, hold meetings and facilitate ‘anywhere’ learning.

We are not alone in this belief. Recently we broadcast a live debate for an audience of local and central government professionals - using Adobe Connect web conferencing technology - in which we ran a number of live audience polls. The results demonstrate a broad belief that web conferencing could help the public sector to cut travel costs (92%), training costs (100%) and carbon emissions (100%).

So given the overwhelming nature of these results, why is it that web conferencing has yet to be more widely adopted across the public sector? In perhaps the most telling of our poll results, 75% identified ‘cultural issues’ as the main barrier to wider adoption.

Changing the meeting culture We were fortunate within our debate to capture advice from organisations that have chosen to implement web conferencing widely – much of it focusing on the need to

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consider the roll-out from a human perspective, and not just in terms of the technology that delivers the service.

For example, we heard from one Adobe customer - the Food and Environment Research Agency - that the key to success for them was taking an evolutionary approach that carefully avoided ‘culture shock’. In practical terms this involved a staggered implementation that started with audio conferences with presenter controlled slides; then shifted to audio conferences with shared workspaces (where they could work on the same document together); before finally moving on to full web and video conferencing.

We also learned about the importance that Thomson Reuters places on ensuring a great first time experience for new users of its worldwide Adobe Connect facility. This involves a rigorous approach to training presenters, team leaders and even the trainers themselves. Key learning points included keeping initial sessions short; providing an interactive experience for learning that includes live questions and virtual break-out rooms; and making sure that who ever is leading a session takes time to plan it properly.

From our own experiences using web conferencing at Adobe, I would argue that it is vital to find an internal champion with a vision for this new way of working to evangelise and encourage use of web and videoconferencing; particularly in large departments where you often need to work harder to engage with staff at all levels.

Low cost of entry: low cost to run Historically, videoconferencing was undeniably expensive. However, to use the new generation of cloud based web conferencing and collaboration tools all you need is a connection to the internet – the same one that already provides your email and internet access. Indeed, this is perhaps both the biggest difference between videoconferencing and web conferencing and the biggest barrier to uptake – there is no need for expensive equipment or investment in infrastructure, but the corporate misconception that ‘this will be expensive’ remains.

UKauthorITy IT in Use

©iStockphoto.com/René Mansi

It is imperative that this outdated view is changed. Philip Green’s efficiency review highlighted that videoconferencing tools could save a conservative £50m each year from reduced travel. Web conferencing could go further - and can easily be trialed today for less than £5,000.

Proving benefits Tracking and proving the benefits of any new technology is vital - particularly when it comes to achieving buy-in from the executive level – it is essential therefore to continually measure benefits realised. This means regularly highlighting travel costs saved, carbon emissions avoided and, most importantly, levels of employee engagement and satisfaction. Simple plug-ins like ‘Footprints’ for Adobe Connect can automate this data collection and provide organisational visibility of the tangible benefits delivered.

It is important to remember that return on investment is not just measured in cost savings, it should also take account of improvements in business performance and service delivery too. Web conferencing saves important time as well as money – time that can be spent on new areas of value creation, such as improving frontline service delivery in the community. The overall result therefore can be a more engaged, better connected and fulfilled staff, and a better customer experience for the citizen.

Changing the ‘meetings culture’ may well be difficult, but as the cuts begin to bite web conferencing technology will enable the public sector to do far more, with far less.

Special Adobe Connect offer for ITU readers ITU readers are eligible for a ‘pilot’ package via Adobe partner, PGi: a hosted Adobe Connect environment is available until the 21 December 2010 for just £4,501 for one year, giving your organisation 10 named organisers (each can hold unlimited meetings of up to 100 attendees) within an SSL secure environment. For more information email: Adobe@lgitu.co.uk You can also view the webinar here: www.UKauthorITy.com/ ITUlive_webconference

FRONTLINE FUTURES

Sharing Will Bring New Structures The comprehensive spending review is bringing a new look to local government and indeed the wider public sector, says Tim Hampson, resulting in some comfortable alliances and some seemingly strange bedfellows.

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ommunities and Local Government will happily tell anyone wishing to listen that local government spends £42bn a year on outside contracts for everything from construction and IT to telecoms and catering. That is more than the national GDP of 90 countries including Luxembourg, Jordan and Albania.

Communities secretary, Eric Pickles, is an advocate of councils working together to buy smarter, make every pound go further and cut down on staff, which is why merged services, shared chief executives and collective activity are all becoming increasingly commonplace.

He says that a fortune could be saved if more councils use their collective buying power and innovative technology, like e-auctions, to bring the full weight of the public pound to bear on driving down costs and getting better value for taxpayers’ money. “If councils work together they can achieve major economies of scale through better deals from suppliers,” said Mr Pickles. He also says that councils should share office space and merge frontline services.

And three London councils have duly unveiled an agreement to merge services, which they hope will be in place by February.

Westminster City, Hammersmith and Fulham, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea aim to start the sharing experiment with children’s services. A joint statement by the leaders of these Conservative-controlled boroughs said that the plan would focus on ‘a few major areas where sharing and merging services is viable and good for the public’.

The councils have set up a series of working groups to develop and study options for three main areas: environmental services, family services and corporate services. However some operations, such as core democratic services, will remain out of bounds, according to the statement: ‘We will only go forward where there is a clear democratic, social and economic case to do so.’

And the council leaders make clear their belief that where they have stepped others will follow. ‘Our plans may be the first of their kind, but sharing of services in this way can no longer be viewed as a radical concept. It will soon become the norm for local

authorities looking for innovative ways to keep costs down while delivering high quality frontline services.’

Elsewhere in London, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark councils are looking at services that could be shared, in a bid to absorb the effect of funding cuts from central government. And a report to Lambeth’s overview and scrutiny committee said that the councils were also looking at sharing office space.

But showing the complicated nature of these evolving alliances, Lewisham has already announced a joint procurement with Bromley for ICT and telephony. Indeed, in a joint statement, Lambeth and Bromley councils said that the venture would be the starting point for further joint projects. “This ground-breaking deal shows how we’re willing to work across borough and party political boundaries to get the best deal for our residents. By working with Lewisham we have achieved savings of around £0.5m a year - or 25% of the IT and telephony budgets - double what we could have achieved on our own,” said Bromley’s portfolio holder for resources, Cllr Neil Reddin.

Hot on the heels of this came news that Merton, Kingston upon Thames and Sutton are aiming to get a shared cloud infrastructure in place by the end of 2011, with Richmond and Wandsworth expected to follow soon after.

Chris Pope, director of transformation for Merton, said that the boroughs are in the process of procuring a strategic partner and will start looking for solutions providers early in 2011. He said that Merton and Sutton currently use private cloud services but that they believe that moving to a ‘community cloud’, which is shared by a group of organisations with shared concerns, can provide further savings and support shared services.

However he made it clear this was no move to create a super-borough, even though it would bring services together.

East Devon and South Somerset, meanwhile, the two biggest district councils in the South West, have agreed to share a chief executive - East Devon’s Mark Williams - with a view to bringing forward the sharing of other managers and teams. Williams says that being UKauthorITy IT in Use

©iStockphoto.com/geopaul

chief executive of both councils will help the process of exploring joint working and sharing overheads. Both councils will, however, remain separate authorities retaining their own councillors and serving their existing populations.

Experience in other parts of the country shows that efficiencies can be gained from a shared chief executive, management team, joint procurement and shared specialist positions. Councils much smaller than either South Somerset or East Devon have reported savings of £1.5m a year.

Leicestershire County Council and Nottingham City Council, meanwhile, have signed a partnership deal to share human resources and other administrative functions in a bid to save more than £2m per year. The deal - believed to be the first such shared services agreement involving a county council and a city council from another area - marks the first step of a new East Midlands shared services centre, which could be used by other authorities in the area.

Leicestershire is already working with Leicester City Council on a shared internal audit service and with Charnwood Borough Council on HR services, while Nottingham remains in discussions over possible joint working arrangements with a number of councils.

Leicestershire’s council leader, David Parsons, said: “In these challenging times, our innovative agreement shows how authorities can achieve real savings by working together.

“Every pound we save is a pound that we don’t have to take away from the front line.

I would encourage other authorities in the Midlands to consider joining us and achieve benefits themselves.”

However, the last word should go to Eric Pickles, the impresario behind this sharing activity. He says that sharing staff and merging services between councils is the future of local government; reducing duplication and increasing productivity.

Councils, says Pickles, must fundamentally rethink their finances. They should share services and work across boundaries to drive down costs and protect frontline services.

November/December 2010

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VIEW ON WESTMINSTER

The Commons Finds its Feet It has taken six months, but hostile services between the parties have finally returned to normal, says Tim Hampson.

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he government and opposition are back bickering like a seaside Punch & Judy show.

Indeed, Labour strategists are now looking forward to Eric Pickles taking his turn at the dispatch box. In July the secretary of state decided to revoke the regional strategies, which included house building targets introduced under the 2009 Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act. But now a high court judge has given Labour something to shout about.

The move to scrap regional housing targets, which was trumpeted as a big part of Mr Cameron’s “big society”, has been ruled unlawful by the high court.

In court, housing developer Cala Homes argued that Pickles was wrongly seeking to revoke regional planning strategies through discretionary powers.

Communities and local government minister, Bob Neill, was undeterred saying this judgment changes very little. He said that the government will be introducing the Localism Bill to parliament, which will sweep away the controversial regional strategies.

“Top-down targets don’t build homes – they’ve led to the lowest peacetime housebuilding rates since 1924. The government remains firmly resolved to scrap this layer of confusing red tape.

“Instead, we will work with local communities to build more homes. This was a commitment made in the coalition agreement and in the general election manifestos of both coalition parties.”

But, as the cuts begin to bite and garner horror headlines in local papers the length and breadth of England - as councils openly talk of making thousands of people redundant, Labour believes the avuncular Pickles can be given a bit of a biffing.

Indeed they will certainly do their best to rubbish him, at every opportunity and not just fortnightly. In what now seems like ages ago Mr Pickles announced that councils would have to stop alternate weekly waste collections. However new figures from the

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Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show the local authorities with the highest and most improved recycling rates all operate alternate weekly collections, contrary to government advice.

In a litter of publicity, the secretary of state withdrew Audit Commission guidance encouraging councils to switch to alternate weekly collections. But several councils have recently announced plans to introduce such collections, including Conservative-controlled Wiltshire Council, West Oxfordshire, Dover and Brent.

The councils are bullish about what they are doing - saying that it saves money, is popular with residents and allows them to almost double recycling rates.

Mr Pickles could be in for a torrid time. But he is a big lad and has broad shoulders and will probably shrug off the opposition attacks.

Nick Clegg is meanwhile also trying to dodge the brickbats flying his way. His apparent u-turn on student loans will certainly be in his political baggage until the next election and it could haunt him after that, especially if the National Union of Students has its way.

His promise of “dull” government as part of plans to make government and the civil servants more accountable will do nothing to stop Labour attempts to get Lib-Dems to break coalition ranks.

Mr Clegg says that he wants a “transformation in the effectiveness of government”.

He says that the move for all departments to put their plans online will be a “power shift” - giving voters more information about what the government is doing and making it harder for ministers to change direction.

Departments will have to update their progress against the plans every month. And should any minister or civil servant deviate from their objectives someone will have to go and sit on the naughty step and write a public letter to the prime minister explaining the failure and setting out what they will do to get back on track.

Labour is counting down the days until the first letter is written. Such events should be food and drink for an opposition party.

UKauthorITy IT in Use

©iStockphoto.com/S. Greg Panosian

However, with friends like fellow cabinet member, Tim Loughton, David Cameron hardly needs the opposition as he pushes on with his big society initiative. The East Worthing & Shoreham MP - and a junior bag carrier at the Childrens and Families department - said the trouble is that most people don’t know what the big society really means; least of all the unfortunate ministers who have to articulate it. “Is it in fact Ann Widdecombe?” he asked.

Like it or not, the big society has become the latest buzz phrase to easily fall off politicians, lobbyists and journalists lips, almost as easily as did John Major’s “back to basics” campaign.

Mr Cameron’s vision is for charities, volunteers and communities to take on much of the tasks now undertaken by central and local government. He wants a “big society, not big government” with an army of volunteers scouring neighbourhoods looking for good deeds to be done.

But as one MP told me: “Councils are going to be too busy monitoring the scores of benefit claiming litter pickers and gardeners doing a month’s compulsory volunteer work to be worrying too much about the big society.”

But Labour’s finger-waggers know they cannot have it all their own way. Taunts by the other side of the house asking, “Well, what would you have cut”, hurt as they acknowledge that cuts would have had to be made, “but not these”.

Labour is also riven by its own internal row over the fate of the former minister Phil Woolas. He has been cast adrift by the party’s hierarchy, following a court case about leaflets issued by him during the last election. The leaflets sent out during the MP’s election campaign for Oldham East and Saddleworth were unacceptable, said a judge, but a section of the party is in a big funk - crying that an MP’s fate should not be decided by a court of law but by parliament.

The next few months in the commons are going to get down and dirty. By all accounts, it should be great spectator sport.

DATA PROTECTION

Publish And Be Praised Michael Cross argues that the open government and transparency agendas have thrust data protection officers onto the front line of service delivery.

T

hese are exciting times for local authority data protection officers. Perhaps too exciting. With the transparency engine driving public sector reform and public rows about “council snoopers” and other privacy issues as virulent as ever, workloads have never been heavier. Add to that the prospect of swingeing cuts in resources, and you get an interesting mix of challenges.

Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, has urged public sector data protection officers to protect their departments from spending cuts by arguing that they perform frontline, not back-office, roles.

He told the annual conference of the National Association of Data Protection Officers last month that the midst of a recession “is not the time to be taking risks with data and with public information”. A better economy measure, he said, would be to improve data protection and freedom of information procedures: “If you’re looking for savings, why not just run a tighter ship?”

As if to underline his point, Hertfordshire county council achieved the dubious honour of becoming the first organisation to be hit by the new monetary penalties - £100,000 in this case - available to the commissioner to punish serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. The breaches occurred when staff in the council’s childcare litigation department twice accidentally faxed highly sensitive case details to the wrong people. The council itself reported the breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The penalties, of up to £500,000, are part of a battery of new powers available to the ICO since April 2010. These include the power to audit organisations without their consent.

So far, this applies only to central government departments, but Graham hinted that he is looking to extend it to other public bodies as well as to the private sector.

Further reasons for local authorities to play close attention to data protection issues appear in the ICO’s latest report to parliament on the state of surveillance. The report is a follow-up to the 2006 ‘Sleepwalking into a surveillance society’ report by Graham’s

predecessor, Richard Thomas. While it hails ‘a welcoming strengthening of the data protection regime’ since 2006, it finds plenty of reasons for caution.

©iStockphoto.com/Mark Evans

and incompatible sets of rules - giving recalcitrant officials a possible loophole to dodge requests for data.

The commissioner calls for more use of a ‘privacy by design’ approach to designing new systems - and recommends that maximum privacy be the default setting. This will give pause for thought to local authorities investigating shared services to make the most of the new ‘place based’ public services agenda.

If there was any doubt in the matter, the data protection officers’ conference heard that the burden of requests on local government is continuing to increase. In 2009, local authorities received 170,000 requests, three times the 2005 figure. Many departments are already working to capacity, Ben Worthy and Gabrielle Bourke of University College London reported.

At the data protection officers’ conference, Graham called for “cool heads and clear thinking” in the face of “hyperbole from service suppliers over-stating what they can do and privacy campaigners overstating the threat”.

The big users are the press (mainly interested in details of spending) and businesses, which are a “key cause of frustration” by often submitting complex requests to find information on tendering, the research shows.

The other side of the data protection coin, of course, is freedom of information. If there was any doubt about the coalition’s continuing commitment to granting a new ‘right to data’, these were dispelled last month when the prime minister hailed the new regime as “a powerful strait-jacket on spending”. Speaking on the day central government departments made available details of every item over £25,000, he reaffirmed his commitment to publishing, in full, every contract of that value or more, from January.

The study found that some officials are keen to filter requests from difficult requesters.

Some authorities, for example Chester and Cheshire West, are aggregating requests.

The researchers’ conclusion is that FoI “may have contributed to accountability” but has so far had little impact on the functions of local authorities.

Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, meanwhile announced that crime maps, the subject of many conflicts over free data and data protection, will be available to all from January.

He also indicated that the government is serious about its plan to set up a public data corporation, taking over some of the public task functions of Land Registry, The Met Office and Ordnance Survey, in April.

One nagging uncertainty on the open data front - despite the enthusiasm of communities secretary, Eric Pickles - is the extent to which local authorities can or will be required to comply.

Information commissioner Graham has sounded alarms about the danger of local authorities going ahead with their own publishing schemes, leading to two separate UKauthorITy IT in Use

To authorities worrying about the burden of this extra work, Graham has a simple answer: put the information on the web first. He used his speech to the conference to urge public bodies to “get off the back foot” and be pro-active in publishing information.

“We would save a bundle of money that’s wasted resisting the publication of stuff that’s mostly harmless,” he said.

He reminded his audience that the press is usually much more interested in attempts to block requests for information than in the minutiae of data that eventually comes out.

While most Whitehall departments have reluctantly embraced the new regime, he warned that: “We have a lot of trouble with some public authorities who just don’t get it. You can’t kick something in to touch and rely on the ICO to take years to decide.

It’s much better to bite the bullet and publish,” he said.

November/December 2010

15

COMPANY & PRODUCT NOTES

Siemens Siveillance

S

iemens is launching its new portfolio of intelligent command and control security platforms - Siveillance Command, Siveillance Vantage and Siveillance SiteIQ - to the UK market. This next generation of command and control technology has been developed to add significant operational value to organisations by improving security and safety and managing critical situations, whilst reducing costs and enhancing procedures. www.siemens.co.uk/securitysolutions

SECURE EMAIL: Cyber-Ark Software has announced Secure Email Manager, a new file transfer product available now in version 6 of its Governed File Transfer Suite. The easy-to-use Secure Email Manager fosters adoption of more efficient file transfer processes by empowering employees to safely share and track files, regardless of size, within their native email environments. It helps to avoid clogging in Exchange servers by offloading large file transfers and enables security and IT departments to decrease overhead and improve compliance with corporate security policies and industry regulations. www.cyber-ark.com ABM INTELLIGENCE: ABM has launched IMS Intelligence Wizard to help the police save time and improve the quality of intelligence. The new browser-based intelligence input and analysis tool delivers enhanced efficiencies and performance for police services using ABM’s Information Management System (IMS), saving up to 50% of the time taken to assess and link intelligence, leading to more effective intelligence-led policing. www.abmsoftware.com/IntelligenceWizard

FREE TRAFFIC IQ: Idappcom has released a freeware version of its Traffic IQ Pro security audit and penetration testing product. As the replay functions are, in the main, exactly as in the fully licensed version, including the graphical user interface, users will, without spending a penny, experience and benefit from a product that has been developed over several years. www.Idappcom.com STREETMAPPER GIS: A new version of the mobile laser mapping system with an integrated panoramic camera has been launched by 3D Laser Mapping and IGI mbH. StreetMapper GIS is easy to mount on any type of vehicle and offers a cost effective solution for collection of street level asset information for use in geographical information systems or other desktop software solutions. www.3dlasermapping.com

GGP GIS

INTERACTIVE SOLUTION ON THE STREET: Intelenet Global Services has unveiled a new audio-visual kiosk that uses high quality video and audio to allow back end call centre based agents to help customers out on the street complete service transactions. With broadband internet, video telephony, a transaction ready card reader (for both debit and credit cards) and printer, the VTM, says Intelenet, is ideal for organisations in both the public and private sectors looking for a cost-effective method of providing user-friendly and speedy transactions and enabling the public to pay bills at their convenience.

Acrobat X

A

dobe Systems has announced Adobe Acrobat X and new document exchange services at Acrobat.com, that let professionals innovate, create and share higher quality content, driving tighter collaboration and productivity across teams in today’s dynamic environments. Acrobat X addresses today’s critical challenge of communicating and collaborating with widely dispersed teams of colleagues, partners and customers in a compelling way.

It delivers new guided Actions to simplify multi-step document preparation and publishing processes, while completely new customisation capabilities in PDF Portfolios unify multiple file types into a compelling presentation. New document services available at Acrobat.com give individuals the ability to collaborate more efficiently, and integration with Microsoft SharePoint enables consistency of PDF documents across the enterprise - re-use of content is now easier with higher quality export to Microsoft® Word and Microsoft® Excel.

Digital mapping for schools

O

rdnance Survey has launched EDINA’s Digimap, a new online mapping service for schools that supports geography teaching by providing easy access to detailed digital mapping. For the first time, pupils will have access to maps showing individual building outlines as well as familiar scales of mapping used by outdoor enthusiasts and on websites.

Baroness Joan Hanham, parliamentary under secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, said: “It’s important for schoolchildren to learn how to tell where places in this country are. Digimaps for Schools will provide detailed geographical information for pupils. I’m very pleased to launch this scheme, which will give all children easy access to Ordnance Survey maps through the latest technology in interactive digital mapping.”

EDINA currently provides map and spatial data services for universities and colleges.

Based at the University of Edinburgh, it is extending its service to include all schools, through JISC Collections for Schools – a central source of affordable online subscription resources for the schools sector.

G

GP Systems is introducing a ‘new way to pay’ for all new purchases, allowing its customers to spread the cost of their software over a three or five year period. The company hopes the introduction of its FlexiPay will ease the budget pressures being faced by many organisations while still enabling councils and emergency services organisations to reap the rewards of innovative software designed to improve efficiency in the public sector. www.ggpsystems.co.uk

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November/December 2010

www.adobe.com/uk/acrobat

www.jcs.nen.gov.uk Baroness Hanham and the OS’s Vanessa Lawrence launch Digimap.

UKauthorITy IT in Use

CONTRACT ROUNDUP

HEALTH EAST MIDLANDS PROCUREMENT AND COMMISSIONING TRANSFORMATION has selected InterQual to provide evidencebased guidelines assessment across the region’s hospitals. EMPACT has commenced a rapid roll out of InterQual as part of a regional utilisation review programme across the East Midlands, involving a series of snapshot utilisation reviews which will assist local healthcare organisations to identify bottlenecks in the system. These findings will enable PCTs to align and redesign services where appropriate.

TORBAY CARE TRUST has gone live with an economy-wide pathway analytics and reporting module from MedeAnalytics. It will examine health and social care pathways for specific groups of patients and at an individual patient level. The trust, responsible for providing and commissioning health and adult social care services, will use the MedeAnalytics’ solution to redesign services, improve efficiency and minimise duplication of health and social care services.

FIRE & RESCUE

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE has procured Gazetteer Management Software and Geographic Information System (GIS) from GGP Systems. Designed to provide easy access to centralised address data, integrate front and back office systems and deliver powerful geographic analysis, GGP Response will initially be used to facilitate the integration of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) within the service’s mobilisation software. Longer term plans, based around the use of GGP Response, include accessing the gazetteer data from Mobile Data Terminals on fire appliances and the integration of the NLPG to join up disparate departmental databases.

LEICESTERSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE will be using OS MasterMap Imagery Layer in its command support vehicles to support major county incidents. The county’s two command support vehicles will have the data available on their systems, providing the teams with up-to-date and reliable imagery in emergency situations.

POLICE BEDFORDSHIRE POLICE is working with BlackBerry smartphones. It identified the need for a mobile data solution that could provide everyday police data from the Police National Computer (PNC) to officers in the community, without the need to occupy the radio network or take up the time of its operators. Ensuring that the BlackBerry project met and exceeded the requirements and expectations of frontline officers was of paramount importance to its success.

HAMBLETON AND RICHMONDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCILS are tracking their shared street scene and waste collection fleets with a vehicle tracking and map-based waste management solution from Masternaut Three X. The councils are already making savings through vehicle efficiency and productivity gains.

Since installing the system supervisors no longer have to make routine site visits as they can live-track their crews as they work on screen.

BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE has awarded a five year contract for ABM’s abmpegasus Source Management. Source Management will offer the next generation of covert policing technology to effectively manage confidential informants, delivering better value for the force and the public. The module also offers enhanced profiling to match CHIS to problem areas and even help to improve financial monitoring and control of payments and rewards to informants.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL has awarded a £10m five-year IT contract to Atos Origin for the delivery of managed data centre services and design and implementation of a virtual desktop environment project for 5,000 users. It will be delivered from the company’s Aberdeen office and Scottish headquarters in Livingston.

BOLTON COUNCIL’S children’s services has chosen Liquidlogic’s PROTOCOL Integrated Children’s System (ICS) to improve social workers’ efficiency. Bolton knowledge and information manager, Paul Rankin, said, “By reducing the amount of time they have to spend at their desks inputting data they will have more time to carry out their essential work.”

London Libraries Consortium which services a population of three million across London.

The boroughs are using Axiell’s OpenGalaxy library management software.

GLOUCESTER CITY COUNCIL has upgraded its comms infrastructure with help from Indigo Telecom Group. A comprehensive upgrade of the council’s communications infrastructure on an Alcatel-Lucent Omni PCX Enterprise system now provides a more flexible, future-proof communications platform to improve efficiency and cut costs. It provides the council with a VoIP to its satellite offices. Other project deliverables include integrated contact centre functionality to manage both incoming and outgoing voice and email to improve call handling and reporting and, in turn, customer service.

BROMLEY COUNCIL has agreed a seven year contract with Liberata for the provision of Exchequer Services. The £42m contract will see the company provide key services across areas including revenues and benefits, customer services and payroll. Liberata has been working with Bromley since April 2002.

GWYNEDD COUNCIL engaged Comms Room Services to build its new green data centre comprising a combination of free air cooling air conditioning and cold aisle containment.

Free air cooling introduces cold air from the outside environment to cool the server room environment, while cold aisle containment separates hot and cold air flows, resulting in a low cost, low carbon alternative to traditional data centre air conditioning systems.

EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL has selected uEngage and uCreate from Objective Corporation as its Policy Lifecycle Management platform.

The solution will be used to help the council produce its Local Housing Strategy, a requirement for all Scottish local authorities.

HALTON BOROUGH COUNCIL says the local authority’s Employment, Economic Regeneration and Business Development department is weathering economic conditions thanks to its use of Concerto’s intelligent asset management.

ENFIELD AND HAVERING library services are sharing stock management services across the two boroughs. The innovative new arrangement means that one stock manager covers stock acquisition, performance and disposal for both boroughs making a combined saving of £35,000. The arrangement has been made possible as both are members of the 12-borough strong

HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM COUNCIL is using Spikes Cavell’s spotlightonspend with the aim of becoming Britain’s most transparent local council. The company has undertaken to adapt the spotlightonspend platform to facilitate access to the council’s wider transparency agenda, which will enable access by the general public and open data community to these new classes of data.

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CONTRACT ROUNDUP

TUNBRIDGE WELLS BOROUGH COUNCIL has deployed Dotted Eyes and GeoData’s Contractor Portal data sharing system. Completed on time and on budget, the system is already meeting the council’s need for a low-cost solution to providing automated data access to contractors, partners and internal planning staff.

The system was quickly deployed, immediately facilitating self-serve access to Ordnance Survey data licensed under the Mapping Services Agreement, whilst delivering compliance and audit trails.

LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL has implemented IT solutions from Zylpha to streamline operations in its legal department, helping to reduce paperwork, save time, reduce risk and slash transportation costs. Zylpha DocBinder allows multiple documents of different formats, including those held in SolCase, to be easily collated into a single, PDF document. It provides automatic indexation and pagination with amendment and regeneration at the click of a button.

LIVERPOOL DIRECT LIMITED is on track to save its primary customer, Liverpool City Council, an estimated £18k per month thanks to the installation of power reducing software program, NightWatchman. The software has been rolled out across the corporate network enabling PCs to be securely shut down on schedule every evening - saving around 12 hours of unnecessary power consumption per PC - and at weekends.

LONDON BOROUGH OF REDBRIDGE has implemented Me Learning’s suite of online PROTOCOL ICS training courses to enable frontline social workers to reduce time away from caseloads to undertake classroom training.

NEWARK AND SHERWOOD DISTRICT COUNCIL has gone live with a £180,000 unified communications solution from NEC Unified Solutions. NEC’s Sphericall solution is a service-oriented comms platform to provide the council with the flexibility and resilience it needs from a communications and IT infrastructure, with redundant servers for the two main sites and support for home workers.

NORFOLK COUNTY COUNCIL Children’s Services has signed a contract with BT for a Virtual Data Centre (VDC) service. The VDC service removes the need for physical hardware and will free up resources, enabling learning services to be provided to over 100,000 pupils and students in more than 400 schools across Norfolk. As an automated and scalable service, the VDC will enable the council to add and remove applications easily, and in a fraction of the time it would have taken previously.

OLDHAM COUNCIL is set to transfer more services to the Unity Partnership, a joint venture between the council and Mouchel.

Services to transfer include transactional

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November/December 2010

human resources and transactional finance (credit control and accounts payable), highways (asset management and network management) – plus some customer services functions. Under the agreement’s terms 85 posts will transfer to Unity Partnership.

REIGATE & BANSTEAD BOROUGH COUNCIL quickly located a stolen ride-on mower thanks to high-tech satellite vehicle tracking from Masternaut Three X. The real-time fleet management system alerted the council to the theft and the equipment was tracked accurately to a location approximately 60 miles away in Harlow. The council, which is trialing the system, has already identified spare capacity within its existing fleet. The system will also be used with the council’s parking services fleet.

SOMERSET COUNTY COUNCIL is bringing the county’s 269 schools and educational establishments a new high-speed broadband network from Southwest One. In addition to faster access to the internet and to Somerset’s e-Learning portfolio of courses, the network will provide a platform for new video and voice teaching applications in the future - for example videoconferencing for specialist teachers.

SURREY HEATH BOROUGH COUNCIL is using GGP Systems’ Gazetteer Management Software, GGP NGz, to integrate its centralised property database with front and back office systems such as council tax, the Electoral Register and customer relationship management software supplied by Lagan.

TELFORD & WREKIN COUNCIL is using Concerto Support Services software to manage its property rationalisation project.

The council plans to reduce the number of administrative buildings by approximately eight in the next two years, and is seeking further efficiencies where possible.

TELFORD AND WREKIN, SHROPSHIRE, WARWICKSHIRE AND HEREFORDSHIRE councils have enlisted the help of Habanero Business Consulting to reduce waste, improve efficiency and save more than £1m each year on their collective annual pothole repairs bill. They are now embarking on an eight month transformation programme which follows the consultancy’s success in a pilot scheme with Walsall Council which saved £400,000 a year on highway repairs.

UKauthorITy IT in Use

TRAFFORD COUNCIL has deployed a wireless network from Aruba Networks to improve the productivity of council staff and boost the reach and efficiency of its services to the local community. The roll out includes remote working for key staff, public wi-fi access in council buildings and better community engagement with council activities.

Trafford is also piloting a free wi-fi service in select public libraries, using Aruba’s 802.11n wi-fi technology.

WARRINGTON BOROUGH COUNCIL has gone live with IT service management software, Sostenuto, by Sunrise. The solution is used by the IT department, as well as the SAP support team and Business Support Centre, supporting the council’s 3,400 internal customers across a range of queries.

The department supports 220 locations including schools, leisure centres and libraries. Customers can log queries via phone or online through Sostenuto’s self service interface, Chameleon.

WESTERN ISLES COUNCIL has consolidated its financial management and reporting with a £157,000 investment in a software system from Civica. The implementation has enabled the authority to reduce reporting cycles, provide a clearer and more regular overview of debtors and creditors, while streamlining general ledger administration as well as other functions including debt recovery.

It also helps the team to improve cash flow management, generating payment requests to debtors at pre-set intervals.

WORCESTERSHIRE HUB SHARED SERVICE has chosen Sabio to implement a Verint unified Impact 360 Workforce Optimisation solution covering workforce management, call recording and quality monitoring support for over 50 agents at the Worcestershire Hub Shared Service Contact Centre. Under the Hub initiative Worcestershire County Council, Malvern Hills District Council and Worcester City Council have integrated their individual contact centres into a single larger customer contact centre operation that will use joined up, innovative solutions and processes to deliver more efficient services. Sabio will implement Impact 360 on the core Cisco contact centre platform.

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