The prime minister's plans for e-government are being stifled by
the reluctance of many IT professionals to work in the public
sector, Mike Simmons reports
Prime minister Tony Blair has a vision of a new Britain with IT
and communications technology at its heart. Rarely a week goes by
without Blair, one of his ministers or the e-envoy Alex Allan
setting new targets or making new promises about the brave new
e-enabled world. But their hopes and aspirations could all be
threatened by a mounting communications and IT skills shortage in
the public sector.
According to Katherine Tulpa, marketing director at employment
and training organisation Spring.Com, "The communications market is in the
highest demand right now and that makes it hard for public sector
organisations to recruit."
For communications professionals that means the public sector
offers both opportunity and frustration in equal measure, with low
pay being an obvious part of the problem.
The scale of the problem facing the public sector has been
outlined in two authoritative reports, one from Socitm, the local
government IT manager's organisation, and the other from the
Government's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency.
Martin Greenwood, author of the Socitm report Services at Risk?
The growing shortages of ICT skills, says, "Local government is
being thrust much nearer the leading edge of technology than ever
before. That means competing for skills, and to do that you have to
be flexible and innovative."
Greenwood identifies networking and Internet development skills
as potential problem areas, but he adds that the Government's new
initiatives mean there is now a lot of potential for local
government IT staff to "show what they are capable of".
Real and immediate problems
Central government IT departments are suffering a skills
shortage every bit as severe as the local authorities, according to
the CCTA's annual IT Skills Survey. Of the ITorganisations surveyed
by the CCTA 44% report "real and immediate problems" in recruitment
and retention of staff. A further 42% say that "the problem exists
but it is manageable".
Reading University has been trying to appoint a communications
manager for two years, and has recently advertised again,
illustrating the problems in education.
Hilary Vines, Reading's assistant director of IT services,
highlights the scale of the problem for public sector organisations
when she says, "It is very difficult to find the right quality of
staff. We are stuck with national pay scales, we can't offer London
weighting and there are lots of IT organisations on our doorstep
competing for staff."
That could change if organisations adopt the recommendations of
the CCTA report, which calls for more emphasis on staff
development, flexible grading structures and "prudent use of
allowances" to attract and retain staff.
IT and communications directors could put together some
attractive employment packages, if they shake off the public sector
pay scales and grading mindset.
For most communications and IT professionals, the bottom line in
the pay packet is important, but not the only consideration.
Stimulating work, good training and flexible working arrangements
are all available for the asking.
Roger Marshall, IT director at the Corporation of London, who
has to compete for staff with City firms, says, "Pay in many areas
of the private sector is not much higher than the public sector."
And there is certainly plenty of interesting work for comms
specialists looking for a change.
The public sector has been told to deliver all appropriate
services online by 2005, which means offering services in whatever
form people demand, whether it is using a PC, digital TV or Wap
phone.
Local government has a highly mobile workforce, with an
increasing demand for mobile communications technology.
Richard Steel, head of IT contract services at Newham Council in
East London, says the borough's development of mobile computing
could compare to anything in the private sector.
Newham is providing social workers with 24-hour secure access to
the department's Carefirst database, as well as e-mail, scheduling,
intranet and other corporate systems, using lightweight notebook
computers and mobile phone technology. The solution maintains data
communications via mobile phones while they are taking voice
calls.
Jos Creese, head of IT at Southamp-ton City Council, is equally
enthusiastic about the type of communications work available in the
public sector.
"We have started trailing Wap technology," he says. "Real time
communications are important to local authorities. They allow
workers to access information they need while out on a job. That
reduces preparation time in the office and the need to return to
the office for extra documents."
The roll-out of the National Grid for Learning is almost
complete and will be just the start of an IT and communications
revolution sweeping schools and colleges. At the same time, the
higher education sector is grappling with the concept of the
e-university, with leading academic institutions across the globe
linking up to offer on-line learning. Both of these areas will need
skilled staff to handle innovative implementations.
Despite its drawbacks, the public sector offers challenging work
and skills are highly valued. It is an area that should not be
overlooked.
Innovation in public sector IT
Financial considerations aside, one of the key reasons why IT
professionals snub a career in the public sector is a perceived
lack of innovation and a dearth of cutting edge projects. However,
the Government's Invest to Save programme aims to address that
issue and encourage IT innovation.
In February, Cabinet Office minister Mo Mowlam and Treasury
minister Andrew Smith announced that more than 100 public sector
projects around the country had won a total of £60m in the second
round of Invest to Save.
Invest to Save is aimed at supporting projects that involve
several public bodies working together to deliver innovative,
responsive and efficient services.
Almost half the winning projects involved a major IT or
communications input. Central government projects ranged from a new
community legal service Web site being developed by the Lord
Chancellor's Department to a database system for the Driver and
Vehicle Licensing Agency to track the movement of vehicles.
Among the more bizarre projects was a plan by the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to create a "live fish movement
database/ Web site" at a cost of £185,000.
Local authorities were well represented among those winning
support, with schemes to create public service networks and Web
sites. Moves by health authorities to create unified databases also
got a boost.
Mowlam says, "Our vision is of delivering services organised
around individuals' needs rather than around the convenience of
those providing the service. The Invest to Save budget is a key
part of achieving this."
E-envoy Alex Allan, welcomes the awards. "Public services must
take advantage of the information age revolution," he says. "Many
of the projects demonstrate the entrepreneurial and innovative
spirit in which people across the public sector are using IT."
Projects which make it through the bidding process have to agree
an implementation plan with the Treasury and Cabinet Office,
provide six-monthly progress reports and carry out an evaluation
once it has been completed.
In order to assess the programme the Government has ordered
research into the impact of round one. It will focus on the success
or otherwise of different types of partnership-working, the
contribution of the projects to the spread of best practice and the
effectiveness of the bidding and monitoring process.
More details about Invest to Save projects click here.