Councils are hitting cultural barriers in their attempts to
implement online public services.
A report from the Society of IT Management and the Improvement and
Development Agency highlights some of the obstacles in the way of
local e-government.
Fred Baron, consultant at the IDeA, said, "There are two main
challenges for councils: the cultural and communication issues of
sharing best practice internally, and the challenge of sharing it
across the wider government sector. If the public sector could find
ways around these barriers, it could get best value from its
investment in IT."
However, the report found best practice in a number of areas,
including raising educational standards. Cumbria County Council won
praise for its use of computers and interactive whiteboards in
schools and Liverpool City Council's deployment of sensing
technologies in the homes of vulnerable people was also cited as a
trailblazing project.