Whitehall gives councils £26m incentive to work together on e-government projects
- Posted:
- 16:08 27 May 2003
Report shows local authorities must
overcome barriers to joint working.
Local authorities across the UK are under increasing pressure to
offer their services electronically, but implementing an IT
infrastructure for people to pay their council tax online and
complain when dustbins have not been collected is easier said than
done.
Hence, last week the government allocated £26m to local
councils to fund 82 e-government partnerships, with projects
ranging from smartcards for libraries and transport to a shared
database for abandoned cars. The funding, which is the second
installment of £75m set aside for local and regional
partnerships, aims to overcome some of the traditional barriers to
joint working on e-government.
In a recent report, the New Local Government Network (NLGN)
underlined the need for joint working but warned there are still
significant hurdles. Partnerships can help resolve staff and skills
shortages and can also help in getting government funding. An IT
manager at a council in the North West said, "The fact the
government is promoting partnerships gives us the opportunity to
bid jointly for funding".
But worryingly, the NLGN's report uncovered some deeply ingrained
attitudes and cultures across local government that stand in the
way of joint working. The think tank warned that many councillors
and local government officials have adopted a culture of "working
for themselves" to prove local sovereignty and strength.
Councils, like other branches of government, often have
long-standing rivalries and vested interests and egos can stand in
the way of progress. Iain Roxburgh, a non-executive director of the
NLGN and the report's author, warned that getting partnership
projects off the ground is a major challenge for many local
authorities. He said, "The biggest hurdle for many councils is
getting the will, the authority and the political backing to make
the first move."
But for some of the smaller councils, joint strategies could be the
only option for delivering services electronically. Roxburgh said,
"Partnership working is the only way into e-government for many
smaller local authorities because of the costs of getting it off
the ground."
He also warned that some larger councils should devote thought to
how they work with other parts of the public sector. "For the
larger councils there is the issue of being able able to join up
with different agencies in their area, such as the health
sector."
With both the health service and the criminal justice network in
the midst of massive IT overhauls, metropolitan borough councils
need to think about how they will share information.
The NLGN said local authorities should consider integrating
customer relationship management with other agencies in their local
area, which in turn would drive the integration of back-office
functions. However, it is partnerships working across geographic
and institutional boundaries that will be key.
Progress
The good news is that councils appear to be moving in the right
direction. A survey published last year by Siemens Communications
found that more than 70% of local authorities are working together
to meet the 2005 target. Local government minister Chris Leslie
recently said that every council in England is participating in at
least one e-government project.
Brent Council, which took part in the government's original
pathfinder scheme for fostering best practice in e-government, is
one of the authorities at the forefront of joint working. The
council is currently involved in a London-wide partnership called
London Connects, which aims to encourage joint strategies between
local authorities, the NHS, the police, the fire service and
housing associations.
Bernard Diamant, director of corporate services at Brent Council,
said, "We want to ensure Londoners can access public services from
a single point of entry without having to work out which
organisation they should be dealing with. A lot of work has already
been done to share good practice on security and linking
websites."
Joint working could also enable councils to sell e-government
services to each other, such as CRM and consulting. A survey of
senior councillors and chief executives by the Local Government
Association at its annual conference last year showed that 66% of
those questioned were considering selling services to other
councils, while 82% said they would consider buying services from
another local authority.
Technological backwater
Over the years local government has earned a reputation as a
technological backwater, with the private sector perceived as
having the monopoly on cutting-edge IT. However, it appears the
roles could be changing.
Councils have realised they need to look at new ways of working and
using IT. Roxburgh said, "E-government targets are making
authorities think more fundamentally about their services and how
to re-engineer them around the customer."
But he warned that, as with any major partnership project, the
different parties should be clear on what is expected from them at
the outset. "It is vital the management of joint arrangements is
sorted out at the start. This is not a quick marriage and divorce,
it is a long-term relationship."
For Diamant, joint strategies are now part and parcel of
e-government. "Partnership working is important because the
e-government agenda is about joined-up service delivery and easy
access," he said.
www.nlgn.org.uk
www.londononline.gov.uk
E-government partnerships
Some of the projects that will get a share of the £26m
funding:
- An online job advertisement, job application and training system in Greater Manchester
- Joint procurement systems to help local businesses trade with the public sector in the North East
- A single interactive crime recording system to improve public safety in North London
- A publicly available interactive waste management system in South London to collate waste management data
- A joint interactive emergency incident management system in Kent
- An online planning system in the South East to link to the National Planning Portal
- An online information system to map information on roadworks carried out by local authorities and utilities in the East Midlands.
