Continued budget cuts will compromise ICT’s ability to deliver savings elsewhere in public service organisations, says Socitm IT Trends report 2009/10

Continued budget cuts will compromise ICT's ability to deliver savings elsewhere in public service organisations, says Socitm IT Trends report 2009/10

• financial resources available to the ICT functions of local authorities forecast to fall by 11% in 2009/10
• a 10% reduction in staff numbers is predicted 2009/10 with ICT staff  employed set to fall by 3000
• Capital spending is forecast to fall by 20%, departmental spending by 16% and central ICT spending by 8%
• Communications is the only area where growth is predicted

ICT professionals working in public services are coming under increasing pressure as cuts to their budgets are impacting at a time management is increasing demand for ICT services in order to take cost out of other parts of the organisation.

This is the key finding of IT trends 2009/10: stretched to breaking point the latest edition of Socitm's annual survey of IT trends in local public services, published on 21 January.  

The report, based in a survey of IT professionals in local government and other local public services, reveals that across the sector ICT budgets have been cut, staff numbers have been reduced and service levels have been impacted.

Local public service providers are focussing on strategic transformational initiatives aimed at cutting cost, including flexible working and rationalisation of accommodation together with business process improvement and document management. More effort is being put into driving self-service through the website while also reinvesting in customer relationship management

However, funding for these investments from external sources appears to be drying up, shared service initiatives have stalled and there is little appetite to borrow money to fund ICT. As a result, overall capacity within the ICT function to deliver improvement has decreased since Socitm's last IT Trends survey. Despite efforts to streamline their own operations through technologies such as virtualisation, information governance measures and improved service management, ICT managers say that being asked to do more with less is now the major challenge they face. Funding rather than staff shortage appears to be the limiting factor.

This situation is in sharp contract to last year's survey findings, when for 2008/09, ICT spending by local authorities was forecast to increase by 5%, and authorities were planning to spend over 3.2bn on ICT in 2008/9 - overtaking the record levels achieved in 2005.

Given demand for ICT services and its resourcing moving in opposite directions, IT Trends 2009/10 says there is a need for a radical rethink about how technology can be exploited for the public's benefit. The worldwide infrastructure, communications and technology services available today offer a fantastic opportunity to public service providers, it says, the challenge for all is how to exploit the potential at the pace demanded.

With equipment purchases forecast to be considerably less, the length of time that assets will be used by organisations will inevitably increase, and public authorities will become increasingly dependent on old technology. Consequently, the workforce will be using older, lower specification equipment in the office than they would be using at home. Organisations will either need

to find more cash to support the ageing ICT infrastructure or find new lower-cost ways of delivering ICT service.

This situation must provoke a challenge to the current approach to the provision of IT services, says the report, which repeats questions first posed in last year's report, namely:

• Does it make sense to own as much of the infrastructure as we currently do?
• Can we integrate our workforce's technology into service delivery?
• To what extent can we use software as a service to meet our business requirements?
• How well does our current model deal with change?
• How fast can we deploy new solutions?
• How much information that we hold needs to be secure and private?

'Transformation will only come about through bold decisions and significant investment, with leadership from the top of our organisations' says John Serle, editor or IT Trends 2009/10. 'The reality is that our respondents are
suffering from the perennial pressures of funding cuts alongside increased demand and are under greater pressure than ever. There is nothing new here, except for the scale of the forthcoming public spending squeeze that
confronts us'.

IT Trends 2009/10 is based on a comprehensive questionnaire sent out in May to the heads of ICT of every local authority and other local public service provider in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The responses provide a great deal of factual information; particularly relating to the scale and nature of the ICT resources used by authorities, including expenditure, staffing levels and technologies. This year we have used data from 390
organisations, which statistically is an excellent sample for making predictions about the overall position of the local public sector.

The report also identifies the programmes and schemes that are being introduced to deliver greater efficiency and proposes what action might need to be taken in order to satisfy a growing demand for ICT with less resource.

IT Trends 2009/10 provides an in depth review of the current position in the Local Government ICT scene together with a detailed analysis of the challenges authorities face. The 2009/10 report features:

• An executive summary for policy makers

• An analysis of the capacity of authorities to deliver change


• Ideas on how to deliver efficiency savings

• Views of IT managers about the challenges ahead

A CD-ROM version of the report complete with the data is also available. This contains the individual survey responses (not identified) and will allow users to undertake their own analyses.  Copies are available now and cost £495 (£595 for the report and data), discounts are available to Socitm Insight subscribers Copies can be ordered from www.socitm.net.

Press copies of the executive summary (pdf format) are available now.

Press enquiries:

John Serle, IT Trends Editor

Tel: 07867 907372, john.serle@socitm.net

Vicky Sargent, Socitm Press Office

Mobile: 07726 601 139, vicky.sargent@socitm.net

Notes for Editors

Socitm has undertaken a survey into the application of information and communications technology in local government since 1987. The survey, now in its 23rd year, is based on a comprehensive questionnaire sent out in May to the heads of ICT of every local authority and other local public service provider in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The responses
provide a wealth of factual information, particularly relating to the scale and nature of the ICT resources used by those organisations, including expenditure, staffing levels and technologies. We also include subjective information, such as views on government initiatives affecting local public
services or predictions of future trends.

• The aims of the survey are to:
• help organisations providing local public services plan and manage their ICT services
• influence legislation and central funding of ICT in the local public sector
• facilitate information sharing
• encourage joint procurement and service sharing
• provide a source of information on the application of ICT in local public services for officers, councillors, ministers and government officials, suppliers, consultants, academics and anyone else with an interest in this sector.

Socitm is the professional association representing managers with responsibility for ICT strategy and management within local authorities and other public services together with members from the private and charitable sectors.  Its vision is the transformation of public services through the effective application of ICT. With approximately 1800 members from 1000 different organisations including 95% of all UK local authorities, Socitm provides a widely respected forum for the promotion, use and development of ICT best practice. It is also playing a leading role in supporting the transformation of local authorities and other public services in the UK though ICT facilitated change.