Strategy for ICT-enabled local public services reform will guide unprecedented collaboration and radical re-design of service delivery across local authorities, emergency services, health, education and civil society organisations

Strategy launched by LCIO Council chair and Socitm President Jos Creese at Socitm Spring conference May 11

Unprecedented levels of collaboration between local authorities, emergency services, health, education and civil society organisations, leading to radical re-design of local public service delivery, is the future envisaged in the Strategy for ICT-enabled local public services launched at the Socitm Spring conference on May 11.

Successful implementation of the Strategy will lead to significant savings and better outcomes for people where they live and work, providing local public service leaders commit to the sort of value-driven, cost reducing, organisational change it advocates.

The focus of the Strategy - prepared by Socitm for the Local CIO Council - is much less about technology than it is about the 'what and how' of organisational change. Where it does focus on technology, this is around how to extract value from ICT and banish unhelpful, technology-led cultures and practices that all too frequently have accompanied ICT procurement, deployment and management in parts of the public sector.

The Strategy offers a new approach - one which assumes national standards and policies, but which allows local choice and pragmatic implementation, supported by relevant guidance. It rejects the 'one size fits all' approach for local public services, and the rigid, large-scale technology-led programmes driven from Whitehall, pursued by successive governments whilst linking to the practical delivery of the new government's recently launched ICT strategy.

Importantly, it positions ICT as an agent of change, a source of innovation, a key to efficiency and a fundamental part of service improvement. The best public services will embrace their ICT in this way - not just as a support service or delivery channel for utility technologies.

The Strategy document, deliberately labelled Planting the Flag, is a 'call to arms' and sets an overarching, national vision for local public service reform. It will be followed by a second phase, Planning the Route, that will involve developing more detailed plans for how this vision can be delivered at the local level by involving cross-sectoral collaboration. This implementation work will be facilitated by Socitm's regional groups, working alongside local partners.

Planting the Flag sets out three core principles (collaborate, redesign and innovate), six strategic capabilities (leadership, governance, organizational change, strategic commissioning, shared services and professionalism) and six key issues around information and technology that are key to redesigning local public services - faster, cheaper, better - delivering better for less in ways citizens want These are:

Business change - because information and technology are necessary, but not sufficient, for the scale of change required of local public services. Strategies and policies should be developed for designing and implementing new operating models cross local public services that are sensitive to local circumstances and co-produced with partners and service users. New approaches to risk and value management and to multi-partner change governance should be explored and best practice shared.

Digital access and inclusion - because processes and information systems should be designed assuming digital access 'by default' for citizens and employees. Local public service organisations should publish data to open standards to allow third parties to use it to deliver applications and services. Strategies and policies for exploiting social media and networking tools should be developed to support citizen engagement and service delivery. Digital literacy programmes should be joined-up across "place" and offered to both employees and citizens.

Local public services infrastructure - because local public service organisations should be moving towards shared ICT infrastructure, contracts and support arrangements, starting with converged public sector networks and the rationalisation and sharing of data centres. Technologies should be implemented to allow staff to work securely anytime, anyplace, anywhere and from most devices - including personally owned consumer devices. Business processes should be standardised and automated where possible to minimise system implementation and maintenance costs. Information systems should work to open and agreed standards and their specification should enable internal and external interoperability.

Information governance - because efficient, effective, local public services depend on fast, secure access by authorized personnel to 'a single version of the truth' about people, assets, finance, service usage and performance. Changes to current practice are needed across public services in information governance, architecture and responsibilities.

Information management, assurance and transparency - because most managers do not recognise the value of information or appreciate the importance of its quality. Failure to share and a tendency to duplicate information across local public services are endemic and there is no common, local public services security framework. Release of 'public' information (i.e. information without privacy or state security issues) is not routine.

ICT polices of central government departments - because these affect the efficiency of local public services. Common information assurance approaches and standards, especially around health services, are needed, and mandating all public service organisations to move to the proposed Public Sector Network would usefully standardise networks and services. A single identity management and verification standard for employees and citizens to access all government services (excluding the highest levels) would also help, as would the application of appropriate levels of information assurance management for local public services delivery, based on associated threats or risks.

Socitm President Jos Creese is bullish about the impact of Planting the Flag: 'There has never been a strategy for ICT-enabled local public services before, let alone one conceived for a citizen-driven public sector. Planting the Flag sets out a destination and stakes out local public service delivery territory. Our aim is that it provides a compass, a torch and a map to navigate through the territory, with organisations coming together in different localities and using it to work out the particular route to their desired destination'.

Other public service leaders have welcomed this bold initiative. Government CIO Joe Harley says:

'As Government CIO I welcome this Strategy for ICT-enabled local public services reform.  We face a challenging agenda across all parts of the public services, with the imperative to provide better for less.  Citizens' expectations of public services delivery are high and the themes contained in 'Planting the Flag' rise to the challenge of delivery of improved services while at the same time cutting costs. We must also continue to innovate, adopting new processes and developing new products to meet the growing challenges faced by the public sector.  The core themes of 'Planting the Flag':  sharing and re-using our assets, simplifying and standardising our services and empowering citizens and communities, are also fully aligned with the actions highlighted in our central Government ICT Strategy.  I look forward to forging a close working relationship with local Government colleagues as we harness the opportunities of our joint agendas.'

Steve Freer, Chief Executive of public service finance professionals organisation CIPFA adds: 

Socitm is playing a very important role with this work. Slick, customer-friendly, ICT-enabled services are the future. Implemented skillfully they will pay critical dividends not only in terms of financial savings and service improvements but also for organisational reputation.

Planting the Flag is published in a summary version for chief executives, elected members, and senior management teams in local public services, with a more detailed version is available from May 11 for CIOs/Heads of ICT, ICT specialists, and the private sector.

The Strategy is the result of open and wide consultation across the public, private, and civil society sectors, including central government colleagues and the ICT industry. Its approach is deliberately 'pan-local', covering public service provision regionally and sub-regionally through local authorities, emergency services, health, education, and the civil society sector. It builds on work done by LG Group, SOLACE, CIPFA, and others on the future of public services.

Most crucially, it offers a local dimension to the recently published national Government

ICT Strategy which should help with its successful implementation.

Copies of the Planting the Flag will be available on www.socitm.net/downloads  from May 11.

Further information

Martin Ferguson
07931 456238
Head of Policy, Socitm
martin.ferguson@socitm.gov.uk

Vicky Sargent
07726 601 139
Socitm Press Office
vicky.sargent@socitm.net