Tuesday 08 Mar 2011 @ 12:12
SOCITM (Society of Information Technology Management)
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Socitm invites wide stakeholder involvement in development of the Routemap for Local Public Services Reform - enabled by ICT: online consultation to run until 4 April

Socitm is inviting stakeholders from across the public, private, and civil society sectors to collaborate in the development of the Routemap for Local Public Services reform - enabled by ICT.

 

Public consultation on the draft Routemap, which is now in an advanced stage of development, opens on Tuesday 8 March and runs until Monday 4 April. The Routemap itself will be launched at the Socitm Spring conference on May 11.

 

Creation of the Routemap began when the Cabinet Office asked the Local Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council to lead on developing a local public services perspective on the Government ICT strategy. Socitm, which runs the CIO Council, has led this work through Socitm's Futures Group.

 

Socitm's network of relationships and influence is extensive at all levels of government and across the diverse range of organisations engaged in designing and delivering public services locally. The draft Routemap is founded on the work of SOLACE, CIPFA, Institute for Government, RSA Commission for Public Services 2020 and others on the future of public services. It also draws on a strong body of evidence-based research on ICT-enabled reform of local public services, built up by Socitm over the last 25 years in partnership with a wide range of organisations.

 

The Routemap aims to translate relevant strands of Government ICT strategy into practical actions by local CIOs to support public service reform and re-design in their areas. It will provide a practical, 'pan-local' approach to ICT-enabled public service reform that will cover local authorities, health services, blue light services, transport authorities, housing associations, educational institutions, civil society organisations, and local arms of central government delivery organisations.

 

The Routemap is not intended to prescribe the exact route local public services should follow. Instead, it aims to set out a broad vision of where reformed and ICT-enabled local public services might be in five years time, the principles that will underpin the changes needed, and specific elements that will need to be in place.

 

Development of the Routemap is a response to a number of factors coming together at this particular time:

 

  • A Government with unprecedented zeal for efficiency, reform, and citizen responsibility
  • Huge pressure on local public services to economise at a time when shared services and digital delivery promise opportunities to do things differently at much lower cost
  • increasing consumerisation and commoditisation of ICT and associated reductions in the risk of deployment
  • The forthcoming Government ICT Strategy that will provide an overarching view of the direction for technology, but will need translation for local application
  • a new generation of policy makers and service leaders comfortable with technology and its application
  • opportunities for technology to contribute to a 'greener' approach

The draft Routemap envisages a pan-local approach to ICT service delivery, with a wide range of public sector organisations sharing resources, procurement and delivery to provide reformed, collaborative and innovative local public services. Specifically, it covers

  • Capabilities, including leadership, governance, transformational business change and professionalism
  • Information, including management, assurance, architecture, standards, authentication and security
  • Public Services ICT infrastructure, including the Public Sector Network (PSN) and cloud provisioning, including shared data centres and applications
  • Shared services and supplier management, including HR, finance, business intelligence, portfolio and programme management, procurement, ICT and specialised services such as mapping
  • Digital access and inclusion
  • Sustainability and green ICT

"There's never been a strategy for ICT-enabled local public services before, let alone one conceived for a citizen-driven public sector" says Jos Creese, Chair of the Local CIO Council, President of Socitm and CIO for Hampshire County Council. 'With the Routemap, we aim to provide a compass, a torch and a map, with organisations coming together in different localities and using it to work out particular routes to their desired destinations".

 

Any organization or individual with an interest in local public services is invited to get involved in helping to refine the thinking and evidence supporting the Routemap. The online consultation is available at:

 

http://socitm-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/routemap2015/routemap2015

 

Socitm is very grateful to Objective Corporation (www.objective.com), who have made available their uEngage platform for this consultation.

 

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

 

Notes for Editors: key stakeholders in local public services

  • Local government authorities
  • 'Blue light' emergency services
  • Local health commissioning and provider organisations
  • Education - schools and local higher education institutions
  • Local passenger transport organisations
  • Leisure services providers
  • Housing Associations (Registered Social Landlords)
  • Civil society organisations
  • Town and Parish Councils
  • Central government services delivered locally
  • Local Enterprise Partnerships and business groups
  • Private sector suppliers to these organisations
  • LG Group
  • Professional Associations
  • Think tanks and other similar institutions
  • PITCOM and EURIM
  • Political party interest groups
  • Academic institutions

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