|
e-Government in the UKStrategy and Best PracticeThe UK has a mature e-government program dating back well over a decade a period that coincides with the devolutionary shift of political power to the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies and the Scottish Parliament over the same period. Thus it can no longer be said that the UK’s strategy and policy for e-government is homogeneous across all jurisdictions as the governance is in effect now divided between them. That said, the policies and best practices that drive the respective e-government initiatives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Island tend to mirror that of England and today embody EU initiatives for trans-European integration in this area too. Therefore, the remainder of this section will use England and UK interchangeably unless referring to specific jurisdictional efforts. Given its early adoption of e-government and the complex political landscape, it is hardly surprising that over the past ten years the UK’s e-government program has evolved considerably with many course corrections along the way reflecting the lessons learned (not always timely) at each stage of developing e-enabled government services and the development of its information society as a whole. In so doing, the UK has largely set the pattern for e-service enablement initiatives around the world – the e-government service progression from simply publishing information to basic interaction, e.g. e-forms, to full transactional capability, e.g. filing and processing tax returns, housing and welfare benefits, passports, etc., to more complete transformation and reform of public sector operations. Like its counterparts around the world, the UK has worked hard to establish the infrastructure – de-regulated telecom industry, secure government gateways, inter-operability standards, authentication, broadband availability, etc. Its efforts to progress local authorities (the largest government sector) through the e-service enablement phases gave rise to the establishment of targets for service types BV157 and procurement BV8 coupled with tight monitoring IEG – which monitored progress and performance on e-services across the entire local government arena with clear deadlines. It was soon realized that e-enablement alone did not necessarily achieve the efficiency gains or effective transformation hoped for. Following an efficiency review of the public sector in 2003 strategy shifted to a more outcome oriented approach with the publication of priority outcomes which targeted specific important outcomes in certain service areas, e.g. Education. The focus on benefits realization was stepped up again with the publication of the Gershon report in 2004 which mandated demonstrable annual productivity gains of 2.5% p.a. (including headcount cuts) which was accompanied by the threat of budget caps. The report highlighted the need to use e-service enablement as a means to move back office resources to the front line to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and the commensurate importance of change management. It also pointed out the huge savings to be made by e-procurement and the development of e-markets for government purchasing. 2004 also saw the launch of a whole-of-government portal for citizens called Directgov (the business equivalent BusinessLink.gov.uk was launched in 2003).
In 2005 the e-government program took a further turn in its development with the publication of the UK’s new strategy – Transformational Government – Enabled by Technology and a new Digital Strategy. 2005 also saw major changes to the governance of the program with the introduction of a CIO council, and an agreement between the e-Government Unit (eGU) of the Cabinet Office and the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to share responsibility. The e-GU would lead on strategy, architecture, technical and operational delivery whilst the OGC would lead on the commercial, financial, and delivery aspects of the program. A New Strategy The new strategy, commissioned by the Prime Minister sets out to transform the ‘business of government’ to address three challenges resulting from increased globalization – economic productivity, social justice and public service reform as well as engendering a permanent ethos of innovation within the public services. With the basic infrastructure in place, attention was turning to helping front line public servants be more effective, e.g. Doctors, paramedics, emergency services, social workers and teachers; supporting effective policy outcomes, e.g. joined-up, multi-agency working in situations such as domestic violence; and reforming corporate services, e.g. better, faster and more innovative adoption of new technologies. A framework for the implementation of the strategy was introduced along with a charter agreement . The new strategy marked a sea change in thinking. Whilst still looking to improve the infrastructure , citizen focus, self-service, access and the e-enablement of all facets of the public sector the new strategy takes a more holistic view. Prompted by a comprehensive government spending review in 2007 and the Varney Report all aspects of the strategy (including the agreement and implementation plan) focus on transforming delivery, greater professionalism, a move to a shared service culture and getting better value from the ICT spend - rationalizing the plethora of government web sites , accreditation and rationalization of government call centers, open systems , shared services, e.g. internal – HR and Finance, external – shared front-offices , and improving take-up by citizens (an essential component of benefits realization) This was accompanied by a push to raise the professionalism of government CIOs and IT staff and improve project/program delivery and contractual management of ICT product and service procurement to reduce excessive waste and duplication within the public sector. The UK’s e-gov. strategy seeks to transform delivery within the context of a maturing information society in which the key changes and embedded new cultures is irreversible by 2011. It clearly sees this phase of its development as the final phase in preparation for a post industrial society where the boundaries between departments, local and central government, public, private and voluntary sectors continues to be less visible to citizens and businesses and self service at home, in public places and on the move become the norm and the new technologies of today will be mainstreamed. The Varney Report of 2006 set in motion a new contract between the public sector and the information society – citizens and business who both consume and add value to public sector information and services. It stressed the need to reexamine the totality of the relationship between the public sector and the remainder of the information society. With greater digital inclusion and authenticated and secure access to the full spectrum of services via just three public-facing portals uptake is increasing dramatically. This is re-invigorating the debate on e-participation. Long an advocate of e-voting the various jurisdictions within the UK have been severely criticized – on grounds of inadequate technological capability to ensure security and legitimacy. Whilst e-voting remains on the agenda the emphasis is switching to e-participation of a different kind. The UK government is in the forefront of large developed economies in its early recognition of e-participation as fundamental to the future development of the information society (particularly adoption and socio-economic development), the future knowledge economy in Britain and the reshaping of public services and policy by citizens and business themselves. The mantra of self-service is being joined by self-development.
The Latest Gov. 2.0 DevelopmentsThe UK e-government program is now entering a new phase in its development – that of Gov2.0 . In this the UK is yet again taking a pioneering role and is experimenting with new ways to interact with its citizens and businesses in readiness for its post 2011 strategy. Neil Williams - the head of Digital Communications at the UK's new Super-Ministry...The Department for Business Innovation and Skills BIS is advocating that government departments should start tweeting and has even provided a free template to guide UK government departments - Feel Free to Use This Valuable Template wherever you are ...... Template Twitter Strategy for Government Departments In an attempt to establish best practice and set policy in this relatively uncharted area the Cabinet Office commissioned an independent report - ‘The Power of Information’ 2007 . The report was quickly followed up by the establishment of a special task force to advise government on delivering benefit [social and economic] from new developments in digital media and the use of citizen and state-generated information in the UK. The report has far-reaching consequence for the development of the knowledge based economy and innovation in general. Some its main tenets are:
Most of these findings have been corroborated by the Power of Information Task force – due shortly to report to Cabinet. In recognizing the value of free of marginal cost based public sector information (for non commercial) use the UK government sees the added value in terms of knowledge, innovation, new products and services as a crucial next step in the development of a knowledge economy and the development of services by citizens for citizens. Although the recommendations stipulate non-commercial use – this does not preclude other forms of in-direct monetization and could be the stimulus for new businesses . This represents a further convergence with the practices of the non-government sector, e.g. Google. The UK has for almost two years advocated freely available public sector information as an adjunct to Web 2.0 developments, e.g. for a, blogs, etc., as the basis for future engagement of citizens worldwide to tackle global and cross border issues sparking considerable interest world-wide. It is certain that this will form a major plank in the UK’s post 2011 e-government strategy and public sector organizations are already beginning to ramp up their efforts in this area. AnalysisChallengesThe dense and complex political landscape in England of central government agencies; regional, unitary, county, district and parish councils all providing services to citizens and/or business or each has presented a major challenge to the e-government program in England and the UK. There are for example over 400 local councils and more than 10,000 parish and town councils in England providing over 250 different services. Similar political landscapes exist in the devolved constitutions. Additionally, many services were based on traditional systems and processes that were themselves based on the inherited systems of the past, e.g. an imprecise land records system developed from medieval records like the doomsday book. This level of devolution and decentralization coupled with the size of its population has presented a major challenge for the unification, governance, consensus and adoption of e-services across the UK and the UK’s responses over time and led to slow up-take. Central government’s response to this (though often un-timely, wasteful and characterized by abrupt change of tactics) has achieved remarkable success and offers many valuable lessons to more recent large scale e-government programs. Strengths ` The UK’s economic FIFO development over the years has often left it scrambling to find replacements for defunct economic activity, e.g. merchant shipping, ship building, coal mining, manufacturing, etc. As such, the UK has had to re-invent itself on many occasions – leveraging a knowledge economy out of radical change in the key actors of the information society and the information that underpins it – may well present its best opportunity to date. The UK has a strong reputation for innovation and the development of intellectual property - though it has often failed to capitalize on this commercially, leaving the field open for other countries to exploit its intellectual property. However, it has maintained its global competitiveness and entrepreneurial spirit (particularly with the influx of more entrepreneurial immigrants in recent years) which, coupled with a more dynamic public sector bent on e-government ideally positions the UK to exploit the opportunities presented. Weaknesses The evolution of England’s e-government strategy is characterized by constant course correction as the obstacles are encountered in what are largely un-charted waters. There has been constant changes in governance; shifts from centralized to decentralized initiatives and back again; numerous re-focusing and re-prioritizing exercises, e.g. the Gershon Report and various attempts to measure and correct. This has often led to waste and duplication of effort, particularly within local government and corrections have sometimes come too late to remedy the problems and have instead contributed to the problem. Despite this successive government’s have managed to push through the UK’s modernizing government agenda against a backdrop of the most intense political rivalry – to a point where the original vision of efficient and effective, seamless government services is unlikely to be rolled back. However, a change in political persuasion could seriously impact the Gov 2.0 agenda before it has chance to take hold. The UK has a poor record of using free resources, e.g. geo-spatial information, to stimulate growth and development. Although its has adopted marginal costing for a vast majority of public sector information and has established an improved environment for some key national data-sets in the form of trade funds (based on cost recovery) it has repeatedly shied away from relinquishing control almost $1-2 billion revenue from information sales. This is particularly true of geo-spatial information from the Ordnance Survey which underpins around 160$billion of economic activity in the UK and often cited as a major constraint in the development and use of geo-spatial data that severely limits the overall benefits to the economy estimated to dwarf the revenues earned. The economic use of geo-spatial data is once again on the agenda with Gov 2.0. Opportunities The UK economy is heavily information based, e.g. large public sector combined with a major international base for financial services. As a result of the current economic crisis the boundaries between these two large sectors has blurred and provided a common objective – meeting their global responsibility. There is a huge opportunity to underpin both improved and better engaged public services along side an opportunity to stimulate SME growth through the freeing up of information in the public sector, e.g. health services. Threats The UK’s drop in world rankings probably reflects the relative size of the UK’s e-government undertaking (even the US, the only other major economy in the top 10, adopts a federated approach); the advance of other nations – the majority of which are relatively small and present an easier environment for roll-out than the UK, and the fact that the rankings tend to follow rather than lead best practice. Of more significant threat is early failure on a grand scale within what can best be called ‘bleeding edge’ development and the disparity that will could arise across multiple jurisdictions, although it felt that the UK’s pre-eminent position coupled with the EU’s efforts to set standards (often based on UK standards) for cross border interoperability will ensure the continued mirroring of e-government developments in England.
Have Your Say!
If you are in anyway involved with e-service programs. Whether it is BIG e-government, e-health, e-cities, etc., or SMALL e-service strategies for SMEs and Ma & Pa Online Businesses or even a MIX of the two, e.g. National e-Commerce Programs for SMEs. .... Return from e-government in the UK to international e-strategies
|
