IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Kent CC is to overhaul its online self assessment system for social services so that it can deal with "complex" cases, council officials said on 20 September 2005.

The pioneering assessment e-service, which has been running as a pilot for the past year, has so far successfully allowed people with "moderate" needs – such as those requiring occupational therapy – to see whether they qualify for social services support, according to the council.

Kent CC has awarded a £10m five year contract to IBM to modernise its administrative system technology, it announced on 31 August 2005.

The contract involves the replacing of existing email, storage and server technology within the council. About 9,000 computers will also be refreshed on a rolling basis to ensure that staff have access to devices less than three years old.

Findings from a two-year pilot study run by Kent County Council and two of the county's health trusts showed more than £7 million could be saved annually if Telehealth technology was installed in the homes of every eligible patient.

This includes people with diabetes, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - one of the biggest killers in the UK.

A report published this monthon the Kent Telehealth Pilot, which ran from 2005-2007 and covered 250 patients, says that use of telehealth saved an average of £1,878 per patient in 2006-7.

The figure is based on reduced unplanned admissions, A&E visits, nurse and GP home visits and better use of clinicians’ time.

The first major shake-up of the £6bn Connecting for Health plan is underway with the replacement of a key supplier in the Southern region, Computing has learned.

Software provider IDX is being dropped in favour of rival Cerner to develop the electronic care records system for the area.

It's been a busy few years for IT managers in local government - nobody in the private sector has had to work to a deadline of providing all their services electronically by 2005.

For many councils, this meant a re-appraisal of the role of IT in serving the community

The £6bn programme to transform NHS IT barely gets a mention, but Labour's election manifesto, launched on 13 April 2005, makes much of plans to introduce technology in other areas of the public sector.

Speaking this morning, the Prime Minister outlined how country-wide broadband and an increase in online, interactive, personalised public services would create “immense opportunities” to transform the way citizens interact with government.

Lambeth council has revamped its website as part of its efforts to meet this year's e-government targets, it announced on 2 August 2005.

The site now offers the London borough's citizens and businesses a range of council information and allows people to pay for services online. The facility is available for council tax, business rates, housing benefit overpayments, parking penalty charges, housing rent and housing service charges.

The primary care trust is working with EDM Group to convert inactive paper records into digital records.

The document conversion should dramatically reduce paper storage requirements. It should also help to improve the efficiency of the retrieval of inactive records, should they be needed by medical staff.

It has chosen performancesoft's pbviews system.

All documents relating to planning applications submitted to the county council are available to view online at the council's website.

The council already receives many planning applications via the internet, and a full list of the latest plans can be seen online, where people can also submit comments on them.