IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The revelation, which has emerged on A-Level results day, comes at a time when ministers are attempting to overhaul the way computing is taught in UK schools.

Traditional curriculums, where basic ICT skills are taught are being abandoned in favour of a new focus on teaching programming skills.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has announced plans for an academy to boost the skills of senior project leaders across government to deliver complex ICT and other projects.

Each year two groups of about 25 people will enter the Major Projects Leadership Academy for a 12 month formal programme covering three primary themes: major project leadership, technical understanding of major project delivery and commercial capability.

I recently spoke at the Scottish Council for Development & Industry's Productive Places conference in Glasgow which explored the City Region deals and how these can be maximised to create more liveable, enlightened and dynamic communities.

These important deals, which have already been agreed for Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, will have a major impact on both local and national economies, and will undoubtedly change the face of these regions for the better.

Befor Covid-19, the Scottish Government was active in fostering existing and new relationships with our Nordic and Baltic neighbours. Now that the world has been turned upside down by the horror of this pandemic, connections with these smaller northern nations seem all the more important in terms of what we can learn from their individual responses to the crisis.

Estonia is a case in point, a small nation state with a population of 1.3million, with one of the fastest-growing economies in the EU and one of the highest standards of living in the world. This success is in no small part due to its digitisation and e-governance revolution since becoming independent in the 1990s, adding leading digital nation status to its many accolades.

"We want to ensure GPS framework agreements are driving the greatest competition, and achieving a wider range of suppliers, including SMEs, in the ICT market," said Bill Crothers, government's chief procurement officer. "I have therefore asked David Shields to assess how we are using these frameworks so that we can achieve the most effective results for everyone.

Environmental services and social care were the areas most likely to be merged. A similar proportion of councils, 89%, intend to share more back-office functions.

Some 89% currently share either frontline or back-office services according to the survey, carried out by law firm Browne Jacobson.

As local and national government increasingly use big-data analytics to improve services, questions of transparency and privacy arise

There is rightfully a lot of hype around e-government. The application of analytics in the private sector has had a significant impact on our lives.

And, at first blush, it seems like a great idea for our governments to be more like Google or Amazon, using data and analytics to deliver improved services more cost effectively, when and where people need them.

The findings will fuel controversy over the economic case for telehealth, which many information technology and telecoms companies are betting on as a multibillion-dollar market opportunity.

The Daily Mail reports this morning that the civil service has been increasing in size:

“The surge in bureaucrats is led by the Department for International Development (DfID) which has almost 39 per cent more staff than seven years ago. While there were 1,600 civil servants at the ministry in the summer of 2010, there are now 2,220. This is the largest increase across all departments. In a sign that austerity is coming to an end, latest figures show that across Whitehall there are more than 390,000 officials, up 2 per cent over the past year. The Institute for Government think tank, which has analysed the official statistics, say staff numbers have increased for four quarters in a row for the first time since at least 2010.”

In a report, entitled Managing ICT Contracts: An audit of three public sector programmes, Audit Scotland highlights a trio of wasteful IT failures.

These include Registers of Scotland, a programme originally budgeted at £66m, which ballooned to £112m before the contract was terminated; Disclosure Scotland, whereby a new ICT system intended to protect vulnerable groups of people will be delivered 18 months late; and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, in which £2.3m was spent before the project was terminated due to increased costs and a reduced capital budget.

Telehealth covers the range of communication technologies used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, often remotely. It varies from consultations by mobile phone or video link to self-monitoring equipment in patients’ homes.

TrackMyCrime has been launched by Avon and Somerset Police today, and will allow victims access to investigation information from the police systems.

Instead of waiting for police officers to call them back, they can now expect email or text updates as the information is filled in by officers, and they will also be able to send messages back to the investigation team.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has called for schools to help develop computer science as a rigorous academic part of the reformed ICT curriculum.

Part of this would be to join a computer science teaching network that the Institute is looking to set up.

At the BETT show in January education minister Michael Gove announced that the existing National Curriculum Programme of Study for ICT would be withdrawn from September 2012.

The employment of shared services has been most prevalent within the public sector, with Whitehall leading the way in pushing streamlined processes and efficiency as it seeks to create savings in the current economic climate. The Local Government Association has provided research demonstrating that councils are saving more than £156 million a year through shared services, with 219 English authorities sharing IT, recycling and waste, procurement and other corporate services. The use of shared services in councils according to Jonathan Hamill, Sales & Marketing Director at APD Communications, “can result in real savings and will increasingly be key to ensuring budget cuts do not affect the essential services provided to the public.”

The study, which is published in the journal Health Technology Assessment, looked at the use of statins in 300 people with high risk of cardiovascular disease by tracking their electronic records. It also examined the use of antibiotics in participants with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Government today wants to open up its vast datasets, using technology to make people’s lives easier – not monitor them remotely.

Increasingly, how we interact with government over the internet is the public face of Whitehall. Mike Bracken, head of the Government Digital Service (GDS) – launched in 2011, based on the recommendations of Lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox – is the man in charge of this digital transformation. Lane Fox recommended that a central service bring together existing government websites, enable access to official data and enable day-to-day transactions, such as renewing a car tax disc, easy online.

Skilled data analysts and data scientists are in short supply, with the risk being that people with the right skills will be snatched up by vendors, who then sell their expertise on to their customers at a premium. Certainly, that was the opinion expressed by HP to Computing in May 2012 – shortly before the company let some of its most skilled data experts, such as Autonomy’s Mike Lynch, go.

The telecare service is planned to benefit up to 25 000 people in Birmingham, a city in central England, over three years and at a cost of £14 million (€16 million, approximately). It combines a response service with a range of telecare solutions from a healthcare provider, including motion detectors and temperature sensors to support older people and those with long-term needs. By making the strategic decision to extend the telecare service provision to more people, the Council expects to create a systemic shift towards early intervention and preventative services, to meet growing demand for increasingly personalised care packages.

The Council has invested £14m into the initiative, which embodies the Department of Health′s recently announced Three Million Lives campaign. The service combines a 24-hour-a-day response service with a range of telecare and telehealth devices — such as motion detectors, temperature sensors, or vital signs monitors — to support older people and those with long-term health needs. By extending telecare service provision to more people, the city council intends to create a systemic shift towards early intervention and preventative services, to meet growing demand for increasingly personalised care packages.

The Home Office agency has advertised for a single contractor to provide booths that are secure and private where overseas nationals can register for biometric residence permits by having fingerprints and a photo taken.

The successful bidder will also be expected to provide services to the public, as well as scanning and sending documents and dealing with payments from applicants.