The Cabinet Office today launched a new cross-government strategy to use technology more effectively.
It aims to make essential government services more "accessible and convenient" by taking advantage of mobile technology and interactive digital television.
Launched by Cabinet Office Minister, John Hutton, the strategy sets out three core themes key to the new approach to service delivery:
- Citizens and businesses centred services with greater personalisation;
- A shared service approach to release efficiencies and support customer needs; and
- Greater IT professionalism in planning, delivery, management, skills and governance.
The report sets out what the government will be doing to ensure these themes are acted upon. This includes new support programmes to increase the reliability of project delivery and supplier management, appointing a Shared Services director to "promote and drive sharing across the public sector"
It also makes a number of recommendations to promote the new customer-centric approach:
- Learning from best practice examples from the public and private sectors;
- Sytematically engage with citizens and frontline staff to understand the factors to manage change;
- Appoint “Customer Group Directors” to lead the design of services;
- Create Service Transformation Boards;
- Set out clear policies for sharing services;
- Ensure strong leadership from the top
Commenting on the new document John Hutton said: "In 1997, fewer than 16% of households had a mobile phone and fewer than one in ten used the internet. Private companies have been swift to shape their services around people's needs and lifestyles - now public services need to raise their game and offer people the levels of convenience, choice and efficiency they rightly demand.
"That is why I am publishing a cross-government strategy today to ensure government uses technology more effectively to deliver better services that are focussed on the needs of the customer."
He added: "We will also increase value for money for taxpayers by transforming the way public services join up back office services such as HR, IT and Finance. Through innovative use of technology we can save money and deliver faster and better services for people."
Ian Watmore, Head of the e-Government Unit and Chief Government CIO also said: "I want to ensure every IT professional in government has the right skills and support to make this happen. This is about designing systems around the public's needs, using technology to deliver policy at the front line and breaking down barriers to enable us to share case information."
The Government will produce plans by the end of the financial year on how it intends to take forward the strategy.
This paper follows the launch yesterday of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) report Inclusion through Innovation: Tackling Social Exclusion Through New Technologies, which outlined how government can use mobile phones and data-sharing to better connect with socially excluded citizens.
Quelle: eGov monitor, 02.11.2005
