The annual research from the Society of IT Management (Socitm), which is based on responses from staff at more than 180 of the UK's 467 local authorities, found that conflicting priorities and poor organisation between different bodies are the second and third biggest difficulties respectively, followed by funding problems. John Serle, editor of the report, said local government IT departments had been rushing to get all services available electronically by the end of 2005.
"Belatedly, the government, particularly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, decided it wanted some specific targets met in areas like education and social care," he said, referring to the "priority outcomes" for local e-government confirmed in April this year.
"While I think local government welcomes that guidance, they wish they'd had it five years ago."
The survey found that only half of council managers believe they will have all the components Socitm believes is necessary to deliver e-government by the end of next year.
A majority of respondents believe that they will have, or already have, electronic services available through a range of channels (such as telephone and website), the required systems in place and political and managerial backing for the work. They are less confident about joining up services with other partners and agencies, and the overall streamlining of council processes.
The survey's other findings include:
- Overall council spending on ICT (information and communications technology) will rise 10% compared with last year to £2.7bn, including £600m on software, hardware and services. Councils will have created more than 900 extra posts in the area during this year.
- Local authorities plan to buy 10% fewer desktop personal computers next year than this, although these will continue to make up the vast majority of computers bought. Councils will greatly increase purchases of mobile and portable computers, albeit from a low base.
- More than a quarter of local authorities said they are waiting for a national standard on information security to emerge, although just under a quarter said they have already chosen a solution in this area.
- 80% of councils have a local land and property gazetteer, up from 44% in the same survey two years ago. 80% of those with such a database have linked it to the National Land and Property Gazetteer. Some 34% of councils have built a unified database of their citizens, although none has linked these to national databases.
Autor: SA Mathieson
Quelle: Guardian, 07.12.2004
