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27 May 2003

Conference Report: National Projects Launch Event

By Shamit Ghosh

Overview of National Projects and Their Importance to the Local eGovernment Programme
Chris Leslie, Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

The Minister opened his keynote address to the conference by first outlining the role of the National Projects within the framework of the National Strategy for Local eGovernment and the wider context of delivering better services.

He reaffirmed his belief that it was "entirely possible" that all services should be e-enabled by the end of 2005, but stressed that as well as hitting targets, councils needed to focus on quality to deliver a stepchange. National Projects, he said, were not just about customers and the frontline, but also improving back-office processes. Significant investment was being made by the Government into partnerships and capacity building. The National Projects presented the opportunity for many local authorities to become involved with the private sector in developing key products to deliver standard solutions. This, the Minister said, really was the best way of developing systems that can be rolled out nationwide - "in a practical environment in the field so they are tried and tested".

Mr Leslie announced that five new National Projects had received approval. In addition to the new Local eGovernment Standards Body (see this issue of eGov monitor Weekly for further details), these are:

- E-Trading Standards National, which aims to provide back office support systems, information management and enhanced online advice to citizens;
- A project scoping the eGovernment investment requirement and implementing a business plan of collaborative and national projects to assist fire authorities in meeting their eGovernment objectives;
- FAME, or Framework for Multi agency Environments, involving the development of a Health and Social Care Knowledge Base and a multi-agency hub, and
- A project focusing on developing workflow and document technologies technologies as a business transformation tool for local eGovernment.

The Minister highlighted three projects in the areas of eProcurement, CRM and Digital Television, as being of special interest. An announcement would be made shortly on the third phase of National Projects, which Mr Leslie said would cover gaps in current projects.

National Projects Joint Working and Liaison with Local Authorities
Roland Mezulis, West Sussex County Council, Project Lead for Personalised Local Services Website National Project

Roland gave an overview of the National Strategy for Local eGovernment and its model of the 'e-organisation'. The current National Projects, he said, could be separated into those focusing on delivering priority services, such as schools admissions and benefit systems, and enabling technologies, for example CRM and Smartcards. The former involved partnerships between organisations and the latter, partnerships between projects, central and local government, suppliers and users. With projects still in their "early days", this presented opportunities to influence and advise on their future outcomes, to explore new ideas for access and delivery via technology, and also to rethink business processes, roles and organisational structures. The key message to delegates was "Get Involved".

What Local Authorities Are Looking for From National Projects
Mary Ney, Chief Executive, London Borough of Greenwich

Mary outlined a long list of high-level outcomes and benefits for local government and their communities that she hoped would result from the National Projects. Projects needed to engage local people, identify how eGovernment could contribute to building the local vision and accelerate its delivery. This should be underpinned by a strong performance management system. Councils would be looking for guidance, a 'menu' of options and best practices to emerge so, as Mary said, "we can make the right choices for local circumstances." Turning to information exchange, she called for understanding and solutions to be shared as they emerged, and hoped that they would be "frank as to what is working or not" - knowing what cannot be implemented, she said, was also important to save others from going down the same route. The key test, delegates were told, would be how local authorities were seen by the most disadvantaged groups in their communities, and to "present a completely different image of ourselves to those who have the most chaotic life experiences".

Delivering eGovernment and the National Projects - A Private Sector Perspective
Ian Smith, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Oracle UK

Ian was the sole member of the speaker panel representing the perspective from the private sector. Highlighting the gap between the costs of eGovernment and available funding, he advised local authorities to use technology to drive down costs, particularly those of procurement and back-office administration, to enable the resultant savings to be channelled elsewhere. eGovernment, he said, is about citizen choice and requires fully integrated systems - this is something that local authorities should not tackle on their own. The National Projects will provide the benefits of a common approach and maximise local government's spending power with the private sector. But technology represented only part of the picture - business change, cultural change and strong leadership were also essential.

Improvement and Development Agency's Role in National Projects
Richard Derham, E-Delivery Programme Manager, IDeA

This presentation highlighted IDeA's management roles on the Localegov Programme Board, the Localegov Executive Steering Group and the National Projects Panel, and involvement in many of the projects including those covering eProcurement, online planning services and benefits systems. IDeA will also be tracking developments on the national projects and the partnerships through a 'Strategic Support Unit' and heading up what it terms 'Struggling Authority Support' - assisting councils requiring extra support.

For more information on the National Projects see the Localegov website.

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