With both Government funding drawing to a close and all local services expected to be available online by December 2005, the event provided an opportunity for reflection, critical debate and celebration of the “journey of continuous improvement’ that is the e-government agenda. Chairman David Walker, Editor of Guardian Public Magazine, opened the event with an introduction of David Myers, Director of the Shared Services Transformation Team at the Cabinet Office.
Myers spoke of his role as ‘runner’ to encourage an increase in dialogue and sharing e-government solutions across government, emphasising the importance of the three ‘e’s for success - efficiency, effectiveness and empowerment.
A common theme at the conference, he stressed the need for government to be “fit for purpose” and demonstrate maturity in “shaping the market early, so the public sector gets what it wants out of it”.
Lucy de Groot, Executive Director of the IDeA, took up this mantle calling on local authorities to “sieze, lead and steer” the agenda, driving change much deeper into the back office and much deeper into councils - achieving a “local government better regulated, and itself to deliver better regulation”.
Charting both the milestones of the e-government programme and the positive impact of the IDeA in aiding the development process, De Groot spoke of the success of the 1,500 strong membership of the e-champions programme.
This had provided the opportunity to widen the impact of e-government, now centred on a zero-based approach to spending. With councils already achieving £1.9 billion in gains from the efficiency agenda, “the substantial investment in e-government has resulted in real service improvements in efficiency, an accelerator on the whole process”.
Another common theme of the conference included the importance of take-up to the success of e-government. Professor Helen Margetts, from the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute highlighted both the cultural barriers of a lack of incentivisation and digital divides that prohibit much-needed take-up of e-services. “e-Government not used is expensive government”.
The report “e-Government: Reaching socially excluded groups?” by IECR (Internet and Electronic Commerce Research Ltd) and Citizens Online, sponsored by the IDeA, was launched at the event and gives an overview of current local authorities’ digital inclusion initiatives.
Concluding the conference, Julian Bowrey, Divisional Manager, Local e-Government Division at the ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) also stressed the importance of take-up. Echoing sentiments earlier in the conference, he stressed take-up was dependent upon e-enabled services being “fit for purpose” and creating products worth marketing.
In an upbeat conclusion to the conference, Bowrey called for a celebration to mark the expected target of achieving 100 per cent of government services online. The responsibility for the continued improvement and success of e-government now rests, ultimately, with local authorities - “over to you”.
Keynote speakers included: David Myers, Director of the Shared Services Transformation Team at the Cabinet Office, Julian Bowrey, Divisional Manager, Local e-Government Division at the ODPM, Lucy de Groot, Executive Director of the IDeA, Councillor Paul Bettison LGA e-champion and Leader of Bracknell Forest Council and Professor Helen Margetts, Professor of Society and the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.
With e-government experts Diether Schonfelder, Head of e-Government from the City of Hamburg and Johan Van Der Waal Adviser to the board of VIAG (the Dutch Association of ICT Managers in Local Government).
Quelle: Publictechnology, 27.09.2005
