Today 4109

Yesterday 4377

All 44171207

Thursday, 3.07.2025
Transforming Government since 2001
Not one government department can say that all of its staff have the basic digital skills required under the Government Digital Strategy, but most are aiming to hit that target by the end of 2015.

A set of reports published earlier this week show the progress that government departments have made in this area, and plans for the year ahead.

Read more: GB: Not one government department can say all of its staff have basic digital skills

The government has made it clear that it intends working more closely with the IT industry in order to meet its ambitions to increase the use of ICT in schools and colleges.

Over the past couple of days the BETT show taking place in East London has been a platform for both government and opposition representatives to call for more computing in education.

Read more: GB: Politicians pledge support for ICT in education

One in four (24 per cent) local government organisations has no strategic plan to bring services online, according to a survey of IT decision makers in local government by IT services provider Eduserv, a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity.

Despite the local government services not being covered under the government's Digital by Default strategy, many local authorities such as Camden Council are attempting to save money and improve services through their own digital strategies.

Read more: GB: A quarter of councils have no strategic plan to bring services online - report

Peterborough City Council has embarked on a two-year project that aims to cut costs while boosting efficiency and will see most of the local authority's IT infrastructure move to Amazon Web Services' (AWS') cloud.

Not that moving to the cloud was its original intention, as Richard Godfrey, ICT, strategy, infrastructure and programme manager for Peterborough Council explained: "We've been looking at how we deliver our IT service and how we deliver services in general as a council, which is kind of what led to a new IT strategy. It wasn't really written as a ‘sit down and write a cloud strategy for the council', it just so happened that moving towards cloud was the natural fit."

Read more: GB: East of England: Peterborough City Council sees bright future in cloud with Amazon Web Services

In order to mitigate the effects of funding cuts from central government, South Holland District Council sought to share some of its services with other councils.

Currently, we share a management team with Breckland Council in Norfolk and some ‘back office’ services with East Lindsey District Council.

In 2008, we predicted these cuts and the need to prepare for them.

Read more: GB: East Midlands: South Holland District: We have shared services to mitigate Government cuts

Go to top