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Roles and responsibilities
This chapter outlines the roles and responsibilities for
key players and stakeholders. Implementation of the e-government
strategy will require innovative leadership throughout the
public sector. There is a need for strong central direction,
but which recognises regional and local diversity .
The e-Envoy
This strategy is owned by the e-Envoy on behalf of Ministers.
He is responsible for the direction and implementation of
the overall programme. His specific responsibilities are to
- lead the application of e-business thinking in government
- support the Chief Secretary of the Treasury and the e-Minister
in a cross-cutting review in the 2000 spending review on
the knowledge economy, which will consider the funding of
electronic government [6]
- jointly chair the cross-cutting review in the 2000 spending
review on the knowledge economy, which will consider funding
for electronic government
- identify new opportunities for cross-cutting initiatives
and how they should be carried forward
- provide strategic prioritisation of further work on infrastructure
and policy issues
- accelerate and co-ordinate work to get services online
- sponsor a six-monthly review of strategy assumptions and
direction. The first review, in December 2000, will take
into account the impact of the Spending Review, the CITU
report on major IT projects and the Performance and Innovation
Unit (PIU) study on electronic service delivery
- monitor the implementation of the strategy and report
on progress to Ministers.
[6] The Information Age Government Champions
are 36 senior officials and local government representatives
from across government and were established in 1999 in accordance
with a recommendation in the Modernising Government White
Paper. They were closely involved in the formulation of this
strategy. Details of their work can be found on www.e-envoy.gov.uk/ukonline-echampions/$file/e-champions_menu.htm
Information Age Government
Champions (IAGC)
The IAGC’s role will be to
- support the e-Envoy in implementing and developing the
strategy
- help in winning and sustaining commitment to the programme
across the public sector
- assist the e-Envoy in identifying cross-cutting initiatives
- champion the delivery of departmental and sectoral e-business
strategies [7]
- sustain a network for sharing knowledge and experience
in e-government programmes.
[7] Guidance on the production of e-business
strategies will be published seperately
Central IT Unit (CITU)
CITU is the unit in the Cabinet Office which is responsible
for coordinating and monitoring the strategy.
CITU will
- develop and monitor implementation of framework policies,
standards and guidelines, ensuring that such policies and
standards are adhered to
- support departments in their development of e-business
strategies
- develop shared infrastructure and applications in collaboration
with lead departments
- promote common policies on the management of information
including privacy
- develop cross-cutting services on the GSI
- develop extranet links with the wider public sector
- coordinate action on skills for Information Age Government.
The Office of Government
Commerce (OGC)
The OGC will formulate procurement policies and strategies
and will have a role in strategic sourcing decisions, especially
those with cross-government implications. CITU will work with
the OGC, building on the recommendations of the review of
major IT projects, to develop appropriate approaches to sourcing
Information Age Government services and systems, taking into
account the issues involved in delivering joined-up services.
These arrangements will be available also to the devolved
administrations, who are responsible for their own procurement
decisions.
Central government departments,
agencies and NDPBs
Public sector organisations will be responsible for developing
and delivering e-business strategies that will set out plans
for
- developing e-business models
- converging with standards and framework policies
- providing services which are accessible via the government
and other portals
- electronic service delivery and internal process transformation
- implementing the recommendations from the review of major
IT projects
- developing IT skills and awareness.
The extent to which planning and monitoring will be at the
level of individual agencies, NDPBs and departments or of
whole sectors (for example health, education or culture) is
a matter for decision within those sectors. It may be, for
example, that a department chooses to develop a single e-business
strategy (but encompassing a number of e-business initiatives)
for its sector in consultation with its sponsored bodies.
The delivery against targets for electronic service delivery
is embodied in public service agreements (PSAs) and services
delivery agreements (SDAs) with the Treasury as part of the
financial planning process. Hence the targets for electronic
capability are set in the wider context of targets for the
take-up and quality of services.
The National Health Service
(NHS)
For the NHS in England adoption will be in accordance with
the existing collaborative arrangements between the NHS Executive,
the NHS Information Authority and Heath Authorities and relevant
local NHS funded organisations established under the NHS’s
Information for Health Strategy.
Devolved administrations
The devolved administrations will remain responsible for
deciding their approach to developing and implementing electronic
service delivery in respect of devolved services, including
health and local authority services. The Joint Collaborative
Group which the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Information
Age Government Champions have agreed to establish with CITU
will help to ensure that strategies in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland remain fully compatible with the broader
UK approach.
Local government
CITU, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the
Regions (DETR), the Local Government Association (LGA) and
the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA) will continue
to work closely together under the Central-Local
Information Age Government Concordat to encourage the
adoption of the strategic framework within local government
in England. This work will be taken forward by a new body,
the Central Local Information Age Forum (CLIAF), in the context
of the process of reform taking place in local government
following publication of the Modern
Local Government — In Touch with the People White Paper.
In Scotland, the Scottish Executive is discussing with the
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities how best to encourage
councils to apply Information Age Government principles to
their services. The National Assembly for Wales is in discussion
with the Welsh Local Government Association on how best to
take forward the application of Information Age Government
principles in government across Wales.
More detailed guidance on how the strategy applies in local
government is described in Implementing
e-government: Guidelines for local government.
In addition, the Central Local Information Age Forum will
- establish an agreed process for Local Authorities Electronic
Services Delivery targets
- develop the local government community’s contribution
to the national strategy implementation programme
- encourage local authorities to consider the applicability
of the framework policies and guidelines within their own
authorities and also in the context of central local working.
Industry
This strategy has been developed in consultation with our
industry partners. Industry’s role is fundamental to
the success of the strategy.
Commercial organisations are likely to be involved in implementing
the strategy in three main ways
- delivering services either directly or
in partnership with public sector organisations. Identifying
the right packaging of services, core and value added, that
provide real benefits to the citizen, business and government
- acting as incubators to provide a source of best practice
and support for e-businesses in the government sector
- working in partnership with government to provide infrastructure
and services within government.
A significant element of the strategy will be for government
to provide the right environment for innovative business and
commercial models to flourish.
Skills
Implementing this strategy will place significant demands
on public servants to work in new ways and to acquire knowledge
about the new technology. They will need to understand how
the evolving technology creates new possibilities for the
way they can do business, and they will need increased skills
in the application and use of information. The paper Skills
in Information Age Government identifies these issues.
An information skills map for public sector organisations
is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Information skills map
There are four principal areas for action
- leadership and policy making — we need to
develop at all levels an understanding of the implications
of new technology for policy making, service delivery, management
and organisational culture
- change and project management
- intelligent customer — we need to be able
to procure, finance, negotiate and manage relationships
with suppliers intelligently
- end-user skills — we need to train all staff
so that they can use new tools for better service and more
effective working.
Change initiatives which involve the use of new technology
will need to address information skills issues if they are
to be successfully implemented. In their e-business strategies,
public sector organisations should identify their skills needs
and the means by which they will address them. To assist with
that process, CITU will provide in June 2000 more detailed
descriptions of the IT professional skills requirements identified
in the skills map and toolkits for departments to carry out
a skills audit. Departments and agencies will use these in
their initial e-business strategies in October 2000, and the
e-Envoy will report on information skills requirements across
government in his first report on the implementation of the
e-government strategy in December 2000.
Effective implementation
To underpin the effective implementation of the proposals
in this strategy we must learn and apply the lessons which
have emerged from CITU’s study of major IT projects.
To do this we have to develop and maintain a constant focus
on improving the way projects are managed and implemented
across government. These projects require
- a focus on delivering defined business objectives with
measurable benefits, tracking them through the life of the
project and measuring them
- strong leadership, clear accountability and improved levels
of project management
- a raised awareness at all levels of the risks associated
with large scale, complex projects, and in particular the
extra effort that is required from both government and industry
to implement major cross cutting initiatives.
It is essential that major cross-cutting initiatives are
managed as single programmes reflecting the above points and
avoiding the temptation to develop separate systems and ‘join
up’ at a later point.
A major feature of this new environment will be a government-wide
approach to learning and applying lessons from past projects
to continuously improve performance. Gathering, maintaining
and sharing information about the progress of major projects
is an essential tool to enable departments to learn lessons
from each other and benefit from shared experience —
particularly for cross-cutting projects. This includes capturing
and applying the experience of officials involved in the development
of complex and innovative projects. This information will
also allow the centre to take a corporate view of projects’
links to, and effects on, the overall programme and business
objectives.
We also need to address the public sector’s ability
to absorb and manage the volume of work required to implement
this strategy. We must ensure, for example, that the necessary
range of skills is available, appropriate contingency arrangements
are developed and a well-informed and professional approach
is taken to contract negotiation and management. We must become
more intelligent procurers across government, informed by
knowledge of IT suppliers capability and performance across
the range of services provided.
It is also vital that our industry partners in this ambitious
agenda can demonstrate and apply effective project management
and delivery practices. This includes thorough planning, detailed
and agreed resource strategies and a clear understanding of
the business change that is being delivered through the project.
These standards must apply right across government. We are
identifying the features of successful IT projects, and are
bringing forward measures to ensure that they are in place
for the future.
We are also learning the lessons from takling the Year 2000
problem so that government and business can be better equipped
for the technical and mangement challenges of implementing
the e-governement strategy.
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