Cabinet Office
Local authorities need to consider working with other key government services in order to avoid re-inventing the wheel and to ensure that services are delivered around the needs of customers and not organisational structures. Examples of some key government services local authorities should consider working with are listed below.
Departments and local authorities are currently investing millions of pounds in building the infrastructure to support the electronic delivery of their information and services. Without a central architecture to manage this spending, much more will be spent on duplicating research, design, systems integration and hosting.
Departments and local authorities have been wrestling with the same problems: managing customers, content, new channels and emerging technologies. Entire infrastructures, technical as well as people and process-based, have consequently evolved—but the customer experience has not always been considered.
As we move towards 2005, the need to reduce this duplication of Internet technology spend and resources across government becomes ever more acute.
The Office of the e-Envoy is building a central infrastructure designed to host multiple government websites. This is underpinned by a modular ‘build once, use-many’ architecture approach which enables organisations to ‘plug-in’ and use ready-built, supported components, when designing online services to meet the needs of a local citizen and business population.
Key elements of this central infrastructure include the Government Gateway, DotP and UKonline. Each of these is outlined in greater detail below.
The Government Gateway is part of the central infrastructure which allows for central and local government to offer secure authenticated transactions and joined-up government services to take place electronically via the web.
The Gateway provides:
These Gateway services can be integrated seamlessly. For example, customers need never know that the online services they are using are in fact built upon Gateway components. This enables local authorities to manage the way e-services are presented and to provide a tailored customer experience.
For more information about Government Gateway offered by the OeE visit:
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/gateway_partnerlink [external link]
An engagement pack is available to guide government organisations through the planning, design and implementation of an e-service using the Gateway. This can be obtained by emailing the following, and typing ‘TECHNICAL ENGAGEMENT PACK REQUEST’ in the subject line.
gatewaypartnerlink@e-envoy.gsi.gov.uk
DotP is a managed service platform delivering user-centred online capabilities for government departments. The core DotP services and technologies are based on an effective content management system. The development of the DotP platform (with the Government Gateway) underpins efforts to build a central technology infrastructure designed to host multiple government websites.
The key elements of the DotP offering include:
In adopting a modular 'build-once, use-many' architecture, the DotP platform will deliver benefits such as decreased time to market, economies of scale and compliance with government standards as well as higher quality content and information to users including co-ordination of content between central and local government organisations.
For further information about the DotP offering please email:
The www.ukonline.gov.uk portal provides a point of entry to all government online information and services.
If ukonline wishes to direct users to your content, it will contact you to make an agreement about establishing a link.
The benefits to you will be extra traffic to your pages, especially from new users who may not know about your site. To make sure that the portal can direct users to your online offerings:
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is funding a National Project building on the work of the Accessible and Personalised Local Authority Websites (APLAWS) Pathfinder project (see below) and including workstreams on web content management, information architecture and standards, community engagement and organisational development. More information is available at:
http://www.localegov.gov.uk [external link]
Over 100 local authorities took part in the Local Government Online (LGOL) Pathfinder Programme. Pathfinder projects solve various process and application problems faced by online government, and share their solutions. Pathfinder projects are listed in Appendix B. One example of the fruits of the Pathfinder Project for local government website developers is the metadata category list from the APLAWS project.
www.aplaws.org.uk/features/standards.php [external link]
For more information about Pathfinder Projects, including a downloadable copy of the Pathfinder Product Catalogue visit:
http://www.localegov.gov.uk [external link]
Through a project named the Housing and Employment Mobility Service (HEMS), the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Jobcentre Plus and the devolved administrations are working together to make it easier for people to find social housing in other parts of the UK. The aim is to make it easier for people to find jobs and to move to other areas.
In addition to listing vacancies in social housing online, the project will carry information about neighbourhoods and job vacancies. Where local authorities and housing associations make this information available on the Web, they will be asked to make it available through HEMS. For more information about HEMS contact:
Transport Direct is an ambitious programme aimed at providing comprehensive travel information and retailing services over the Internet. It will provide information on all forms of transport, including the car. It is being developed in partnership with local government and transport operators. For local authorities this means working with both those involved in traveline (an existing telephone service giving public transport information) and the highway authorities. More information can be found on:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/itwp/transdirect/ [external link]
info4local is a portal website which gives local authorities easy access to local government-related information published on the websites of central government departments and agencies. It has a searchable archive with summaries of publications and related links. You can register for its twice-daily e-mail alert service. This will automatically inform you of new central-government publications of interest to local authorities in particular topic areas.
We recommend that you link to info4local on both your Internet and Intranet sites
http://www.info4local.gov.uk [external link]
Make sure you are aware of what is already available and working before commissioning new websites or other online solutions. For help and guidance, contact IDeA or SOCITM:
http://www.idea.gov.uk [external link]
http://www.socitm.gov.uk [external link]
The Foundation for IT in Local Government is an independent body that promotes innovation in local democracy and service delivery:
http://www.fitlog.com/index_js.htm [external link]