Admiralty Arch

1^st March 2001

Many thanks for coming along today. I don’t intend to speak for very long, as I’m aware that for most of you the benefit from today will come not so much from having the opportunity to listen, but the opportunity to talk.

To talk amongst yourselves about the challenges and issues you are facing in your departments as you all collectively work to bring about the Knowledge Network in reality.

I think it’s called ‘networking’ – and it’s something that you don’t necessarily need a computer for!

And that’s the key to the way in which the Knowledge Network team have tried to approach the huge challenge of getting the government as a whole talking to each other.

I’m well aware that you are awash in jargon and acronyms…I’m only just getting to grips with e-acronyms – I’m used to Labour Party ones…

For example…you talk about LANs or ‘Local Area Networks’ and you mean an IT infrastructure. When I hear about a Local Area Network, I think it’s a local pressure group in Makerfield wanting to lobby me about a roads protest.

So please….keep away from the jargon…otherwise I’ll think you’re trying to lobby me about a political issue.

There are 2 things I want to say to today – both to you as departmental reps and to the central KN team.

The first is ‘thanks’.

The second is ‘sorry’!

Firstly, thanks.

Thanks for all the unbelievable hard work you are putting in - within your departments and within the central team - to drive through the immense cultural change in working patterns and behaviour that the Knowledge Network is requiring.

Thanks for sticking with it at what must at times feel like a very lonely outpost in your individual departments or in Admiralty Arch.

Thanks to the departmental reps for keeping up the pressure on the central Cabinet Office team to deliver to you the tools and information that you need to get the job done.

And thanks to the central team for managing to stay calm with the departmental reps when they’ve kept up the pressure on you to deliver the tools and information they need.

On both sides, at times it’s taken the patience of a saint. Only at least a saint knows that their ultimate reward might come in heaven!

When this idea first came up there was a lot of scepticism. This scepticism turned to resistance to change. And then of course you get all the outside scepticism. But we’ve come a long way working as a team. If you think about it we’ve had a lot of bad press in the public sector for the way we handle our IT projects. But this one is an exemplar for how work together, take an idea, to develop it technically and then to go out and advocate for it. Everybody to work together, each department, across departments to work as a team at every level, outside and across Whitehall arguing the case and when we win the case developing the system and doing it on time, so let me thank you for that. It’s an immense challenge and an immense piece of work.

At this point, normally there is some trite pat on the head that senior management give to staff to say ‘we really do appreciate all you’re doing.’

Here it comes. Only this time, it’s not trite.

I can absolutely assure you that I personally, and your Ministers and senior management in your departments are aware of the benefits that the Knowledge Network will bring and are aware of how difficult it is to get this change through.

Make no mistake, it’s not been a bed of roses for me as a Minister. We will have to argue our corner for every individual change we make. This is part of the process while we develop the system to its full potential. We’ll still meet people who don’t want it, we’ll still meet sceptics, so we just have to be very confident in working with each other and supporting each other. And if any department feels like their not getting close support – don’t feel isolated, you’re part of a wider team. And where there is not appropriate leadership it is up to us to make sure there is. If you come across difficulties - we need to resolve these problems together as a team. Let the team help take the strain. Don’t ever feel isolated on this project or other projects with the continuing co-operation of the Cabinet Office.

I’m determined to make sure that you get the resources and the backing that you need to get this job done. My job as Minister is to be your advocate in Whitehall. I am not just coming here with an interest in Knowledge Network – I have genuinely got ambitions for the Knowledge Network and ambition means working with yourselves in order to make sure it successful. We will need to be able to build on it over the next few years, making step changes and developing the system. And as advocate, I’ve got an open door policy. This doesn’t just apply to people in the Cabinet Office - if you’ve got something you want to say – by all means just do it.

Now, to say sorry…

Sorry that it’s been so hard.

Sorry that things haven’t always gone totally smoothly…

Middle Management: Grass Cutting time and motion bonus – calculate grass cut. Victim of poor management.

Sorry that some of you feel that the level of resources that you have in your departments to get this thing through are unbelievable tight.

And sorry that, if anything, the pace of change and the demands on this project are going to increase over the next few months rather than dissipate.

Or on second thoughts - am I really sorry?

On reflection I don’t think I am all that sorry at all.

It’s been so hard up until now because so much has been achieved in such an unbelievably short period of time.

That’s called progress, I think.

It’s not gone totally smoothly because the team and yourselves have been willing to ‘nip and tuck’ and adjust your plans as new challenges came on the scene.

That’s called flexibility I think.

The level of resources have seemed tight because you’ve squeezed those resources dry and got every last drop of benefit out of the money and staff you’ve had.

That’s called efficiency, I think.

And because you’ve demonstrated progress, flexibility and efficiency – you’re making a name for yourself in your departments individually and across government as a whole

And what a dangerous crime that is in the civil service sometimes!

And that’s why more and more people are coming to you to say – ‘Couldn’t the Knowledge Network do this for me?’

I’m glad to see that part of the reason for getting you together today is to deliver to you some of the crucial bits of information you need to move into the next phase of the Knowledge Network:

• The High Level design for the central KN infrastructure:

• The ‘common template’ for working towards sharing information between departments

• Working towards linking the departments to each other across the GSI, starting in the summer.

I’m going to be constantly badgering the central KN team and your Ministers to ensure that you ALL get to the situation where you can be coming on line centrally in the next few months.

And I know that Andrew Pinder will be doing the same.

That’s all I want to say.

Thanks and sorry.

Now it’s over to you to get the job done. The network is critically important, one, to give policy development and to develop a strategic approach in government about policy making. It is critically important that technology sits alongside the capacity to communicate in a more effective ways, and so that we can develop a wider approach to the policy making process. Secondly, it is critically important, so that we can communicate more effectively with each other and add value across Whitehall. For example, many cross-cutting initiatives have got the capacity to make effective decisions and do it in a way which everyone is comfortable with. Thirdly, it’s also critically important in terms of the focus of government over the next decade, in order to decentralise, and empower people in the community. It isn’t just about giving out messages it’s actually about engaging people in decision making and giving people who currently don’t have the power to be involved in decisions the capacity to do so.

I’ll end on this point. It is of critical importance in a big organisation and government is an extremely big and complex organisation. When I was in opposition as a shadow spokesperson, I used to just run up the corridor and have a few words with Gordon Brown. It is not until you’re in government that you realise that system can’t operate in that way with all the different types of close relationships within government. We need to create that system in a more effective way. And the Knowledge Network is therefore important to decision making. If you can’t communicate either within an organisation or to your customer base – and our customer base is the citizen - then what are we here for? Some communication is vitally important, sometimes were good at it; sometimes we’re not. The Knowledge Network will assist us in achieving this aim. So thanks for listening. Good luck with the rest of the day. Thank you.