ntouk.com - Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog

Back in the early part of the twenty-first century, KPMG conducted a report indicating that the cost of delivering many public sector services over the internet would be in the order of just 20% of manual costs. Likewise, back in September 2000, the Performance Innovation Unit reported that a typical banking transaction was 1.07 USD over the counter, 0.27 USD through an ATM and just 0.01 USD over the internet.

The belief was that savings and efficiencies on this scale could be realised by moving UK public services online.

Today's reality, some nine years later, is a little different. For example, just 340,000 out of 145 million DWP customer contacts took place online in 2008. Despite up to 21bn GBP being expended annually on UK public sector ICT at present, little headway seems to have been made. Indeed, in many cases it seems that digital fulfilment channels have become another overhead alongside all the existing channels. None of the old inefficient processes and costs have been switched off. This parallel running may in part explain the increasing spend on public services and the associated decline in productivity.

If the UK public sector is not able to realise the same benefits from moving its services online as seen in other countries and in other sectors, such as retail and commerce, the current high levels of ICT investment must be called into question. After all, what is the money being invested for? What is it achieving?

ICT is not an end in its own right, but a means of improving public services. Unless there is a demonstrable link between investment and return, in terms of the quality and cost-effectiveness of public services, the current levels of investment look unsustainable.

Alternatively, and more positively, what needs to be changed in the way we currently do things here in the UK in order for such benefits to be realised across the governance, architecture and procurement of ICT?

I was at an interesting Chatham House rule discussion on this precise topic yesterday, which brought together a rich cross-section of top ICT suppliers and incumbents, together with innovative, smaller organisations and policymakers. It raised interesting questions about the current constraints on change and broader and more complex issues relating to the configuration of government and public services in the digital age.

If anything, at present the UK seems to be slipping backwards. The United Nations e-Government Readiness Index shows that between 2005 and 2008 the UK slipped from 4^th to 10^th place. And this slide came during a time of unprecedented levels of ICT and public sector investment, with the UK possibly spending more as a percentage of GDP than any other country. Using a slightly different methodology, the Economist Intelligence Unit e-Readiness Ranking for 2009 paints an even blacker picture, with the UK resting at just 13^th in their particular table.

Interestingly, the UN Index also records that the UK saw a massive drop in the level of e-engagement, plunging from its position of a proud, if perhaps suspect, first place in 2005 to a less impressive 24th in 2008.

I would like to spend more time looking behind these figures. I'm not convinced that classifying, for example, HMRC's self-assessment services as an e-government or online transaction is correct, given how much of it actually results in large amounts of paper and non-internet based communication. The much-praised DVLA tax disc service is similarly a fairly trivial interaction which could also be entirely digital. It is much harder to find meaningful levels of integrated online services. Where, for example, is that unified benefits calculation and claim service demonstrated some 4 or 5 years ago?

The issues here are, of course, not primarily technical. Which is why the discussion yesterday recognised that governance, architecture and procurement all need to be improved together, and in the context of the role of ICT in the redesign of modern public services not as an end in its own right.

Many of the organisations and industry figures yesterday were welcoming of policy in many areas, including the need to achieve a genuinely neutral procurement policy. But they were also deeply critical of the reality, as they see it, that such policy is rarely little more then shelfware. Where, for example, are the delivery plans? The reporting to Parliament of progress against targets? What progress has been made, for example, on the idea of 30% of public sector business being available to SMEs rather than the usual big suspects?

We need to understand better why online use of UK public services remains lower than in many other countries. This may reflect the reality that only around 1% of the current public sector ICT budget is directed towards the provision of online services. Without a proper baseline and understanding of course it's hard to know how best to fix the underlying problems.

Despite this, many issues were suggested about what needs to be fixed, including, but not limited to:

• Developing a clear vision and strategy for the role of ICT in the design, delivery and operation of twenty-first century UK public services
• Ensuring ICT strategy is integrated with overall business strategy and policymaking at the most senior levels
• Splitting ICT companies so that they cannot offer both consultancy and delivery arms. This type of conflict of interest was barred in the world of accountancy and needs considering in ICT too.
• Moving to more effective models of governance, architecture and procurement to open up the market to competition through the inclusion of smaller, more innovative and more nimble UK players. This includes a move away from the monolithic, 'centre knows best/build it and they will come' model of building uncompetitive single systems at the centre
• Taking existing inefficient services and putting them online won't deliver the benefits being sought. Public services need to be re-engineered around what ICT now makes possible
• Re-designing services needs to put the citizen/business at the centre, not the producer (or the producer's idea of what the citizen/business wants). Government needs to get away from inappropriate approaches such as department-based CRM, which project internal government silo's and stovepipes and impose them on the citizen
• Empower user control over their own data and improve the quality of information assurance, privacy, security and identity supportedby government systems
• Review the civil service risk/reward and accountability/responsibility model, and the liability of the ICT industry
• Most day-to-day interactions with citizens happen at the local level. So look at models of online interaction that recognise this reality and that local government and third-parties may provide the entry point for the re-definition of the delivery of public services
• Embrace the co-production model and enable citizens to make use of services where and when they make most sense for them, by enabling them to be embedded appropriately in non-government sites, rather than pursuing a model that assumes one single 1990's-tyle portal at the middle is the answer

Yesterday was a continuation of an interesting series of planning sessions analysing the current problems. The next stage will involve working out the vision and plan to take us from where we currently are to where we need to be. And to do so an in age that is much constrained economically.

One positive point from yesterday's session was that almost everyone present seemed to share the perspective that it will be possible both to do more with less and to improve the quality of public services at the same time. But neither did anyone underestimate the complexity and timescale that will be involved.

So the sooner the next stage of work begins, thoroughly baselining our current situation and mapping out how we get from where we are today to where we need to be, the better. The UK needs to focus hard on improving its public services and to reverse its drift downwards in the various international comparison tables.

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