Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Digital Participation

Tuesday 21st March 2010

Presentation on E-Government within the Highland Council: Efficient and effective service delivery in remote and rural areas, focusing on shared services, partnership working and the use of technology to deliver excellent public services

Vicki NairnHead of E-Government

E-Government – what is it?

• Also known as: digital government, online government, connected government or transformational government

• It means - public services using business transformation to join up and share services rather than duplicate them

• Using technology to

– provide citizen centric services and give the public choice.

– as an enabler to provide a platform for faster, integrated and more efficient public working

E-Government - benefits

E-Government should:

Enable greater choice and personalisation to citizens, Assist in delivering better public services and benefit communities Reduce burdens on front line staff and giving them the tools to do the

job better. Deliver significant cost benefits and enable the public sector to use its

resources to best effect. Support shared services and partnership working across the public

sector Act as an underpinning platform for development

National Context

• National programmes e.g. Customer First• Shared services remit and joined up public sector delivery• Financial climate

– Local position– do more with less, tough times ahead

– National position - change in government, realignment of priorities and spending reviews

• Digital development – E-services, multi channel, web development, 24/7 society, broadband

roll out (or not!)

• Population driven– More ICT literate population

– E-communication growing preference

Citizens as customers

Modern government – both in policy making and service delivery - relies on accurate and timely information about citizens, businesses and assets. Information sharing, management of identity, geographical information

and information assurance are vital.

Shared services and a concept of ‘meeting the customer once’ are key to the successful delivery of E-Government across the public sector

Partnership working and strong community focus underpin the E-Government agenda – we are here to serve the communities of the Highlands and Islands

Most public sector agencies meet the same customers: NHS, Council, Central Government etc. THC is using of customer insight data to understand the requirements of communities and how development can be affordable and sustainable

E-Government and customer focus

Copyright: Fujitsu

Within the Highland Council

• Facts and figures:– Land area: 26,484 square kilometres. This is 33% of Scotland and 11.4% of

Great Britain. It is 10 times larger than Luxembourg, 20% larger than Wales, and nearly the size of Belgium.

– Population: 220,000 (2009) and forecast to grow to 251,953 by 2028 (14% increase)

– Coastline: is 4,905 kilometres, 21% of the Scottish total and excluding islands is 1,900 kilometres (49% of Scotland).

– Remote and rural: • Presents significant challenges for service delivery – rural geography with

dispersed often small communities outside of main population areas• Wide variety of services delivered – equality of provision demanded• Partnership working critical – delivery of services on behalf of others• Effective technology essential e.g. broadband• Location seen as an opportunity not a barrier

Partnership working

Joint performance assessment

Highlevel

Sub-strategypartnership

Hands-on programme

Joined up services:Front line, professional, regulatory & support

services

National/Regional Strategies affecting each Public Body separately or jointly

Local Strategic Partnership /Sub-Regional Strategies

Local Joint Programmes /Initiatives – the start of multi-agency working

Fully integrated multi-agency working

Customer Satisfaction

Copyright: Fujitsu

Some of our Case Studies & Successes 1:

Infrastructure/ICT– Pathfinder North – largest aggregated broadband shared services procurement of

it’s generation. £70m, 5 local authorities, Scottish Government and the private sector

– Partnership with Fujitsu Services:• £66m contract/5 years to deliver ICT, change and transformation • ‘Clever procurement’ linked to:

– Efficiency savings – minimum of £6.75m/5 years

– Community benefits - recruitment and training, community investment in schools

– Environmental considerations – 70% reduction in ICT energy consumption over 5 years – achievement of Council carbon management targets

– Economic development –

» private sector Investment in Inverness as a Northern centre of excellence for ICT Services

Some of our Case Studies & Successes 2:

Health

– NHS/THC community telehealth hub – current hub provides a co-ordination and management function for Primary Care Out of Hours responses as well as NHS24 triage services across four Health Boards (NHS Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles). THC is working with the NHS to integrate social work out of hours calls into the hub

– Highland Data Sharing Partnership – coordinated and managed by THC a partnership of 2 local authorities, police, NHS – managed by VC

– GIRFEC Pathfinder – ‘getting it right for every child’ Highland was a lead pathfinder

– Regular joint working groups on e-health and sharing of equipment and facilities

Some of our Case Studies & Successes 3:

Business services – Video & teleconferencing conferencing

• Treated as business as usual – but not widespread across Scotland• In 2008/09, THC avoided £23,000 in costs and 20 tonnes of CO2 by staff

using video conferencing equipment instead of travelling to meetings. • In 2009/10, £30k was avoided and 25 tonnes of CO2.

– Web portals• E-planning, Historic environment record (HER) & others• Consultations on strategic issues e.g. budget blog• Supporting Systems: CRM/Customer first, PECOS/e-procurement, ERDM

– Mobile and flexible working• Housing repairs dynamic scheduling using handheld technology, less

paper, better workflow planning, less travel downtime , vehicle use and fuel reduced etc

• Home working/remote working

Some of our Case Studies & Successes 4:

Public Sector Partnership working– Unique Strategic Partnerships with:

• Passport Agency,

• Visit Scotland,

• GROS,

• Health,

• Business Gateway,

• CAB,

• Northern Constabulary,

• National Park

• & others

– Working to develop principles of community hubs and co-location of public services

But there are challenges….

•Success depends on a common approach across partners – and a willingness to share and to work together, not all partners benefit

•Investment in infrastructure may be necessary e.g. broadband provision/access and equality of provision e.g. citizens cannot access e-services if they do not have the tools to do so

•National agendas are helpful providing a clear direction, but need to have investment and drive and be enabling e.g. national CRM agreement

•Local Authorities need to have shared ICT platforms to maximise the opportunities

•Change takes time and a will to succeed

In summary

•The E-Government agenda is a powerful enabler for change and modernisation within the wider context of partnership working, shared services, service delivery and financial drivers

•Remote and rural authorities like THC have a huge opportunity to offer a unique service offering to customers and to link to a wider agenda – we see our location as an opportunity for development and a unique offering

•The Highland Council, together with it’s partners in the public and private sector is actively working to develop services offerings to the citizens of the Highlands and Islands

QUESTONS?