Local authorities failing on e-accessibility

Local authorities may not meet the government's "priority" targets for online services, according to an annual survey issued by the Society of IT Management (Socitm).

The survey, published on 1 March, 2005, casts doubt on councils' progress towards the priority outcomes for e-government drawn up by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister last year.

Socitm's Better Connected 2005 report into local authority Web sites says that councils in England may "just about" be on target for 13 out of the government's 14 priority outcomes.

But it says, the evidence is "far from conclusive" that the target will be reached. According to the ODPM, the 2005 priority targets aim to "enhance the quality and availability" of local e-services. They cover areas such as education, democratic renewal and community information.

Of the 14 outcomes, online accessibility is the biggest concern. The Socitm report finds "extremely strong evidence" that the required priority outcome for accessibility of e-services will not be achieved. It says that just 62 Web sites achieve Level A conformance with WAI [Web Accessibility Initiative] guidelines for accessibility.

Of those which had achieved the standard last year, 10 have now slipped back, finds the survey. According to the priority outcome, councils must achieve an "AA" standard for accessibility by the end of this year.

Other findings include:

• there are now 38 council Web sites rated as "transactional". This is up from 23 last year;
• councils judged "excellent" under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) are more likely to have a "well developed" Web site;
• there are 33 fewer Web sites rated as just "promotional".

The "top 20" authorities among the 38 with transactional Web sites, are:

Barking & Dagenham, Birmingham City, Brent, Chester City, Devon CC, East Ayrshire, Exeter City, Kensington & Chelsea, Kirklees MBC, Salford City, Shrewsbury & Atcham BC, South Tyneside MBC, Staffordshire Moorlands DC, Stroud DC, Surrey CC, Surrey Heath BC, Tameside MBC, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, and West Sussex CC.

Following the report, Socitm advises councils to concentrate on developing transactional services in order to boost Web site usage and achieve efficiency gains.

Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm Insight and author of the report said: "'Councils need to collect more evidence about usage and potential usage of Web sites in their areas, and match this with dedication to getting the quality of the product right at a more detailed level than before in order to make self-service a truly attractive option that works in practice and will be repeated. Finally, councils should become more proactive and more sophisticated in marketing what is on offer to those target groups who might be interested.'

The survey was carried out by a team of reviewers who visited all 468 local authority sites. They measured Web site content, availability of interactive applications, usability and accessibility, quality of search functions, use of maps and forms, availability of statistics about site usage and how well the site "joins up" with other public services.