Councils in a UK county are implementing shared IT systems to offer joint services.
A group of 10 local authorities in Staffordshire are introducing a joint communications infrastructure allowing staff to share data and contact each other across council boundaries, it was announced on 5 October 2004.
Known as the Joined-Up Directory, the system holds thousands of email addresses, telephone numbers and workplace details. It was developed by the Staffordshire e-Partnership, which covers the 10 main councils in the region: Staffordshire County Council, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Lichfield, South Staffordshire, Stafford Borough, Tamworth, Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke-on-Trent.
The system is a key part of the partnership's e-government programme as it aims to allow staff to offer e-services to people irrespective of where they live in the county.
South Staffordshire councillor Brian Edwards, chair of the partnership's joint committee said: "By joining our councils together behind the scenes, the directory will help us all to deliver seamless services that put the customer first. There will no longer be any need to push customers from pillar to post in search of the correct employee, department or council.
Mark Andrew, a corporate director at Tamworth Borough Council, said: "Customers will not have to concern themselves with understanding who does what in the various organisations that exist between various tiers of local government in parts of the county. Nor will the citizen need worry about the geographical boundaries that separate our boroughs and districts."
The directory is among several projects to be set up by the partnership. A joint customer relationship management (CRM) system is being rolled out in stages by nine of the 10 partners over the next year. It will allow councils to accept service requests for each other.
During this autumn the group will unveil an e-payments system that will allow customers to use credit or debit cards to pay for services electronically, via the telephone and internet. The system is to be introduced simultaneously by the districts of Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire Moorlands. Stafford will follow suit later while Stoke-on-Trent and Tamworth are already operating their own e- payments facilities.
Also going live this year is a new web portal, developed by the partnership to offer access to all local authority services in Staffordshire.
