Public sector IT professionals' organisation Socitm has launched a project aimed at increasing its members' influence over the future shape of public services.
It unveiled its Council of the Future project at its annual conference in Edinburgh on 11 October. The project is aimed at providing the IT professional's perspective on how local authorities should develop, going beyond information systems to include a wide range of business issues.
In his opening address to the conference, Socitm president Steve Palmer encouraged members to provide their opinions, and made clear it is not simply for local authorities.
"We need widespread input and feedback, particularly from our growing numbers of members from housing, third sector, fire and police services to develop the broader tomorrow's public services vision and blueprint," he said.
Key features of the Council of the Future are that it will have fewer and smaller buildings than at present, will directly employ fewer staff, make greater use of lean systems, make smarter use of its staff and records, and manage information as a key asset.
Its development involves looking at traditional IT issues such as mobile working, electronic document and record management, internet services and business applications, along with broader business issues such as key performance indicators, enterprise resource planning, lean systems and the commissioning and managing of services.
Doug McLean of Socitm Consulting, which is leading the project, said that it could help to produce savings of over 20 percent rather than the three to five percent the public sector has aimed since the publication of the Gershon Review in 2004.
The biggest savings, of up to 90 percent, could be achieved in transaction costs, along with up to 50 percent in central office costs, 10 to 20 percent in central staff costs (in areas such as HR and finance), and five to 20 percent in key service costs.
Socitm has also launched a new mentoring scheme aimed at helping public sector IT staff reach their potential and exert more influence in their organisations. It is running a pilot of the scheme over the next six months, and after an evaluation plans to launch it in full next summer.
"Our scheme will give a choice of mentors and can play a key role in helping colleagues at all levels develop their skills, competence and confidence to meet the challenges of the day job," Palmer said.
"The mentoring pilot, if successful, will be rolled out on a wider basis to support what is an acknowledgement by all: that highly skilled ICT professionals will be a cornerstone of our successful transformation, regardless of which sector we are from."
Palmer added that the IT community should begin to take a more assertive role.
"It is time for the ICT profession in the public sector to show it can lead," he said. "I listened intently a few years ago to colleagues who suggested that ICT leaders need to be at the top table as we moved towards the radical transformation we need.
"That is exactly where we need to be but we earn, not ask for, the right to be there. If we are to serve our citizens properly we need to successfully embrace their propensity to publish ideas, suggest ideas for service improvements and issue challenge to our own and wider organisations. If we listen and engage we can successfully foster a culture of innovation, engagement and creativity."
