» e-Government
August 27th, 2008
Surveying innovation in public service delivery
Building on a recent report on achieving world class public services, the government’s Cabinet Office and HM Treasury are surveying third sector providers on their innovation in public service delivery. They want to reach organisations that are currently delivering public services or have been involved in their delivery in the last 12 months, with responses due by 8th September.
© VoluntaryNews
26 August 2008
August 20th, 2008
Newport City Council transforms access to services by adopting Web 2.0 technologies
Newport City Council has recently implemented a range of Web 2.0 and other technologies from Jadu, a leading provider of web content management systems, to dramatically improve access and delivery of its citizen facing services. The Council’s corporate plan and key national initiatives, such as the Wales Programme for Improvement, the Beecham Review and Making the Connections, provided the driving force behind the Council’s service transformation initiatives. Newport City Council’s improvement programme aims to achieve integration of telephone, face to face and web channels, using a common technology to deliver an improved ‘experience’ for the citizen and improved efficiency for the Council.
© Policy Dialogue International 2005-08
20 August 2008
July 29th, 2008
New Interactive Local Crime Maps In Every Area
Every neighbourhood in England and Wales will have access to the latest local crime information through new interactive crime maps, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced today. The rollout of interactive crime maps follows the announcement made by the Home Secretary earlier this month, as part of the Policing Green Paper, that every police force in the country has now delivered monthly crime information to the public on their websites. New interactive crime maps will take the rollout of local crime information to the next level. By the end of the year every police force area will produce crime maps which will allow the public to: see where and when crime has happened, down to street level for some crimes; make comparisons with other areas; and learn how crime is being tackled by their local neighbourhood policing team.
28 July 2008
© Home Office
A free trial starts today to provide small and medium sized businesses with access to thousands of public sector contract opportunities. From 1 May until 31 July 2008, the http://www.supply2.gov.uk website will allow new registrants to gain free access to public sector contracts valued under £100,000 for the UK and Northern Ireland. The free trial is part of the Department for Business’ Enterprise Strategy which was released in March, which outlined new measures to increase the amount of government business that is won by small firms.
30 April 2008
© BERR
March 7th, 2008
Plan for ID cards announced
The Home Secretary has announced details of the plan for a system of national ID cards. Plans for a system of national identity cards gathered momentum today, as the Home Secretary revealed the schedule for release of the cards. Foreign residents first: The first people to get ID cards will be non-EEA foreign nationals living in the UK. They will begin carrying cards in November of this year. The roll-out will start with people historically most likely to abuse the system - including people living here on student visas or marriage visas. Those issued with cards will be fingerprinted, and the card will contain details of their immigration status. The card will also indicate whether they are allowed to work or access benefits, and how long their visa allows them to stay in the country. Within three years all foreign nationals applying to enter or extend their stay in the UK will be issued a card. The plan calls for 90% of foreign nationals to have the cards by 2015.
Some UK citizens will be issued cards in 2009. Next year ID cards will also be issued to some UK citizens. The first cards will go to people with sensitive jobs where verification of identity is needed to ensure public protection. The first group likely to receive cards will be those working in airports. From 2010, young people will be able to volunteer to have ID cards to help them prove their identity as they open their first bank account, take out a student loan or start employment. Later that year the scheme will be opened to voluntary applicants of any age. From 2011, all passport applicants will also be automatically registered for ID cards when they apply for new biometric passports containing fingerprints. They will be able to choose whether to have a passport, an ID card or both. This will speed the roll-out, and could result in savings of around £1bn.
6 March 2008
© Home Office
October 23rd, 2007
Government Backs Online Citizen Revolution
People and Participation.net (http://www.peopleandparticipation.net), is a new radical resource to help people across the country influence Government decision-making. The site combines the strengths of an expert guide to participation with interactivity and inclusiveness of a wiki. Key features include:An interactive tool which helps practitioners to select participatory methods based on their specific circumstances; A comprehensive methods database, covering over 30 traditional and innovative approaches to public participation from around the world; A selection of case studies, showcasing good practice and allowing site users to post their own success stories to inspire others; A section for site users to post their questions about participation. Involve staff will respond to these questions and thereby create an ever growing knowledge bank of answers to common; News and events information from the UK and beyond; A comprehensive library of written and web-based resources from around the world to help site users make sense of public participation. The interactive website was built by Involve and Headshift. It is funded by the department of Communities and Local Government, the Ministry of Justice and the Sustainable Development Commission.
19 October 2007
© involve
October 18th, 2007
Search is on for next generation of government IT leaders
The government has launched a hunt for the next generation of public sector IT leaders through the new Civil Service Technology In Business Fast Stream. Following a successful pilot scheme that led to the recruitment of six men and women from across the country, the new Technology in Business Fast Stream hopes to appoint up to 20 of Britain’s brightest graduates this year. The UK government handles some of the biggest IT challenges in the world and planning, delivering and managing technology-based change, centred on the needs of citizens, calls for exceptionally talented people. The Technology in Business Fast Stream will provide Britain with its next generation of leaders: women and men capable of bringing about positive, large-scale business change in the public sector. Technology in Business Fast Streamers will be selected for their potential to become future Chief Information Officers or leaders of large-scale, IT-enabled business change.
17 October 2007
© Cabinet Office
Government has made progress in making a wide range of information available to the public through the internet. But the National Audit Office has found that although internet users rate government websites reasonably well, the quality of those websites has improved only slightly since 2002. Today’s report to Parliament looked at the progress made by government in delivering services and information online since the NAO last reported in 2002. Government organisations spend some £208 million on websites each year. Usage of the main government websites has risen over time and some sites are widely and repeatedly used. For example 78 per cent of Jobcentre Plus online service users visited its sites at least once a week. The report found that many government websites tend to be text heavy and off-putting to the user. Internet users told the NAO that some government websites are complex to understand and navigate and information useful to them is often hard to find amongst large amounts of policy material not relevant to them.
13 July 2007
© National Audit Office
The final deadline for submission is Monday 11 June 2007 at 16:00 hrs CET. Early submission is strongly encouraged. The European Commission, and its contracting partners, are organising the European eGovernment Awards 2007 in order to select good practices under the general theme of “reaping the benefits of eGovernment”. Public sector actors of all types and from all levels (local, regional, national and/or pan-European) from European Union Member States, candidate countries as well as EFTA countries are invited to submit applications. These applications should be in current use and supported by a public sector organisation. We want to remind representatives from cities and municipalities that we award impact relative to the target community and not size.
30 May 2007
© eGov Monitor
The open, online process used by a small consortium, led by RNUK Ltd’s CEO, Simon Berry, to develop their bid to run the Innovation Exchange has been nominated for an award. The nomination was made by Nick Booth. In a blog entry on Podnosh he wrote ‘Cards to the chest bidding can lead to bidders being blind to the best ideas. The open source tender had at least 500 minds involved’. Nick nominated the Open Innovation Exchange under the ‘Modernising Government’ theme of the New Statesman ‘New Media Awards’. You can read what others think of the nomination and rate and comment on it yourself here. ‘At the start we were not sure how the process would go or how it would feel,’ said Simon Berry. ‘But once we got started, we committed to the open process. We put everything online: rough drafts, outline concepts, the lot. It made any other way of doing it look inadequate.’ More than 500 people read the bid under development and more than 90 contributions were received. The final bid was delivered to the Office of the Third Sector on Monday, 14 May. Selected bidders will be called for interview on 12 June and a decision is expected shortly after.
22 May 2007
© ruralnet|uk