SmartGov: Belfast CIO highlights third sector data need

Rose Crozier, who is also an ex-president of public sector IT organisation Socitm, said this would play a key role in delivering the efficiency savings demanded by the government. Speaking at the SmartGov Live exhibition and conference, she said the impending cuts in public spending will demand the development of new ways of delivering services, and that she believes this will involve a greater reliance on voluntary organisations, social enterprises and community groups. "I believe the third sector will become a key collaborator in front line service delivery," she said. "We will have to make sure we have information sharing at the centre of what we do." Crozier said this will combine with an emphasis on using ICT as a foundation for changes to demand a new approach to managing information. "The focus is now widely on joining up local government and the third sector, and there will be implications for handling information," she said. "Until now there has been a big emphasis on security, and rightly so, but at local level the strategy needs to be about driving efficiency. "We need to focus on common data standards across all sectors. "Many front line services are provided by the third sector, but we're not there yet in terms of the maturity of integration. We need a better understanding of the third sector, in which there are some very small organisations, and need to think about how we enable that sector." She said this will demand a different approach to ICT infrastructure, and that Socitm is working with the Cabinet Office to look at appropriate data models. Crozier also described a change in the role of heads of IT and chief information officers in local government. They now need to show change management, negotiation and leadership skills to deliver the transformations needed to deliver services in the new climate. While governance issues remain important, she said that CIOs need to show political sensitivities and realise that "it's often about the conversations in the corridors rather than the conversations in the meeting rooms". "It's about being a political animal, and being aware of the political situation," she said. "It's knowing who you need to be aligned with to get the decisions needed, having that network there. It's about internal and external relationships. "There's a need to make change acceptable to a wide audience."