Socitm plans 'route map' for public service reform

Socitm has announced plans for a 'route map' for the practical use of ICT in public service reform. The organisation for IT professionals in government has launched an online consultation, set to run until 4 April, on the contents of the document. It plans to unveil the route map at its spring conference on 11 May. It said it is carrying out the exercise in response to a request from the Cabinet Office to the Local Chief Information Officer Council to provide a local services perspective on government ICT strategy. Several Socitm members are on the council and its current president, Jos Creese, is the chair. The draft route map is based on the work of several organisations and draws on Socitm's body of evidence-based research on ICT's role in local public services. It is aimed at providing a practical, 'pan-local' approach to ICT enabled public service reform for local authorities, health services, blue light services, transport authorities, housing associations, educational institutions, civil society organisations, and local arms of central government delivery organisations. Socitm said the route map is intended to set out a broad vision of what is needed for the next five years rather than to prescribe the exact route local public services should follow. "There's never been a strategy for ICT-enabled local public services before, let alone one conceived for a citizen-driven public sector," said Creese. 'With the route map, we aim to provide a compass, a torch and a map, with organisations coming together in different localities and using it to work out particular routes to their desired destinations". This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.