Councils may miss the 2005 deadline

Councils will spend nearly £2.5 billion on technology this year but many still think they will miss the 2005 e-government deadline.

According to Socitm's latest IT Trends 2003/4 survey, council spending on information and communications technology will rise by 24 percent on the previous financial year to reach nearly £2.5 billion.  However, whilst many trailblazing councils have made remarkable progress in meeting the e-2005 challenge, a 'significant number' of councils expect to reach the target some time after 2005.

Socitm's analysis suggests that a significant gap exists between the
'leaders' and the 'followers' in the bid to deliver electronic services.
And, whist the work being done by various agencies to support councils may help bridge the gap, the report suggests that capacity could be a limiting factor.

Disturbingly for the Government, local government's level of knowledge about the Government's standards framework is low.  The report's author, John Serle, suggests that this may be because IT managers 'remember the failure of previous initiatives and do not feel it is worth investing time and energy at this point'.


This does not bode well for joining up government services.  Indeed, the report notes that 'the concept of joining up services . appears to be still in its infancy' - with the majority of links so far made having been done so with neighbouring councils.

Overall the report finds that senior managers, elected members and staff are increasingly aware of the objectives of the e-government programme; and are increasingly optimistic about the potential of IT to deliver better services to citizens.

Source:  Extracted from article in 'Local Government IT in Use'