WRITTEN ON November 29th, 2005 BY Jim Murphy, Cabinet Office Minister AND STORED IN Transformational Government

Apologies for the staccato nature of this post. I’ve been co-host, with the European Commission, of the Transforming Public Service conference held in Manchester. It’s been a hectic round of speeches, meeting, presentations and announcements but I wanted to download some of the highlights of the event for me.

In my opening speech I quoted Freddie Williams, one of the pioneers of computing. He was in the team that built the first real computer in Manchester in June 1948. He said that “after June 1948 nothing, nothing, was the same”. Today, too I think we can say with certainty that nothing will ever be the same again. But this conference is not about the advancement of technology itself – it’s about changing peoples lives for the better.

I also had the honour of setting the stage for two great school students from Wigan. Michaela and Andrew won a public speaking contest. It had the theme of A Vision for e-Government. The prize? A chance to present to a 1,000 egovernment delegates on the first morning of the conference. Well, they gave us a superb insight into what the next generation want from government. It’s got to be joined-up with info flowing freely. They recognised that egovernment is happening today, they told us about how it helps out with their research, their health and how they email their MP! They are also well aware of the pitfalls. They know there’s a digital divide and that it has got to be nailed. They also suggested a new public service. I think you could describe it as a ‘higher-education calculator’. Imagine an online questionnaire that combined course catalogues, the application process, accommodation choices, finances, the lot into something that gave an understandable answer. I’ve asked them to send a more formal proposal to me but you can also read their contribution to the conference proceedings.

Throughout the conference it was clear that it was time to develop e-government towards transformational government. That means being sure of the outcomes we wish policy to bring about. Doing a lot of customer insight work and then working out what it means for the way we build and arrange our services. Then actually doing it! A lot of the posts in response to the Strategy point this out too and that the doing will be hard work for the STB and CIO Council. Yes, it probably is. But remember Freddie Williams’ words and think about the ambition inherent in the students’ vision. We’ve got to be that ambitious too.