WRITTEN ON November 8th, 2005 BY Patrick Abrahams, The Local Channel AND STORED IN Uncategorized
The strategy – Transformational Government, whilst accepting that the paper positions Government for 2011 has a number of new organisations planned, with no real indications that current Government IT organisations are to be disbanded.
The new organisations include:
The CIO Council (1)
Service Transformation Board (1) – In Tony Blair’s forward it says it’s in place (and wrote this document), but on pages 9 and 15 of the document the Service Transformation board is either planned, or to be formalised. It would be good to have some private sector representation on this board.
Citizen Policy and Business Group (4-20) – Only four of these groups are named, but there is the potential for up twenty or more.
Common infrastructure Board (1)
Geographical Information panel (1)
Regional Centres of Excellence (9-12) – This raises an interesting question on scope – Will there be 9 (English) Regional Centres, or 12 (Including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) Does this strategy cover England or the UK ?
Government IT Academy (1) – An interesting idea, not elaborated on – Why wouldn’t this be managed via SOCITM or Intellect, or via an existing Learning programme.?
There are also other individual appointments: detailed in the strategy:
Shared Service Director
Service Transformation Director
Director of IT Professionalism
Central Sponsor for Information Assurance
If each of these new organisations has just ten people each, I estimate that this may cost an extra £120m per year (1% of the total IT Government spend)
My question is – Where are the indications of an existing Government IT organisations or roles to be removed? The strategy also telegraphs increased “Pay and Rations” for Government IT Staff – It would be good to see what is going to stop, to allow the new organisations to start.
2 Responses to “Transformational Government – 40 new Government IT Organisations ?”
It’s a valid question, but as far as I know, a lot of these are existing groups or extensions to the work of existing groups. So I think the picture is less “lets have a feast of new positions” and more “lets increase responsibilities for some existing groups and fill gaps where they exist”
All the following comments are base on my (limited) understanding, so your mileage may vary:
The CIO Council – already in place – see http://www.cio.gov.uk
Service Transformation Board (1) – the board exists and is made up of senior civil servants. It is due to be expanded, I believe. CIO council and STB own the overall strategy, I believe.
Citizen Policy and Business Group (4-20) – These are new based on the Delivery Directors which are the substantial “new” part of the strategy.
Common infrastructure Board (1) – There is something like this already in place. I believe they are going to expand its remit.
Geographical Information panel (1) – This was certainly in existence in January 2005 (Google search)
Regional Centres of Excellence (9-12) – There are 9 Regional Centres established in the UK – see http://www.rce.gov.uk. They were established by ODPM, so only cover England. They are talking to the other administrations, though.
Government IT Academy (1) – This is to complement the “professionalism” agenda and the National School of Government, but is new.
Other individual appointments:
Shared Service Director – already in post
Service Transformation Director – already in post
Director of IT Professionalism – already in post
Central Sponsor for Information Assurance – pre-existing department http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/csia/
Well, that’s a fair point Patrick. Some thoughts….
- CIO Council is a gathering of existing execs. I guess there’s a paid secretariat within eGU, but not much more extra overhead than that.
- Service Transformation Board also comprises big hitters with existing jobs, like Alexis Cleveland (Pensions CEO), Sir Nigel Crisp (NHS CEO) and OGC deputy chief exec Peter Fanning. I’m not sure who else is on it. I do wonder how much time they will put into it and how effective can it be while the budgets & still flow down organisational lines. It may have a secretariat I guess. Let’s see.
- I don’t think we’ll discern the outlines of the Government IT Academy much before the end of the year. But it wont be a Civil Service College – it’ll be virtual.
- I cant shed much light on the others, but I’m sure someone can help in due course.
I do agree there’s a perennial tendency for central orgs, Offices and Units to proliferate and never be pruned back, just as there is with regulation and legislation.
We’d need to sit down with the Civil Service Yearbook and/or Budget plans and list them (which I havent done for years). That would tell us whether it’s getting out of hand or actually being trimmed back as we go along.