Prime Minister Articulates His Vision For Smarter Government - Empowering Frontline To Deliver Better Services |
The Prime Minister has outlined plans for improving frontline services, increasing Government efficiency, and using technology to help hospitals, schools and police forces get better value for money.
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| During a speech titled “Putting the frontline first: Smarter Government”, Gordon Brown said identifying more efficient ways of working will deliver savings in excess of £12 billion over the next four years, including £3 billion of new efficiency savings identified since the budget. |
He said every citizen from next year will have access to information on the performance of public services including hospitals and schools. And within five years, the Government also plans to shift the majority of large transactional services online. Read more at www.egovmonitor.com |
Asian govts mix carrot and stick approach to e-services |
Asian governments revealed their differences on how to boost the uptake of e-services in a rambunctious discussion at last week’s FutureGov Summit in Bali, Indonesia.
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Laurence Millar, the former Government Chief Information Officer of New Zealand, sparked the debate with a question to a panel of senior officials on the future of governance and spend management.
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“Which method works best, and why?” Millar asked the panel.
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He pointed out that Malaysia, India and Saudi Arabia each take a different approach to driving e-service uptake among citizens and businesses - they offer incentives, make their use mandatory or deploy a combination of the two.
Read more at www.futuregov.net |
Contracting overhaul for social services sector |
The Government is radically reshaping how it contracts services to social sector groups, says the Minister for Social Development and Employment Paula Bennett. |
Beginning with a trial, the new High Trust Model will create a new and simpler way of funding and contracting. |
“I’ve heard horror stories about providers with multiple contracts which have had to go through a ridiculous number of audits each year - all while continuing to deliver a trusted service. In many cases they are burdened with days and days of admin for contracts with just one agency - imagine how hard it is for those groups trying to work with multiple agencies. It’s a wonder they have any time to help families! |
“I’ve always said to the sector that we would back what works. Under this new contracting model - which I believe could be extended well beyond this trial - we will combine multiple contracts into a single, simple contract. Read more at www.beehive.govt.nz |
Rees opens govt data to developers |
| NSW Premier Nathan Rees has announced a data feed for RailCorp information, which he hopes will signal the start of much more government information being made available. |
The RailCorp data feed puts an end to
a saga that led to a developer being threatened legal action for his use of train arrival
times in an iPhone application. Read more at www.zdnet.com.au |
How does government ensure information services stay relevant and discoverable for their citizens? New Zealanders choose internet over doctor
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More New Zealanders are diagnosing their illnesses online instead of going to their GP, according to a new survey.
More than a third of those surveyed in the 2009 NetGuide Telecom broadband survey had looked for medical advice from the many internet-based resources available rather than visiting their GP. |
“It is important that there is some balance between people seeking basic information for themselves with the role experts play in sorting the complexity of symptoms and expectations in our modern health systems.” Read more at www.stuff.co.nz |
A thoughtful blog from Tim O’Reilly. Gov 2.0: The Promise Of Innovation |
Can government become a platform of, for and by the people? |
There is a new compact on the horizon: Government maintains information on a variety of issues, and that information should rightly be considered a national asset. Citizens are connected like never before and have the skill sets and passion to solve problems affecting them locally as well as nationally. Government information and services can be provided to citizens where and when they need it. Citizens are empowered to spark the innovation that will result in an improved approach to governance. |
This is the right way to frame the question of “Government 2.0.” How does government itself become an open platform that allows people inside and outside government to innovate? How do you design a system in which all of the outcomes aren’t specified beforehand, but instead evolve through interactions between the technology provider and its user community? Read more at www.forbes.com |
Getting more for less: Efficiency in the Public Sector |
In the current economic climate, both local and central government are seeking new ways to secure efficiencies. Already, however, there are concerns about how far this is being achieved. Typical approaches to efficiency tend to lead to reducing unit costs and cheaper commissioning. Ultimately, even if a local authority secured a reduction in the unit cost of their block commissioning – and in so doing securing a cash efficiency – there are clear limits to how far this can continue to save. In the long-run this approach would miss out on far more sustainable, and potentially larger, efficiencies. |
At the core of this research is an attempt to re-define, rather than discard, efficiency in a way that can help us identify and capture new cost savings that these reforms can make. Read more at www.demos.co.uk |
Whitehead: Public Sector Performance |
If we keep doing what we have
done previously, we will fail. We will fail as public
service leaders, as organisations, and we will fail the New
Zealand public. |
So we need to consider new ideas and
approaches – as do private sector firms, the public and
politicians. Public sector managers, along with the
government, will have to take some tough decisions as part
of that. But New Zealand can’t afford for us to avoid
those decisions. |
We must take the opportunity to build a leaner, more
productive public service and we need to get on with it now.
The next 18 months is our chance to enhance our reputation
for having one of the smartest and most ethical public
services in the world. That’s something I am excited and
proud to be part of. Read more at www.scoop.co.nz |
TeachStreet, a Yelp-like service for real world classes (cooking, dog obedience, music lessons, ballroom dance, foreign language, golf, yoga, etc.), is launching a marketplace feature for teachers to be able to coordinate payments from students. TeachStreet, which serves seven metropolitan areas in the U.S. including New York City, Silicon Valley/San Francisco and Seattle, allows instructors to upload information about classes. Users can look for available classes, and read and write reviews on the course and the instructor. Currently, the site includes a selection of more than 135,000 classes and teachers, across more than 700 subjects and categories. Read more at www.techcrunch.com |
Japan plots one-stop public services portal |
Japan plans to create an online portal that will give citizens ”one-stop” access to a wide range of public services by 2013, the government’s IT Strategic Headquarters has announced.
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The system will have an online, high-security ”post-office box” that citizens can use to manage personal information online, such as checking the record of their payments into the public pension programme and obtaining a copy of a residency certificate.
The portal is a midterm goal for the ”i-Japan strategy” which will run until 2015. However, the Japanese government has fallen behind its targets for the implementation of online public services.
Read more at www.futuregov.net |
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UK PM’s vision: Empowering Frontline To Deliver Better Services
