By Tash Shifrin
13 November 2009
The government’s public service reform programme is languishing in uncertainty, with no indication of when a decision on national roll-out might be made.
The ‘Tell Us Once’ scheme, a one-stop notification service to report births, deaths and changes of address, was first outlined by Sir David Varney in his December 2006 Service transformation report for the then chancellor Gordon Brown. He said it would be a model for redesigning service provision around themes meaningful to the public.
It was later enshrined in the Service Transformation Agreement, published with the 2007 Pre-Budget Report, which said it would ‘provide the frameworks and lessons for developing other similar cross-government services’.
The project involves data sharing between the Department for Work and Pensions, Revenue and Customs and councils. It has been piloted in areas covering a population of 2 million.
However, as Chancellor Alistair Darling prepares for the Pre-Budget Report on December 9, it has barely moved on.
Last November, the Cabinet Office said a full business case was expected by April. Its Transformational government annual report, published in May this year, said the pilot notification schemes had been used by around 7,880 people – less than 0.4% of the population covered by the test sites. But it would decide whether to roll out the service nationwide ‘in summer 2009’.
A spokeswoman for the DWP – now the lead department for Tell Us Once – told Public Finance that the programme was ‘being delivered on time’. But she added that a document issued to stakeholders in June for consultation was only ‘a strategic outline business case’ rather than a full business case with costings.
No dates had been set for production of a full business case or a decision on whether to extend the scheme nationwide, she confirmed. Nor is it clear when the stakeholder review period will end. ‘We haven’t announced a date yet,’ the spokeswoman said.
The pilots have tested both face-to-face and telephone services that allow people to notify a string of relevant central and local government bodies of a birth or death. A secure online service available on specially designated computers located in council premises has also been tested.
13 November 2009
The government’s public service reform programme is languishing in uncertainty, with no indication of when a decision on national roll-out might be made.
The ‘Tell Us Once’ scheme, a one-stop notification service to report births, deaths and changes of address, was first outlined by Sir David Varney in his December 2006 Service transformation report for the then chancellor Gordon Brown. He said it would be a model for redesigning service provision around themes meaningful to the public.
It was later enshrined in the Service Transformation Agreement, published with the 2007 Pre-Budget Report, which said it would ‘provide the frameworks and lessons for developing other similar cross-government services’.
The project involves data sharing between the Department for Work and Pensions, Revenue and Customs and councils. It has been piloted in areas covering a population of 2 million.
However, as Chancellor Alistair Darling prepares for the Pre-Budget Report on December 9, it has barely moved on.
Last November, the Cabinet Office said a full business case was expected by April. Its Transformational government annual report, published in May this year, said the pilot notification schemes had been used by around 7,880 people – less than 0.4% of the population covered by the test sites. But it would decide whether to roll out the service nationwide ‘in summer 2009’.
A spokeswoman for the DWP – now the lead department for Tell Us Once – told Public Finance that the programme was ‘being delivered on time’. But she added that a document issued to stakeholders in June for consultation was only ‘a strategic outline business case’ rather than a full business case with costings.
No dates had been set for production of a full business case or a decision on whether to extend the scheme nationwide, she confirmed. Nor is it clear when the stakeholder review period will end. ‘We haven’t announced a date yet,’ the spokeswoman said.
The pilots have tested both face-to-face and telephone services that allow people to notify a string of relevant central and local government bodies of a birth or death. A secure online service available on specially designated computers located in council premises has also been tested.
