By Tash Shifrin
21 January 2010
Plummeting levels of investment in IT threaten the government’s efficiency drive, public sector technology leaders warn.
Ministers have emphasised that IT can be used to transform public service provision and make savings.
But finance for IT in local government, fire and police authorities dropped in 2009 by an estimated 11% on the previous year, according to a report published by the Society of Information Technology Management today.
The report, IT trends 2010: stretched to breaking point, draws on a survey of 390 public authorities. It warns: ‘The forecast for overall IT spending is £2.8bn, £400m less than in 2008; the biggest annual fall for many years.’
Planned capital spending on IT fell to £455m, a drop of £116m from 2008 levels. IT staffing levels also fell by 10%.
‘The overall capacity to deliver improvement has decreased since our last survey,’ the report says. ‘There is clear evidence to suggest that all sizes of organisations have less capacity to deliver change than they did a year ago.’
Report editor John Serle told Public Finance that falling investment in IT threatened the move to more automated, ‘self-service’ models for public services, which would enable staff cuts and rationalisation of buildings.
‘Investment has actually declined,’ he said. ‘I shudder to think what the consequences will be if this trend is not reversed... Service standards will fall and the current public services will unravel.’
He added: ‘We doubt the government’s Operational Efficiency Programme will deliver the scale of savings envisaged – 20% in three years is unrealistic. Our survey indicates that the savings achieved by efficiency programmes are already in decline.’
IT managers felt the approach most likely to produce operational savings for their organisation was ‘channel switching’ – moving from face-to-face public service provision to more automated methods such as online services, according to the report. Business process improvement was the second major approach, with increased mobile and home working for staff also growing in importance.
21 January 2010
Plummeting levels of investment in IT threaten the government’s efficiency drive, public sector technology leaders warn.
Ministers have emphasised that IT can be used to transform public service provision and make savings.
But finance for IT in local government, fire and police authorities dropped in 2009 by an estimated 11% on the previous year, according to a report published by the Society of Information Technology Management today.
The report, IT trends 2010: stretched to breaking point, draws on a survey of 390 public authorities. It warns: ‘The forecast for overall IT spending is £2.8bn, £400m less than in 2008; the biggest annual fall for many years.’
Planned capital spending on IT fell to £455m, a drop of £116m from 2008 levels. IT staffing levels also fell by 10%.
‘The overall capacity to deliver improvement has decreased since our last survey,’ the report says. ‘There is clear evidence to suggest that all sizes of organisations have less capacity to deliver change than they did a year ago.’
Report editor John Serle told Public Finance that falling investment in IT threatened the move to more automated, ‘self-service’ models for public services, which would enable staff cuts and rationalisation of buildings.
‘Investment has actually declined,’ he said. ‘I shudder to think what the consequences will be if this trend is not reversed... Service standards will fall and the current public services will unravel.’
He added: ‘We doubt the government’s Operational Efficiency Programme will deliver the scale of savings envisaged – 20% in three years is unrealistic. Our survey indicates that the savings achieved by efficiency programmes are already in decline.’
IT managers felt the approach most likely to produce operational savings for their organisation was ‘channel switching’ – moving from face-to-face public service provision to more automated methods such as online services, according to the report. Business process improvement was the second major approach, with increased mobile and home working for staff also growing in importance.
