Government Code of Connection (Government Connect)

The Council of the Isles of Scilly engaged Socitm Consulting to help them through the Code of Connection approvals to enable access to the UK governments’ many agencies.

There are currently a number of projects, which are being led by Central Government, that will require interchange of information between Central Government Departments and Local Authorities. The initial implementation is for secure exchange of information with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Government Connect is also delivering ContactPoint, which is being implemented by Children’s Services and is a key element of the Every Child Matters (ECM) programme, which will support more effective prevention and early intervention. In order to achieve this functionality it is necessary for Local Authorities to connect to the Government Secure Network using Government Connect supported by a Code of Connection (CoCo) for security validation.

Government Connect (GC) is a pan-government programme providing an accredited and secure network between central government and every Local Authority in England and Wales. The network is known as GCSx (Government Connect Secure Extranet). GCSx is part of the wider Government Secure Intranet (GSi) and provides connectivity to nearly all central government departments.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly (IoS), in common with all Local Authorities, undertook an assessment of the security of its networks through a process called “GSi Code of Connection for GCSx” (CoCo). This was to allow the connection of the IoS computer network to GCSx in time for the November 2009 deadlines to implement the initial services. IOS had made excellent progress in completing the CoCo assessment questionnaire but there were a number of remaining issues to be addressed.

Socitm Consulting was engaged to bring both their experience of the original aims and objectives of the IoS network, which was installed in 2005, and the work being carried out in other local authorities to become CoCo compliant.

Our consultant liaised with the Council’s ICT Officer to establish what upgrades were needed to the network infrastructure in order to satisfy the Government Connects auditors. We ran a workshop to determine the outstanding requirements and to establish a forward plan that would also meet the council’s budget. Our work also included discussions with the assigned Government Connect auditors for IoS and assistance to prepare the submissions to Government Connects.

Socitm Consulting was able to provide the experience and reassurance to IoS to enable them to successfully gain approval to connect to GCSx well in advance of the required timescale.

Dan Marcus, Council of the Isles of Scilly commented, “The breadth of knowledge and experience of the consultant was a reassurance for us. The consultants definitely helped us plan, achieve and realise our goals in regards to this project”.

Project Identification:
Client organisation: Council of the Isles of Scilly
Client contact: Dan Marcus, Tele: 01720 424014, dmarcus@scilly.gov.uk
Lead consultant: Phil Riley
Project no: 7283