Financial systems options review
The project issues
Alnwick District Council (ADC) and Berwick Borough Council both have ASP contracts with the same supplier which expire in 2008. They wanted to review jointly the various options open to them and potentially a third authority - Castle Morpeth - with which Alnwick has a partnership arrangement for ICT services.
Socitm Consulting won a competitive tender to review future options for the two authorities including where the services should operate, e.g. remotely as under the ASP service or locally, and also to advise on the selection of software. All options had to comply with European Procurement Rules.
E-government progress check
The project issues
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) engaged Socitm Consulting to carry out an assessment of its progress towards satisfying the Government's targets for Electronic Service Delivery.
Councils initially had considerable freedom as to how they define those service elements that are capable of being e-enabled. SBC initially developed a definition of services and was on target to achieve 100% against this list by December 2004, one year ahead of the Government target.
Building Schools for the Future programme support
The project issues
South Tyneside and Gateshead Councils are the sole remaining partnership scheme in Wave 1 of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Uniquely the scheme also includes the local PCT as part of the proposed Local Education Partnership (LEP).
A major challenge for the programme was the very different nature of the current ICT arrangements across the scheme and the phasing and different size of the scheme in the two authorities.
Website staffing structure review
Priority Service Outcomes review
The project issues
The ODPM’s Priority Outcomes (PSO) consist of Required, Good and Excellent categories. Middlesbrough Borough Council (MBC) recognised that the existing technology infrastructure and tools were incapable of meeting the PSOs.
MBC’s e-Government Programme identified projects to deliver the ODPM’s Priority Outcomes and IT Services, managed by HBS, was tasked with producing the PSO Achievement Plan, outlining the technology, resources and an overall plan to meet these targets.
Customer Services Transformation
The project issues
The Council was seeking to improve its weak CPA rating and was developing a new Vision and Improvement Plan to achieve this. It used funding provided by the IDeA Implementation Support Unit to pump-prime the delivery of the Improvement Plan which included components covering Leadership and Culture Change. Another major objective was to transform its customer services; this was the basis of Socitm Consulting’s assignment.
The project’s success criteria were: