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Devon County Council is at the forefront of efforts to build a multi-organisation shared network to establish common office resources and build communications infrastructures that will bring about a real breakthrough in service delivery, as Heather Barnes explains. With ongoing financial pressures on the public sector, Devon CC is constantly looking for new ways to meet the economic challenges, and make the most of opportunities before us. To drive the recovery, our council is heading a cutting-edge strategy for sustainable growth – one in which minds are focused on the new economic realities that will transform local government, while carving out vital, extra savings which can support the frontline. Our economic revival is continuing, but the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)'s shadow still looms large, bringing tough choices for local authorities, and for us remembering that three out of every 10 of Devon's workforce are public sector employees. Like other regions in an Internet-driven society, Devon has to keep investing in stronger communications – common networks which enable business innovation for which Britain is justly famous. To foster this creativity, we need to create common business strategies and infrastructures which connect all our region's public services. We need to make more effective use of latent office and ICT resources in ways that underpin the area's future growth. It is easily forgotten that public organisations have massive local knowledge which can be harnessed for the common good. By sharing business system applications, our decision-makers will be able to view shared information and data to make faster decisions to improve customer service, support entrepreneurs and drive down costs. Providing shared contact centres will enable different departments to answer any business inquiry. Excitingly too, we can ensure that different mobile council or agency workers are on hand to help local people, while easily staying in touch with their offices. By harnessing their workforces' unrivalled insight into local needs, Devon's local authorities and agencies can deliver the type of frontline customer service and intelligent interventions that unleash our region's wider potential. Some previous plans for public sector shared services foundered because although the sharing ‘vision' was there, the ability to bring together technology platforms and business applications was lacking. Devon is now at the forefront of new ‘bottom-up' efforts by local government and its partners to build a multi-organisation shared network with help from expert IT providers. This innovative programme has the potential to establish common office resources and build communications infrastructures that will bring about a real breakthrough in service delivery. With its technology partner, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Devon CC has created A Network for Devon, a common, county-wide network – on which all our public sector partners – and ultimately, those from the private sector – can connect to. Participants gain the benefits of faster access to services, cheaper telephone calls and 24/7-resilient ICT. Councils and agencies' departments will deliver better-performing local services, since they will connect and collaborate with colleagues elsewhere − using networks or Internet channels which run to strict and secure common standards. These innovations will underpin the revolution in cross-organisational information sharing as described above. This step change in the way public sector ICT can deliver will not only help executives such as myself align Devon's resources better to meet the CSR's challenges, it will help ensure local entrepreneurs and residents alike receive ‘more from less' – every time they seek help from the public sector organisation. The Devon Network is also a practical realisation of the Public Sector Network (PSN), the emerging – and much-discussed – common ICT network specification. This approach is helping bring about cost efficiencies and promoting and facilitating shared services, which are all at the heart of this network. When the PSN specification is fully ratified, there will be a wider opportunity for us to connect to like-minded networks beyond Devon to create a true ‘network of networks' in the years ahead. We recently showed our programme ‘road map' to senior executives, planners and ICT personnel from 80 South West local authorities, community and voluntary organisations and other public bodies. We have received strong support from across the region, both for the progress we have made and for the potential contained within the practical network platform we are building for ourselves and for our partners. I also agree with Siemens Enterprise Communications' view that an exciting aspect of the PSN is the way that the public and private sectors have collaborated under the auspices of the Cabinet Office to create a simpler, more efficient way for everyone to share their resources. A Network for Devon means that Devon CC and our partners have the technical infrastructure to support economic development. It also means we can recruit public sector partners and build closer relationships with private sector innovators and investors which make that development and growth sustainable. In the current financial climate, any innovation that we or other agencies can make to share our business strategies will ensure extra money is released, both for economic growth and key frontline services. Heather Barnes is deputy chief executive at Devon CC

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WHITEHALL

A county-wide delivery

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