Public sector agencies must improve local joint working and information-sharing to deliver services which compare with the private sector, an adviser to PM Gordon Brown has warned.
Sir David Varney told local government weekly The MJ that initiatives such as shared IT systems, websites and call centres were vital to driving better outcomes and efficiency.
‘We need holistically, joined-up services. There are these iconic cases, such as Victoria Climbie and Shannon Matthews, where agencies weren't talking to each other,' he said.
‘One case we saw was a family with four children where the there was a parenting order. They were seeing 10 different agencies. No-one was talking to anyone else, so the family fell through the cracks. A case worker found the core problem was a housing issue.'
His comments coincide with publication of a report by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) on service modernisation. Sir David has been leading on the initiative at the Cabinet Office to deliver both efficiency savings and a better experience for customers.
Sharing basic information, he believed, would be crucial. He said: ‘On average, one needs nine copies of a death certificate for different agencies. Different parts of the system, with a legitimate need, have taken a stove pipe approach over the years, based on what their part of the problem looked like.'
Data loss, particularly the DWP discs scandal, has raised public concerns which Sir David said must be allayed.
He said: ‘What is unfortunate is that there's not been a real debate about why we need to share this information across the public sector.
‘We've got to start on the understanding that it is the citizen who owns the data about themselves. That said, this is a private sector issue as well.'
Read the interview with Sir David Varney here.
