 Electronic Government Services ( 360kb) - Key priorities for the Citizens Advice service
Introduction
At the e-Summit in November 2002, the Prime Minister Tony Blair MP said “for the public services, the real opportunity is to use information technology to help create fundamental improvement in the efficiency, convenience and quality of our services.” Public services needed to see the development of high quality electronic services as “crucial to implementing public service reform”.
Previously, in April 2002, the National Audit Office had identified two main risks that needed managing if the benefits of e-Government were to be achieved. The first risk was that people would not access services electronically, seeing no advantage in doing so. The second, related risk was that government departments did not provide the services people wanted to access electronically. (Better Public Services through egovernment, National Audit Office HC 704-1 April 2002).
The Government has set a key target for all public services to be available electronically by 2005, and achieving high levels of use. However, the DTI currently estimates that only one in ten people has ever made use of an electronic government service. OFTEL surveys show that 50% of adults use the Internet at various locations, and that 42% of homes are connected to the Internet. However, only 23% of households with annual incomes below £17,500 have internet access. This evidence points to a need for electronic services that are accessible to people on lower incomes.
Citizens Advice Bureaux are now, with assistance from government, being equipped in a way that will allow access to government services. The Citizens Advice service is now, therefore, in a position to help government to ensure that electronic services genuinely improve public service delivery and to address the risk that people will see no advantage in using electronic services. We can do this by working to identify services that Citizens Advice Bureaux clients and advisers would find useful, and by testing and piloting the use of beneficial electronic services.
This document sets out general matters that government needs to address in the provision of electronic services if they are to be useful to Citizens Advice Bureaux clients and advisers. It also lists a number of specific electronic services the Citizens Advice service would like government departments to introduce, and describes how the Citizens Advice service could work with government to pilot proposed services
This document does not cover every government department comprehensively, but has instead been drawn up with the main advice areas in mind. It is intended to set out key proposals for beneficial electronic services now and to facilitate discussion between Citizens Advice and government on the direction of services for the future. Citizens Advice is contacting government departments to validate our priorities and proposals for public e-services, and to seek information e-government services – key priorities Introduction about plans which may be under discussion or at an advanced stage of development, but which are not necessarily in the public domain. Comments received from Departments have been incorporated into this document as far as possible.
Social Policy contact: John Wheatley Social.policy@citizensadvice.org.uk
Electronic Government Services ( 360kb) - Key priorities for the Citizens Advice service
|
