Governance

Previous Govt ICT Reports

A list of some of the major Government ICT reports and plans can be found here.

From 1997 onwards, they are full of admirable aspiration and vision, but delivery remains wanting. They also reveal a mistaken tendency to specify technologies (eg smartcards) rather than to set out strategic requirements of an IT vision married to the improvement of our public services.

However, there are some policies (around identity, trust, interoperability, standards, open source) that provide insight into how an operational plan might be built upon and developed. This competition is open to both helping evolve a top-level strategy (probably of just a few pages, as most private sector strategic IT plans are) as well as the more detailed policies and operational structures that would need to be put into place to help deliver the strategy.

Integrated policymaking

How do we ensure that IT does not continue to exist in splendid isolation, but becomes integrated with policymaking?

- they need to be co-managed at the most senior levels in Whitehall: at Cabinet level and at Board level
- there needs to be an agreed strategy that works across the technical community (CIO/CTO/IT managers etc), as well as others currently impacting technology policy (Ofcom, BIS, OGC, OGC Buying Solutions, Becta etc). This requires senior business level ownership that operates above the current silo's and focuses them on agreed operational and delivery imperatives that deliver against the strategy
- independent external advice is required: non-execs with an understanding of IT and its potential role in the improvement of the UK's public services sitting on Departmental Boards; enhancement of the Chief Scientific Advisors with technology policy advisors, or a similar function to the CSAs focused on technology policy

What governance model will help ensure that policy is informed by an understanding of techology from conception, through development, delivery and ongoing maintenance?

Proposed governance mechanisms will need to establish not only a clear set of clear strategic objectives that persist over time, but also a mechanism for ensuring detailed and more agile operational planning and delivery against those objectives.

What is the role of government "brands"? At the moment the situation is confused - we have the departments that the public recognise (NHS, HMRC, etc), but we also have direct.gov aiming to be a universal govt brand. The two are often confusing, with adverts sometimes marketing one brand, sometimes another. If direct.gov is a transitional "sticking plaster" on the front of govt, what needs to happen next to make more fundamental improvements happen in the way govt is designed and operated?

How it (could) fit together

An overall vision and strategy for the role of IT in the UK's public services needs to ensure common principles and standards, as well as delivery and accountability. An updated, draft and work in development (Version 0.2) outline view of (some of) the landscape to be covered is illustrated below. This is still not intended to be definitive, but aims to incorporate some of the feedback on the initial illustration: please continue to help provide improved or replacement ideas. What "buckets" are still missing or incomplete? What other pillars or building blocks are required? How might it better better structured to convey the integration of IT and policymaking and some of the core principles, such as transparency and accountability, that need to pervade everything? Work is also required on more clearly delineating between aspects of vision, strategy and operations.

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As this develops, the intention is to make this interactive - so that clicking on any element in the illustration will open up a drill-down on those particular aspects of operational detail.

Outline Governance Model?

To avoid unnecessary disruption and an internal focus (when the focus needs to be external on improving the UK's public services and the current economic situation), as much of the current machinery of government should be utilised as possible. However, it needs to be given a new strategic direction and purpose, with increased clarity and accountability.

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* technology policy co-ordination team * - directly engaged by and working with the Cabinet and owned by a Cabinet Minister; a VERY SMALL permanent Whitehall team, informed by an independent advisory panel (adapted Chief Scientific Advisor community? New Technology Policy Advisor community? + informed representatives drawn from local/front line representatives + third party non-exec specialists}. Owns the all-up strategy and vision and principles. No "centre knows best" but a collaborative, collegial model empowered and accountable for making things happen.

* Perm Secs, Devolved administrations lead politicians and representatives, Local Authority Chief Execs, Departmental Boards, Local Authority Mayors/Cabinets, CIOs, CIO/CTO Council, OGC Buying Solutions, Ofcom, BIS, Becta, etc * - ownership of delivery against strategy; detailed oeprational planning; compliance with agreed standards (interoperability, open standards, open source, transparency, etc); accountability and responsibility for delivery

* NAO, Audit Commission, Public Accounts Committe, OGC *- audit, ensurance of adherence to principles, open publication of audits/accounts/reports/reviews; holding of both strategy owners and operational deliverers to account

Towards An Effective Distributed Governance Model

Key elements of an effective governane mechanism will include:


As well as an overall public sector business/policy-based strategy underpinning IT, changes to governance within the distributed areas of ownership of that strategy are also required in order to ensure adequate operational planning, efficient delivery and accountability.

At the Senior Civil Service level, including Permanent Secretaries, a recent report in The Times Mandarins Collared outlined how the Conservatives, if they form the next government, are going to replace permanent secretaries as the chairs of Whitehall boards with government Ministers. The departmental management boards themselves will have more non-executive board members appointed, drawn from the private -sector. The boards themselves will have extra powers to dismiss permanent secretaries. The top 35,000 senior civil servants will also be placed on fixed-term contracts and have their salaries openly published.

Government departments and agencies and others (including those quangos that are maintained or repurposed) will need to ensure they provide clear operational plans that set out how they will work towards local delivery of the strategy, with clear outcomes, costs, timelines, resourcing, identification of dependencies, responsibilities and accountabilities.

The existing IT operations will also require clear leadership and direction, with a professionalisation of the senior tiers (those currently operating at the titles of CIO/Head of IT/IT Manager) and a clarification of the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. CIO CIOsets out the top 10 habits of successful CIOs as being to:

I. Focus relentlessly on their organisation's strategy and how IT can enable key objectives
II. Provide leadership that motivates the IT team to deliver exceptional performance
III. Manage change so that it seems welcoming rather than threatening
IV. Spot talent, hire it, then develop it further so it becomes even better
V. Communicate ideas to the business in ways that are credible and convincing
VI. Understand how building effective teams provides a platform for successful projects
VII. Build effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders
VIII. Manage expectations about what IT can and cannot achieve
IX. Identify and harness the enabling power of new technologies to give their organisation extra competitive edge
X. Acquire industry knowledge so they can contribute to senior management decision-making

Is this the best summary we can develop? What would similar lists for Perm Secs and other senior relevant roles look like? How do we ensure consistency without getting into the over-burdensome, bureaucratic and ultimately counter-productive model of over-measuring compliance at the local level will still ensuring successful delivery of the strategy - and accountability for local performance?

Next Steps

To develop the role and person definition of a Whitehall-wide CIO with sufficient authority, influence and leadership skills to drive the necessary changes across governance, architecture and procurement. This may not be an IT person: the CIO role is about driving the information architecture of public services which in turn determines the supporting IT requirements. On the back of the role definition, specific people need to be identified who would be capable of taking on such a new role. Whitehall currently lacks an information architecture and the first priority of the new appointee will be to develop this essential missing component: it is the bridge between the required capabilities of modern public services and the technology infrastructure required to support them.

The proposed new central CIO role, which will replace the current CITO (Chief IT Officer) role (although currently misnamed as a 'CIO'), should combine both strategic leadership and pragmatism, ROI improvements on IT investments and in particular an expansion of the business/policy impact of IT. We need to identify where individuals of the right profile and calibre can be recruited to such a position.

There needs to be clear alignment of IT objectives and programmes to policy objectives and strategies: business and IT strategy need to be co-designed and co-led. Performance and success metrics will be based on achieving overall business objectives, not technical outcomes. The CIO will need to be part of the Cabinet Secretary's leadership team, with shared governance with business policy and process management.

The Perm Secs will have support from their new CIOs in understanding the potential role of technology in achieving their public service objectives, but they also need to improve their own knowledge of technology and technology policy and that of their staff. Within 1 year, all staff of Grade 5 and above should be enrolled onto appropriate technology policy training. In addition, a structured expose to technology and technology policy for those aspiring to senior ranks will need to be progressively introduced into the senior civil service. Within 3 years, nobody should be able to reach the level of a Perm Sec without demonstrable capabilities in the role of technology policy.

Underneath the CIO position there will need to be equivalent information-focused leaders in each department. To avoid confusion, the current CIOs, who are in practice Heads of IT, will need to be renamed so that there is clarity of understanding and purpose between those who own and drive the information strategy and those who own the supporting IT strategy.

To establish:

On the specifics of IT itself, IT governance is about assigning decision rights and creating an accountability framework that encourages desirable behaviour in the use of IT. It will also be necessary to establish the associated IT governance across at least 5 important domains:




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