EURIM Working Group Minutes

Working Party:	Theme 01/ Working Group
Ref:	02-T02-Min03
Minuter:	Emma Fryer
Date:	11/09/02
Circulation:	Attendees and Apologies
Queries to:	Emma Fryer, Tel: 0191 384 0282 Mob: 07714 803 650 Emma.fryer@eurim.org

Minutes of the Planning Meeting of EURIM’s Modernising Government group (Theme 2) 11^th September 2002, kindly hosted by IBM
Summary
Purpose of Meeting
To review recent activities and update members on progress to date. To identify follow up needed on Briefings 35, 36 & 37 To plan the forward programme and future activities To allocate areas of responsibility.
Activity streams agreed
Social exclusion Open Government – use of open source and open standards in government Health Service Delivery Strategy - Lack of a real government strategy for modernisation
Actions Agreed
1. A press launch for the three briefings (35, 36 & 37) would be held in October 2. This would be followed by a workshop or seminar to reinforce the messages of the briefings 3. Richard Sykes would lead activity on Social Exclusion 4. Chris Godwin would lead activity on Open Government 5. Tom Abram would lead a scoping exercise on health service delivery 6. Jonathan Tamblyn would explore strategy issues with Intellect 7. Philip Virgo would approach SOCITM and CIPFA on inspection and reporting issues
Next Meeting Date:	In approximately three months time (early December 2002)

Meeting Notes

			Action
1		Chairman’s introduction
	1.1	TA welcomed everyone and outlined the objective of the meeting – to outline how EURIM could usefully contribute to the Modernising Government agenda over the next 6 – 12 months. The meeting would cover recent progress, the forthcoming briefings that had been produced by the group, and forward plans.
2		Recent Progress
	2.1	TA reported that three papers had been produced by working groups, which complemented each other and were ready to be published as a trio. The first, Briefing 35, followed on from the earlier work on programme management and focused on the three key areas that the modernising government programme had to address over the next few year - the culture and processes within government, take-up of initiatives, and setting appropriate targets. The second briefing, 36, addressed the issues of interoperability within and between systems in government and was a plea to programme managers to give interoperability a high priority in their thinking when starting or delivering new programmes. The third briefing, 37, was concerned with the reasons why the lessons from the failure of IT programmes over the past 50 years had not been learned. A major Guide to Modernising Government and a Road Map had also been produced and recently updated, and the former was now available on the EURIM members website. These would be useful in helping to target the group’s outputs.
	2.2	Now the group needed to decide how those three papers could best be used to influence outcomes.
	2.3	TA reported that EURIM’s Modernising Government group was linked to the e-crime group on the issues of privacy and data sharing and a working group on these issues was due to respond to the PIU’s (Performance and Innovation Unit) recent consultation paper.
	2.4	TA noted that EURIM’s Medical Records group was concerned with the issues of privacy and data sharing within the context of medical records, and the challenges of developing a medical records system that operated in the public interest whilst helping the health service to deliver effectively.
	2.5	At IB’s request, PV gave a quick overview of EURIM’s other activity – The e-Commerce group was working in cooperation with the Broadband Stakeholders Group and were addressing the investment climate for telecoms. The e-Crime group was focusing on the RIP Bill and on Personal Identity issues. There was also a joint meeting with the Modernising Government group scheduled for 9^th October on Entitlement Cards. The Fair Dealing group had joined forces with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and was promoting Alternative Dispute Resolution in the field of Software and service contract disputes. The Comms Regulation group was concentrating on the Communications Bill and many EURIM parliamentary members were on the Scrutiny Committee.
3		Next steps for the three briefings
	3.1	TA stressed that the papers needed more than just distributing to make an impact. Some kind of launch was needed in conjunction with the return date for parliament (around 15^th October), backed up by press coverage. PV suggested that the papers should be presented as a response to the PAC reports. EURIM’s parliamentary members could assist here.
	3.2	IB noted that there was an outside chance that Liam Fox (Shadow Health Minister) might be prompted to bring up the modernising government issues that EURIM was stressing in his conference speech. The NHS funding injection was a 2bn disaster waiting to happen. The excellent plan for NHS was simply not being implemented.
	3.3	TA asked whether they should be targeting any other key political figures. PV suggested the labour e-futures group run by Margaret Moran.
	3.4	PV proposed holding a couple of press events with parliamentary members and invited journalists, with EURIM contributing the intellectual content.
	3.5	JT noted that the FT was interested in this agenda and should be contacted, unless this jeopardised existing exclusives. EF noted that no publications had automatic exclusives on EURIM material but occasional exclusives were given to Computer Weekly or Computing. It was agreed that the target broadsheets were the FT and the Guardian. There should be no conflict with the weeklies since they addressed different audiences.
	3.6	JT suggested that if a series of events were being planned it would make sense to involve Intellect’s events team who might be able to help with planning, logistics and PR. He agreed to approach John Higgins of Intellect to explore the potential for a joint event. Secondly, Intellect may have views in common with EURIM. He agreed to raise this with their e-commerce group, with which he was involved.	JT
	3.7	RS proposed that they hold a joint Intellect / EURIM event in the form of a one day workshop, sponsored by the government vendor community, to reinforce the messages of the papers. It was in the interests of suppliers to ensure that the key learning was taken seriously to help make Government a better customer. PV suggested that CIPFA also be approached for input, as they had good links with finance directors in local government.
	3.8	It was agreed that the group should prepare for a press launch in the period between the 15^th and 24^th.October, after the return of Parliament and before the Recess. The meeting format would be 1 hour for formal presentations and questions and a further hour for informal dialogue perhaps over drinks. 16^th October would be ideal if a room could be found. EF agreed to investigate.	EF
	3.9	It was agreed that this launch should be followed by a seminar or workshop in the period between the formal opening and Christmas. This would allow industry to make an overt commitment to ensuring that things improved on their side. It would also provide an opportunity for OGC and others to talk about training provision. JT agreed to sound out Intellect involvement.	JT
	3.10	PV noted that the Guildhall might be able to provide facilities so long as the subject was appropriate for the Corporation.
	3.11	RS asked whether there was scope for involving the Civil Service College more overtly, so that they could say how they were building it into their programmes. TA responded that they should indeed speak to CMPS and all cross-departmental groups setting policy in this area so that they could build universal agreement on, and commitment to, good practice.
	3.12	JT reported an OGC initiative called Successful Delivery Skills, which had high level support, indicating improving awareness of programme management type issues at the higher level of the civil service. This initiative involved assessment of DTI project management skills, followed by a cross-organisational analysis by SROs using the OGC matrix. It was backed up by a new programme to identify gaps and raise standards. These developments made the EURIM publications very timely.
	3.13	IB stressed the need to maintain a journalistic approach, and be ready to exploit the newsworthy angles if and when they arose. If EURIM could present the solution along with a problem that affected an MP or his constituents, this made the input more valuable.
	3.14	PV proposed that if they launched the briefing and planned a follow-on event it was very likely that something relevant and newsworthy would break in the meantime.
	3.15	TW suggested that they use the political elements of EURIM to get their message across to government, by focusing on the aspects of real political concern, such as criminal justice. PV agreed, and suggested that EURIM’s observers would also be good partners in such an exercise. Mark Gladwyn in particular would be a valuable ally.
	3.16	TA noted that the NHS had just appointed a new head (Richard Granger) and it would be some time before visible results could be expected. However, the E-envoy’s recommendations were not mentioned in the NHS plan, and there was no evidence that the plan itself, though good, was being implemented.
	3.17	JTH referred to the recent news story where it had proved impossible to vet teachers within a workable timeframe. It demonstrated the key problem of announcing policies without properly considering how they would be implemented.
	3.18	TA concluded that the group now had a skeleton plan. EF, JT and TA agreed to liaise on next steps. IB agreed to contribute to the press element. The printing of the briefs need not be delayed.	EF, JT, TA
4		Forward plans and activities for the Group
	4.1	TA then outlined several proposals for forward activity that had been brought to his attention.
	4.2	Social Exclusion TA noted that the group were considering activity on social exclusion. RS had kindly agreed to scope the issue.
	4.3	NHS Delivery TA reported that there was scope for additional activity on issues concerned with modernising the health service. Medical records infrastructure was already being handled by a EURIM group, but there was considerable scope for a more holistic approach. The current initiative probably represented the biggest ICT investment programme ever undertaken anywhere, and was destined to fail. EURIM, possibly in conjunction with WCIT’s medicine and health panel, had a role in lobbying decision makers to increase the chances of success. BCS was another potential partner. IB agreed that this was a key area– after a three year exercise it was still not possible to transfer patient records electronically from one doctor to another in Weymouth, let alone elsewhere.
	4.4	Industry commitment TA reported that the OCG had responded at the consultation stage of the three EURIM briefings to make the point that government was rapidly overtaking industry and to call for evidence that industry was also committed to delivery. Blame for previous ICT disasters rarely rested entirely with government.
	4.5	e-Crime/ TA noted that there was also scope for activity in the e-crime area.
	4.6	TA then asked those present whether they had any other topics to raise.
5		Issues and comments from the floor
	5.1	DWP Health Sector Issues PV identified delivery issues with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Margaret Moran had already asked for input to help with departmental activity. PV further identified the Criminal Justice area as one likely to result in high profile delivery failures. He suggested both might be worthy of EURIM action to highlight issues.
	5.2	Coordinating inspections in Local Authorities PV also noted that SOCITM and CIPFA were looking into local government issues, in particular targets and inspections, where more time was being spent on reporting and inspections than actually doing the job. The chief information officer in Camden listed 27 different organisations doing inspections, all asking for similar information in different formats and requiring separate visits. Whilst inspections were necessary, better co-ordination and cross-referencing was required.
	5.3	Training and e-skills IB raised the issue of training from the government standpoint. Was EURIM able to help maintain pressure on government to prevent an even worse skills vacuum in several years time? It was important to build on the messages from all three briefing papers that the right courses must be available. Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) involvement in delivery should be kept at the forefront. PV noted that the skills boom predicted to follow broadband roll-out was not happening and no-one was driving the skills agenda as there was little recruitment.
	5.4	Open source in government CG reported that government had an ambivalent attitude towards open source and instead of building on the leadership position of Unix they were sidelining the implementation of free software, despite an OEE recommendation to the contrary. Whilst software suppliers would ideally like to sell expensive licenses, the reality was that much benefit could be gained by intelligent use of open source and it was important to alert parliamentarians to what was available and when it was appropriate to use it.
		IB endorsed this but noted that it was becoming increasingly difficult to define what was open source. EURIM could do some very useful work presenting conflicting definitions and clarifying terms. CG agreed, Cabinet Office described some proprietary software as open standard. A business focus group called Open Forum was currently advocating true open source as an option for business. EURIM could present a balanced view of its value for government as there was lots of scope to educate and inform – for instance the NYSE ran on Linux, not on proprietary software. There were important security implications too.
		CG noted that although the OEE had published a policy statement advocating the use of open source there was no follow up on how to make an informed decision. To make this choice the myths had to be separated from the facts in the government arena, and such work would be very useful. This was agreed. NG reported that OEE and OGC were looking at this issue. Projects could not rely on open source from top to bottom – different elements needed different levels of support and presented different sets of risks that had to be managed. CG agreed.
	5.5	Aggregation PV noted that the Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG) was looking at this issue but broadband and modernising government were inextricably linked and a watching brief should be kept on this area.
	5.6	The Role of Intermediaries JT raised the role of intermediaries in delivering the mod gov agenda as an issue – eg banks providing validations services, or a dot.com administering speeding fines. This landscape was becoming increasingly complicated and government was actively seeking inputs.
	5.7	e-Government strategy JT noted that there was currently no valid strategy for taking e government forward – things had moved on since April 2000 and the whole landscape of infrastructure and delivery models had changed. Only the high level objectives were still valid and much explanation was needed as to what was going on. Was this a role that EURIM could fulfil? TA agreed that this was key to the message of Briefing 33: – Was there a programme, and if so, who was pulling it together?
	5.8	EDRM – Electronic Document and Records Management NS noted that it looked as though the target for EDRM implementation would be missed in most cases. This would have consequences for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act in 2005
	5.9	Integrated Transport NS noted that the underpinnings necessary for truly integrated transport did not really exist. CG agreed – Employment policy and telecommunications encouraged flexible working but the DoT’s transport policy actively discouraged it – a classic example of non–joined-up government thinking. Transport and telecommunications policy should be integrated.
	5.10	Culture MH noted that in government individuals were still rewarded for fancy policy, not for delivery. A huge cultural change was needed to angle reward to the ability to deliver.
	5.11	IB asked whether there was scope for combining some of the strands of activity under a global theme. NG noted that a number of the issues were closely related. The government needed to change outcomes rather than outputs. Social exclusion was an aspect of this. If it was not addressed then the new services coming on stream would not be used. Intermediaries fitted into this landscape as they interfaced with individuals
6		Prioritising Work Streams
	6.1	TA thanked everyone for their contributions. The group could not undertake more than a few streams of activity at any one time so he proposed that topics would be selected on the basis of having sufficient volunteers willing to drive activity. This was agreed
	6.2	RS agreed to scope the social exclusion agenda. HT also volunteered his help.	RS HT
	6.3	IB noted that current EURIM activity on the medical agenda focused on Medical records and was being funded directly by members. There might be scope for broadening this activity to look at NHS delivery in cooperation with WCIT.
	6.4	CG agreed to sound out the Open Forum on a joint initiative with EURIM. They might be willing to help resource a launch event or marketing for a briefing or paper on the subject of Open Government, if EURIM could provide some intellectual input, and he was willing to lead such an exercise.	CG
	6.5	JT confirmed that he would be happy to lead work on strategy, possibly in the form of a workshop in conjunction with Intellect or with Margaret Moran’s e-futures group. He agreed to liaise with EF and PV. JT noted that Government’s lack of strategy could be a huge area. IB agreed, there were too many “key” ministers responsible for the same thing and strategy was changing all the time.	JT, EF, PV
	6.6	IB noted that EURIM inputs did not always have to be in the form of briefing papers. EURIM could produce or even endorse other kinds of input on shorter timescales.
	6.7	JTH offered to monitor the Criminal Justice element so that EURIM could be prepared to respond to developments there at short notice.	JTH
	6.8	PV agreed to contact SOCITM and CIPFA to establish what they were doing regarding inspections and key performance indicators,	PV
	6.9	JT agreed to raise the issue of Industry capability to deliver with Intellect to establish whether there was any appetite for joint activity.	JT
7		Chairman’s Conclusions
	7.1	TA concluded that they had identified volunteers to drive the following activities: A scoping exercise on the issues of social exclusion (Richard Sykes) Some thinking on open source in collaboration with Open Forum (Chris Godwin) A scoping exercise in collaboration with WCIT on health service delivery (Tom Abram) A workshop to explore strategy issues would be initiated (Jonathan Tamblyn)
	7.2	Background activity would include: Compiling a contingency list of issues likely to arise through IT failures in departments, and the Group would remain “on alert” to respond rapidly if needed A further list of worthwhile topics, which there was insufficient resource to pursue at the present time, would be held in reserve.
	7.3	A review meeting would be held in three months time to see how things had progressed and whether other priorities were emerging.

Attendance – 11^th September 2002

F name	Surname	Organisation
Tom	ABRAM	Mantix
Ian	BRUCE	EMTA
Emma	FRYER	EURIM
Chris	GODWIN	IBM
Nig	GREENAWAY	Fujitsu Services
Martyn	HART	Mantix
Lord	RENWICK	EURIM
Neil	SUTHERLAND	Ordnance Survey
Richard	SYKES
John	THURSTON	EDS
Jonathan	TAMBLYN	CMG
John	THURSTON	EDS
Henryk	TRZEBIATOSWKI	Consignia
Philip	VIRGO	EURIM
Tim	WILSON	Microsoft

Apologies
Alastair	BELLINGHAM	NHSIA
Patsy	CALTON	MP
Ian	DOBSON	The OPEN GROUP
Helen	FARR	IEE
William	HARBISON	Nortel Networks
Andrew	HARDIE
Charles	Hughes	e-Management
Mike	JENKINS	Fujitsu
Mike	KILLIN	OGC
Dave	LOVELL	Ordnance Survey
Margaret	MORAN	MP
David	MORRISS	BCS
Ian	NAYLER	Retail Systems Consultancy
Adrian	NORMAN	BCS
Tom	RILEY	CGEG
Malcolm	STARKE	BT
Chris	SUNDT
Chris	TAPER
Ian	TAYLOR	MP
Roger	TILL	ECentre UK
Keith	WALTON	IBM
Brian	WHITE	MP