McClelland review of ICT infrastructure in the public sector: our response

Customer First

The Customer First programme, jointly funded by Scottish Government and local government and delivered by the Improvement Service, enables councils to deliver better, faster and more efficient services.

Achievements

The main products provided by the programme are:

• A National ICT Infrastructure - supports joined up/shared services across Scottish local government as well as the wider public sector.
• Citizen's Account - a secure data-sharing system which allows councils to keep up to date records of their customers.
• Customer Relationship Management - a customer enquiry management system that allows organisations to resolve more enquiries 'first time'.
• National Entitlement Card ( NEC) - a smartcard for people to access services conveniently, which replaces the numerous other card schemes in Scotland. There are 1.6 million NEC customers using the card as a vital part of the national bus concessionary travel for older and disabled people. And 360,000 Young Scot NEC Card holders for a bus and rail concession scheme for young people, and the Young Scot scheme. The card also provides proof of age and is now accepted by the Scottish Committee of Clearing Banks as proof of identity for opening a basic bank account.
• One Scotland Gazetteer - a single database of land and property for Scotland.
• Tellmescotland - Scotland's national public information notices ( PINs) portal, allowing public notices across Scotland to be published in a single location for the first time.

Going Forward

From January 2011 the Customer First programme has been steered by a cross-public sector group which includes representation from COSLA, the Scottish Government (including eHealth and Public Sector Reform), National Records Scotland, NHS24 and Transport Scotland and is chaired by the Improvement Service. The McClelland review recommends expansion in all product areas, supporting more efficient delivery of services from organisations' perspective and better service delivery from the service users' perspective. This programme aims to support channel shift of many services (including significant use of mobile applications).

ePlanning

A single online presence for submitting planning applications/appeals in Scotland - https://eplanning.scotland.gov.uk/WAM/.

Partnership between Scottish Government, 32 Scottish Councils, 2 National Parks, Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA), Scottish Natural Heritage ( SNH), Historic Scotland, Scottish Water, Transport Scotland and the Directorate of Planning and Environmental Appeals.

• An estimated £18.1 million in savings to Planning Authorities over the first ten years.
• Additional savings in the same period to applicants of around £40.7m.
• Online applications currently stand at 28% of all applications submitted to planning authorities.
• Launched nationally on 29 April 2009.
• Includes online Local Development Plans, planning information systems and eConsultation.