Smarter government - putting the frontline first

The recent government initiative, Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government promises the opening up of data and public information, releasing over a thousand public data sets – including Ordnance Survey mapping data, real-time railway timetables, data underpinning NHS choices, and more detailed departmental spending data – and making them free for re-use. Whilst this will provide fantastic opportunities for the innovators and enthusiasts everywhere to spawn new and interesting online services, and allow smarter comparisons to drive up the quality of services, it does provide challenges for the organisational entities and the public, both of whom have much to gain from its potential.

In addition to this welcome opening of the digital door to the government held data, ensuring the successful take up of these services will require getting the following three areas right:

• Getting the right balance between the free market approach and national centralised sites. The former may create highly valuable, localised but potentially fragmented views where it is hard for the user to find the information they want in just one place, or worse still are not available in that area. At the other end of the spectrum are larger and more costly national services which ensure wider coverage for all and allow for more direct comparisons but may fail to provide views that are personalised enough. The last thing that people want is a digital postcode lottery, creating the digital haves and digital have nots, depending on whether there are organisations willing and able to provide the required information in a particular area.

• Deciding on how the online services providing access to this information will be funded ? To date, advertising has not been used on online public services in the same way that it has been on other websites. Can the selected use of advertising to make the services self-funding and reduce the burden of public investment be balanced with the potential mistrust associated with commercialising this data?

• Defining who will manage and assure the ongoing quality and integrity of the data, and how moderation of user generated content, which can add immense value to the initial raw data, will be handled? Trust in the accuracy of the data will be paramount and any mistakes with the quality of data will cause this trust - and with it the users - to rapidly disappear.

Over time, the innovative well designed services that people find most useful will catch on and be extended or spur others into offering similar services, but it will take some more smart thinking to get to that point.

PA was involved in the successful delivery of the NHS Choices service referenced in the Smarter Government report. To request a case study for NHS Choices, or to talk to one of our experts about digital services, please contact us now.