24 May 2010
The government is to axe the education ICT agency Becta, a move that will save it an estimated £80m this year.
Becta, formerly known as the British Educational and Communications Technology Association, was set up in 1988 to promote the effective use of ICT in education.
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The agency had already been facing a budget cut of almost half its £112.5m annual spend over the next two years.
Becta has been promoting the Home Access Scheme, the Labour government's scheme to bridge the "digital divide" by ensuring children from the poorest families have a computer at home.
It has also been promoting the adoption of ICT to enable people studying for diplomas in vocational subjects to move between schools, colleges and work placements.
The agency also advised schools on the most efficient and interoperable ICT solutions available to them.
Dave Baldwin, managing director of ICT specialists Getronics UK, said of the move: “With the education sector facing huge cuts, isn’t it time department heads looked to the cloud to help reduce operational overheads? With on-site IT costing departments time and money, schools and universities can secure huge savings through hosted desktop environments, while providing a more flexible approach to education.”
As expected George Osborne and the new cabinet are being forced to make some tough decisions, culling quangos and slashing Government initiatives in an attempt to dent Britain's £163bn fiscal deficit. Scrapping BECTA, will undoubtedly help to cut costs significantly, but rather than slashing the budget in the education sector, Osborne first needs to address the high-level of inefficiency in Government back-office functions.
These budget cuts give Government departments a compelling motivation to outsource non-core processes. Many back office activities which until now have been regarded as sacrosanct can actually be commoditised and performed much more efficiently by a specialised provider of BPO services. In doing this, it actually enables Government departments to innovate despite budget cuts, as they can focus on their core activities and ensure they are delivering the public with value for money.
Government departments could both enjoy a lower cost IT service delivery and also tap into a burgeoning technology skill base abroad. Instead of making do with cheap and cheerful solutions at home, they could be providing staff with best of breed IT and other back office functions.
Headline figures, such as the £65m in saving expected from scrapping BECTA, could easily be matched if IT provision to the public sector was at maximum efficiency ? something only possible if outsourcing is embraced.
Posted by: Mark Dale at MphasiS 25 May 2010
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