IT key to delivery of rural services

A £1.4bn technology outsourcing programme is at the heart of government policies to devolve the delivery of rural services to local and regional bodies.

The Rural Delivery Review into the organisation of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) led by Lord Haskins recommended decentralisation and a greater separation between the department's policy-making and delivery functions.

The eEnabling Defra programme will manage both the department's internal technology and the development of nationally accessible systems to underpin the new strategy.

Suppliers IBM, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Accenture are on the shortlist for the seven to 17-year deal, due to be signed in June.

Technology is key to the plan for 'syndicated delivery', programme director David Myers told Computing.

'As delivery of policies becomes much more distributed around the country the department is more IT-dependent, relying on the flow of information between bodies not necessarily within Defra,' he said.

'The focus is for the department to be the policy-making body and delivery to be delegated through local regional and agency bodies - and technology is critical to make this work.'

The foundation of the strategy is three data repositories created around Defra's primary areas of responsibility - land, animals and customers.

'The information held in the repositories will be available to anyone who needs to use it to deliver rural, environmental or land policy including agencies, non-departmental public bodies and regional development agencies,' said Myers.

'If we can define what data Defra is made up of, we can make links between different delivery agencies and help them deliver better services.'

Implementation will include development of the databases and roll out of better networking to access the new systems, he says.

The majority of the department's IT systems will be outsourced, but a newly-created Intelligent Customer Function, headed by Myers, will run functions such as financial management, business architecture and customer account handling.

'We have to retain control of value for money, and can't completely hand over strategy, financial responsibility or customer satisfaction,' said Myers.