This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Angus MacKay announces £26 million for modernising Government in Scotland
18/12/2000
£26 million from the Modernising Government Fund was awarded to a total of 36 groundbreaking projects by Angus MacKay, Minister for Finance and Local Government.
The Fund which has been increased by £1 million in recognition of the high quality of innovative projects will improve provision of a range of services to the public.
Mr MacKay said:
"The Modernising Government Fund has been a terrific success. The Fund's objective is to encourage joined up government that puts the needs of the citizen first and, by investing, to create savings to release more resources for front line services. It's clearly an idea whose time has come.
"It is particularly encouraging that nearly all the successful bids involve public organisations joining together to provide services that are more convenient for the public. A good example is the partnership that Dundee City Council has put together with others in the public and private sectors to develop a 24 hour city-wide interactive leisure and culture portal. This has the potential to benefit the citizens of Dundee, and to boost tourism by showing the world what Dundee has to offer.
"Most projects also involve innovative use of new technology. Dundee already has a good reputation for implementing web-based service information and the Dundee.com bid now builds on this to develop interactive services.
"I am very pleased to see so many public sector bodies committing so wholeheartedly to accelerate change and improvement in the services they provide to the public. I am delighted to be able to inject a total of £26 million of new money (£1 million more than previously planned) into the public sector over the next two years to make that happen."
BACKGROUND
1. The establishment of the Modernising Government Fund was announced in the Scottish Parliament on February 23, 2000. The Fund then totalled £25 million spread over two years.
2. The resources are to support new and innovative projects from across the public sector including those which harness new technology and promote more joined up working. Priority is given to those projects which involve the delivery of services or policies from more than one public sector body.
3. Applications were open to any public sector body in Scotland either individually, in partnership with other public sector bodies or in partnership with the private or voluntary sectors. The closing date for indicative bids was 15 May 2000; a total of 104 bids were received by the Scottish Executive. 46 were successful at the first assessment and fully worked up bids were sought by 29 September 2000; 44 were received. Of these, 36 are being offered support from the Fund. The remaining 8 projects did not demonstrate a sufficiently good fit with the criteria of the Fund.
4. The overall costs of the Dundee project are £519,000. Dundee's bid from the Fund was for £259,000 and the Council will receive the full amount that it requested.
5. The project is being developed as a part of a private/public partnership with Scotland On Line, Torex, Telewest and ticket.com. The public sector partners for the project are the Dundee Partnership, City of Discovery Campaign, Angus and Dundee Tourist Board, Dundee University, The Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Enterprise Tayside.
6. At the end of the project Dundee will provide a 24 hour city-wide interactive leisure and cultural portal website and digital TV station providing a wide range of service information and access and a live electronic booking office for all events in the city.
7. The full list of successful projects is attached.
SUBMITTED BY | - PROJECT NAME AND SUMMARY
| PROPOSED MGF CONTRIBUTION | CONDITIONS PROPOSED |
Aberdeen City Council with Grampian Primary Healthcare Trust, Grampian Police and First Group PLC | The "AccordLink" project builds on a successful pilot (in schools) to give members of the public a smartcard - a citizens service card - to help them access council services and make the council more efficient in delivering those services. | £2,000,000 | Capped at £2 million |
Aberdeenshire Council in partnership with Grampian Primary Healthcare Trust, Grampian Caredata , Scottish Enterprise Grampian and the voluntary sector | The project will provide a new internet portal that gives clear, uncomplicated and comprehensive information to meet the needs of older people aged 65 and over. | £100,000 | To be combined into single e-care project. |
Aberdeen Inner City Local Health Care Co-operative with Grampian Primary Care NHS Trust, Aberdeen City Council, Grampian Police, Grampian HB | The "Torry - Public Services in Touch and In Reach" project will build upon a pilot study to provide integrated services from custom built premises that can bring health services, community policing, social work and housing services together. | £500,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project |
Angus Council with Tayside Police, Angus College, University of Abertay, Tayside NHS Trust, Angus Community Council | The "angus.net" project is a new study to identify and provide a shared multi-agency telecommunications infrastructure for the Angus area. | £554,300 | |
Argyll and Bute Council with Argyll & Clyde Health Board Argyll & Islands Enterprise | The "Three Islands Partnership" is a new project that will develop outreach centres where customers will have a single point of contact to multi skilled staff and where ICT will be used to access on line services and support. | £416,496 | To liaise closely with Orkney Islands Council project |
Clackmannanshire Council with the Clackmannanshire Alliance, the Benefits Agency the Employment Service and the Inland Revenue | "Click into Clackmannanshire" is a new project to identify the Council most paper intensive processes and their impact on services to the public - with the aim of redesigning its systems to provide integrated customer records and online services. | £400,000 | To liaise closely with Falkirk and Stirling projects on common systems and transferable benefits |
Clackmannanshire Economic Development Partnership with Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley and Clackmannanshire Council | "People, Place and Partnership" a new initiative will create a multi-agency economic regeneration team and one stop shop. | £500,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-business project. |
CoSLA - with Glasgow City Council, Angus Council, Argyll and Bute Council | The "Dialogue Youth Initiative" will build on an existing pilot study to give young people a smartcard with a unique ID that can be used to access information and youth services. | £976,000 | To work closely with local councils. |
Dumfries & Galloway Council with Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, Dumfries and Galloway Primary Care Trust and Scottish Enterprise | This new initiative will test the use of public access kiosks for members of the public who live in areas with a restricted telecommunications infrastructure. | £72,000 | |
Dundee City Council with Torex, Telewest, ticket.com, Dundee Partnership, City of Discovery Campaign, Angus and Dundee Tourist Board, Dundee University, The Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Enterprise Tayside. | "dundee.com" is a new project to build on the Councils existing web based services and will provide a 24hr citywide internet access and booking service for leisure and culture events. | £259,000 | |
East Ayrshire Council with Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire, Microsoft Ltd, Ayr College and Ayrshire and Arran Primary Care Trust | "Closing the digital divide" is a further development of the Ayrshire Electronic Community project to tackle social / digital exclusion and will provide a number of networked locations across East Ayrshire where training and support on information technology will be provided to empower disadvantaged members of the public. | £592,000 | To liaise closely with South Ayrshire project. |
East Dunbartonshire Council with Scottish Enterprise East Dunbartonshire Council, West Dunbartonshire Council and Argyll & Bute Council, | "Dunbartonshire Direct" is a new project to provide a contact centre as a single point of access to information, advice and support for Small To Medium Enterprises (SMEs). | £500,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-business project. |
East Renfrewshire Council with Oracle, ntl | "Customer First" is a new project to integrate council information by linking records to a unique personal and property identifier that gives a joined up view of council information. | £800,000 | To liaise closely with South Lanarkshire project on common systems and call centre development |
Edinburgh City Council with Edinburgh Telematics, Edinburgh online, the Edinburgh Partnership, Inland Revenue, Lothian Health Board the Benefits Agency and British Telecom and the Post Office | "Modernising Edinburgh" is part of the City Council's wider electronic city strategy that will replace its Information and Communications infrastructure and redevelop its housing, revenue, benefits systems and social work systems to create integrated and shared customer records. | £1,800,000 | Mobile WAP gateway for fieldworkers element to be scaled down to pilot project only. |
Falkirk Council with Community Planning Partnership, British Petroleum | "eFalkirk" is part of a strategic project to create a digital community. The council will develop a community portal where citizens, households and businesses can access information on a range of council, local and business support services. | £400,000 | To liaise closely with Clackmannanshire and Stirling projects on common systems and transferable benefits. |
Fife Council with Fife Health Board, Fife Primary Care Trust, Scottish Homes, Fife Constabulary and the voluntary sector | "Improving Services for Older People" is a new project to provide better access to information and joined up services for older people and develop a new "smartcard" social work system. | £500,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project. |
Glasgow City Council with Greater Glasgow Health Board, the Archdiocese and the Post Office | "Access Glasgow" is part of wider City Council strategy to deliver on-line public services. The priority for this project will be to provide improved access to, and delivery of, social, welfare and health services by providing a portal through which front line appointments and problem reporting can be dealt with at the first point of contact. | £2,000,000 | Capped at £2 million and clear project deliverables and timescales to be provided. |
Highland Council with Highlands and Islands Enterprise , BT, ICL and the Post Office | "Digital Highland" is a further development of the Digital Highland initiative to improve the telecommunication infrastructure and power supplies that can provide a greater digital network. The project will provide training for staff, members of the public and the business community on how to get the best from digital technology and work with the Post Office to provide new online access points to government services. | £1,300,000 | Electronic marketplace element to liaise closely with e-procurement project. |
Lothian and Borders Police | The "Juvenile Offenders Module" will create a new database of children at risk and child offenders. | £500,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project. |
Moray Council with Grampian Health Board and Moray Local Healthcare co-operative | The "Open Door Programme" will implement a new customer management system to provide a single point of access to a range of health and social care information and services. | £575,000 | To be combined into single e-care project. |
North Lanarkshire Council with, Lanarkshire Health Board, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Homes the Employment Service and Strathclyde Police | "North Lanarkshire Direct" is a new project that will redevelop council information systems around life events and relate one stop shop and call centre services to those events. | £800,000 | To liaise closely with South Lanarkshire project on call centre element. |
Orkney Council in partnership with Orkney HB, British Red Cross, Northern Constabulary, Orkney Housing Association Ltd, Orkney Islands Property Dev. Ltd and Care Repair | Orkney's "One Stop Shop" is a new initiative to house a range of public services under one roof and provide access to remote communities via outreach centres and internet access points. | £900,000 | To liaise closely with Argyll and Bute Three Islands Council project |
Scottish Borders Council with , East Lothian Council, Borders College, Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade | The new e-procurement project will set up contracts with local suppliers and introduce a magnetic card based purchasing system. | £357,750 | To be combined into single e-procurement project. |
Scottish Borders Rural Partnership | The "Community Network" project is a new initiative that will provide and equip "local mentors" with internet ready PCs to help people in the rural community develop the skills and confidence to make use of information technology. | £93,265 | |
Scottish Enterprise | "Business Transformation" is a new project to develop a Customer Relationship Management System to co-ordinate joined up services for economic development. | £500,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-business project. |
Scottish Legal Aid Board with the Scottish Executive Justice Department | The "Electronic Delivery of Legal Aid" is part of a strategic project to create an integrated case management system supported by a secure ICT infrastructure. | £750,000 | |
SE Development Department with CoSLA, Scottish Homes, Shelter, Chartered Institute of Housing, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations | The "Common Housing Registers" project is a new initiative that will create a central registration system for rented housing that enables social housing to be accessed more easily and allocated more appropriately. | £686,462 | Close monitoring of ICT solution to be provided. |
SE Health Department with Social Work Services Inspectorate, the Social Work Information Review Group, Argyll and Clyde Health Board, Forth Valley Health Board, Lanarkshire Primary Care Trust, Borders Social Work Department | "eCare" is a national partnership approach to developing multi agency electronic health care records. | £1,278,000 | To be combined into single e-care project. |
| Argyll & Clyde element of e-care bid will develop a new joint working and joint care system for the management and planning of mental health services. | £1,278,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project. |
| Forth Valley element of e-care bid will provide a new referral system and equipment management system for occupational therapists. | £1,278,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project. |
| Lanarkshire element of e-care bid will develop a new system to provide a quicker assessment process and support service for home care. | £1,278,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project. |
| Borders element of e-care bid will provide a new equipment management system for users, carers and staff. | £1,278,000 (shared) | To be combined into single e-care project. |
Scottish Executive PCSD with Scottish local authorities and public sector agencies | The Procurement Supervisory Board will provide a new e-procurement facility to serve the needs of the SE, its agencies and associated departments, the Parliament, Councils and the NHS in Scotland. It is part of a government wide strategy to improve e-business and e-commerce . | £1,625,000 | To be combined into single e-procurement project. |
Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department | Will provide a new electronic grant service to farmers that reduces the burden of "red tape" between the farming community and government agencies. | £1,200,000 | Action to ensure take up of benefits to be included. |
Social Work Information Review Group with the Scottish Executive, COSLA, the Association of Directors of Social Work, Microsoft, OLM, Sheridan and Newell and Budge | "Social Care Data Standards and E-Government" will produce a new core (minimum) dataset for local authority social work systems. | £461,359 | To liaise closely with the e-care project |
South Ayrshire Council with, Scottish Enterprise, the voluntary sector and ORACLE | "South Ayrshire Governs Electronically" (SAGE) is a pilot project that will test the potential for telephone based customer services and online application forms. | £100,000 | To liaise closely with East Ayrshire project |
South Lanarkshire Council with Lanarkshire Primary Care Trust, East Renfrewshire Council and the Inland Revenue | The development of a new "Customer Service Centre" for residents and businesses will handle service related telephone calls with the aim of resolving 80% of calls at first point of contact. | £900,000 | To liaise closely with North Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire projects. |
Stirling Council with Thus plc, University of Strathclyde | "Improving the Quality of People's Lives in Stirling" will fully develop the Council's contact centre and develop a multi-media, multi-agency contact centre to improve customer transactions. | £1,039,000 | To liaise closely with Falkirk and Clackmannanshire projects on a common systems and transferable benefits. |
Student Awards Agency for Scotland | A new development that will enable students to supply the online data necessary for the calculation of student funds and provide online access to the progression of their application. | £550,000 | Stronger risk and project management information to be provided. |
West Lothian Council with the West Lothian Partnership | "Wired West Lothian" will build upon the Councils existing community portal to allow council, agencies, local business and other bodies to provide integrated services. | £2,000,000 | Capped at £2 million |
| Total | £25,985,632 | |
News Release: SE3235/2000
18 Dec 2000