Implementing Electronic Government in
Bath & North East Somerset

2 Priority outcomes and services

The Council’s overarching aim is "Making Bath & North East Somerset a better place to live, work and visit". The Council’s key corporate objectives, as outlined in November 1997*, are to:-

	Deliver quality services which are acceptable to and meet the needs of Bath and North East Somerset residents
	Promote a thriving economic community and combat poverty
	Build a healthier and safer community in Bath and North East Somerset
	Promote quality of life and environmental stewardship
	Encourage and support life long learning
	Ensure that equality of opportunity and sustainability underpin all of its activities

All of these are underpinned by crosscutting objectives of promoting social inclusion, enhancing local democracy, and improving customer access/ service.

They interface with the key priority services agreed between central and local government and set out in the Central-Local Partnership.

The following paragraphs outline our current and planned e-gov developments and show how they contribute to delivery of key priority areas defined by the Central-Local Partnership.

2.1 Social Inclusion and e-citizenship

Key projects encouraging social inclusion and e-citizenship are the Peoples Network and UK OnLine. Internet access has been provided in all of our libraries, including mobiles, for some time. An additional 59 networked public access terminals with fast internet facilities and access to office software packages will shortly be available in all eight public libraries.

Once live, the Peoples Network will provide a user-friendly gateway to council and other services, as well as free internet and email access. It will also enable Bath & North East Somerset to offer more training and learning opportunities, and will be marketed at specific groups in order to address social exclusion.

Through UK OnLine an outreach project has been developed to support adult learners in developing confident use of the internet and key software. Two UK OnLine centres are being established jointly with further education providers and the voluntary sector.

Our 5 pilot on-street kiosks also provide access to information, and we plan to introduce transactional capability. They will be reviewed in Spring 2003, and future strategy will be decided taking account of commercial developments in this area.

2.2 e-democracy

Information about the Council, its Councillors, the Council’s political arrangements and key decisions being taken is available via our website and links are also provided to other key service organisations. We support other organisations to establish their own websites (e.g. Democratic Action for Bath & North East Somerset Youth, Local Strategic Partnership, Western Counties Youth Games, Avon Pension Fund)

We are building up an on line Consultation database (Consultor) which allows inspection of what consultation has taken place, publishes the results and details the way in which they have impacted on decisions. This will be available on our public website later this year, and we hope to develop it to include information from our key partner organisations.

60 of our Councillors have home PCs with Internet access and published email addresses. The website includes information about Councillors, and also about the general business of the Council. A new Decisions Database will publish key decisions that are to be made, with time allowed for the public to comment.

We have established our electronic electoral register, but have not yet piloted e-voting. We reported our last local election results (1999) via the website. We plan to do the same for next year’s local elections, and are examining the possibility of a live results service delivering information about voting levels throughout the voting process.

2.3 Raising Standards across our schools

All schools are on the National Grid for Learning and we are working with the South West Consortium to establish broad band access for all schools. This has already been achieved in secondary schools and is now being rolled out in primary schools. The SW Grid for Learning Website provides access to curriculum and support materials for teachers.

Each school has an ICT Development Plan and many teachers will be provided with laptops from September as part of the national "Laptops for Teachers" scheme. ICT training is provided for teachers and we are supporting the development of ICT suites in schools.

Many schools are becoming more confident and even innovative in their use of ICT and the LEA is working to disseminate good practice and support schools with weaknesses. School administrative systems are now heavily IT based and all key data required by the LEA and DfES is transferred electronically. We are currently exploring possible partnership arrangements to get the Library catalogue available through schools.

2.4 Improving the quality of life of children and young people

Our Family Information Service provides on-line information about pre-school, after school and holiday services for children. Our school smart card offers convenient access to school meals; it removes the possible stigma attached to free school meals, and also reduces the risk of bullying and/or crime associated with children carrying cash. It makes it possible to monitor what children are choosing and use this information to promote healthy eating.

Choice Based Lettings will provide direct access to information for young people and their families in need of rented housing.

All of the Council's looked after children and any of the foster carers own children are given a swipe card allowing them free access to the Council's sports centres. The card is exactly the same as that used for memberships and other privileges, again removing the risk of any stigma.

2.5 Improving the quality of life of older people

The Government’s Care Direct Initiative is intended to provide access to a range of services for older people. We are taking part in the pilot phase of this initiative and hope to be able to supplement it with the Key Worker scheme. The general improvements to service access should benefit those people who most need our public services and can face the greatest physical barriers to access. However, this project has been placed on hold by Central Government, and we are awaiting further direction.

2.6 Promoting health and narrowing health inequalities

The Council's leisure centres use swipe cards to improve access. Privileges include advance booking, annual memberships, alternative methods of payment and discounts to target groups.

The Health Improvement and Modernisation Partnership, which brings together representatives of health organisations, the Council, the voluntary sector and equalities groups, have established a Public Health Development Group. The tasks of the group are to:

	Develop and communicate a better understanding of each organisation's roles and responsibilities
	Collate existing health promotion activity across all organisations in order to identify areas of overlap, omission and potential for collaboration
	Draw up proposals for a 3-year partnership work programme with the aim of promoting health and reducing inequalities.

The Council website gives contact information for the Health Promotion Unit. The Partnership will plan to use e-technology to support and enable its work, and this will be developed in the context of the broad approach of the Local Strategic Partnership.

2.7 Creating safer and stronger communities

We work jointly with the police and other Community safety partners to share information via a Geographical Information System, and to use this to inform strategic planning and review. A Community safety website provides public access to information and our Action Line call centre ensures effective handling of information from the public about hazards. While our CCTV system is analogue based at present, back office systems support staff monitoring the network. We are currently evaluating the possible future use of mobile CCTV jointly with the Police and Housing Trust.

2.8 Transforming our local environment

The Planning Service uses the Council website to publish a searchable schedule of all planning applications. They also publish the draft Local Plan and information about consultation on the Plan via the website. These have a fundamental impact and influence in transforming the local environment, and are building blocks for delivering the services envisaged in the National Planning Portal.

Our website also carries air quality forecasting and current levels of certain pollutants as well as seasonal pollen count information updated on a daily basis.

2.9 Meeting local transport needs more effectively

We are planning to use the South West Public Transport database, and are currently investigating the possibility of web-based information on availability of parking in the City of Bath.

2.10 Promoting economic vitality

The Business One-stop shop will be a key source of e-enabled support to local businesses and new ones seeking to relocate to the area. NLIS will speed up the process of buying and selling property, supporting the public and also associated professions.

On line learning is being used by our Training Services to support people in developing the skills to access paid work and/or promotion. This links with the planned use of the Peoples Network for training purposes and the outreach work through UK OnLine. http://www.visitbath.co.uk/ is one of the most visited tourism sites and we are pursuing opportunities for on-line booking and other e-commerce.

2.11 Public Service Agreement

We will be negotiating our Public Service Agreement targets between November 2002 and January 2003. A number of the schemes will use e-technology to help deliver improved results. Examples of schemes that could be levered-in through the PSA are: -

	Improved information for bus passengers
	Telecare trial for care services for older people
	Positive action to ensure that looked after children benefit from use of IT
	Web based information on recycling facilities and increased Internet based communications to reduce paper use.
	Publicity campaigns via on-street kiosks, DTV, etc to promote safety in the home
	On line access to job vacancies, home working and teleworking centres to improve access to employment for disabled people.

2.12 Local Strategic Partnership (LSP)

We recognise that our LSP has a key role to play in promoting strategic planning across sectors. The LSP will be using e-technology to aid its own planning and communications, and will also promote interoperability and systemic planning across its member organisations. We hope to be able to access national funding to support these developments.