Public Sector Network Inches Towards Universal Acceptance

With Francis Maudes Cabinet Office hoping to save 130 million a year by 2014 as the

result of introducing the new Public Sector Network (PSN), it comes as a bit of a shock to discover via a recent industry research document that over two thirds of the public sector professionals surveyed were unaware of where their own Central Government organisation stood in the PSN adoption process.

This remarkable figure contrasts quite noticeably with the results from local government where only 31 % were unaware of PSN projects. To some extent, of course, this discrepancy is quite understandable when one considers that local government departments are much smaller and more flexible. Also, many of them have been working with shared networks for quite some

time now.

The trouble with Central Government departments is that they are many times larger and much more complex. It can take 2 or 3 times as long for a Whitehall initiative to progress to the concept and procurement stages than it does for a local government innovation.

The PSN itself is designed to create a network of networks, joining up departments, agencies and authorities that deliver public services whether that is at national, regional or local level. A menu of PSN services will be offered by different private sector service providers.

Although less than 10 % of the respondents to the survey reported that their organisations were at some stage of PSN adoption, it is not felt by industry insiders that this limited take-up is altogether surprising when one considers the revolutionary nature of such an undertaking for institutions rooted in decades of established practice.

With huge government infrastructure projects like this and the introduction of the Universal Credit system, it is very demanding to expect 100 % adoption within the space of a single 5 year Parliament. Its virtually tantamount to turning around a supertanker on a sixpence. For its part, the government is still adhering to its target of having 80 per cent of its PC based staff using the network within the next 3 years.

It remains to be seen just how realistic this figure is.

by: Brendan Wilde

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