28.01.16
Civil servants highlight data disconnect with local government
Most civil servants at central government departments are still failing to properly share data with councils, despite the calls for greater collaboration, according to new research.
A study of 4,400 UK civil servants, conducted by IT firm CGI, revealed that in December 2015, more than 70% of respondents said they share data with other central government departments.
However, only 31% said they share data with local government organisations, 29% with the third sector and 26% with the private sector.
According to almost half the respondents, the biggest barrier to further data sharing by government is the risk of cyber security breaches. Other top barriers to data sharing include a ‘lack of interoperable systems’ at 38% and the challenge posed by ‘poor quality data from other organisations’ at 33%.
Last year, a Socitm IT Trends survey revealed that cloud computing is already in use or being piloted at about 90% of local public service providers. However, nearly half of respondents said there are applications or IT services for which they would not use a cloud services provider, with 70% citing data protection as having an inhibiting effect.
The latest CGI study did reveal, however, that collaboration (83%) and digital transformation (82%) are the two top priorities for civil servants, in line with the priorities set out in the chancellor’s recent Spending Review.
But as PSE reported at the time, Socitm said the government’s decision to invest £1.8bn in digital transformation is too “Whitehall-centric and is limited in its aspiration”.
Steve Thorn, SVP public sector at CGI, said: “During the Spending Review the chancellor lent support to both digital technologies and greater collaboration as critical approaches to achieving transformation across the public sector.
“However, this research clearly demonstrates that more needs to be done to foster data sharing within the public sector if we are to deliver on the efficiency opportunities presented by greater collaboration. Sharing data within Whitehall is to be encouraged but it’s only half the battle, local government organisations need to be a key part of the action too.”