Comments Earlier this month Alan Banks, managing director for Adobe UK, got together with a number of top players from three of the Governments ‘super-sites’ to discuss the role that online government will play in helping to address the public spending budget cuts.
The discussion entitled Government websites, budget cuts and public services involved, in addition to Alan, David Dinsdale, programme director at businesslink; Guy Ker, publishing director, Directgov; Bob Gann, head of strategy at NHS Choices; and was hosted by Helen Olsen, editor of Local Government IT in Use (LGITU).
The group explored the implications of the Government’s review of its website domain and whether online citizen and business self service can help the public sector continue to deliver high quality services in the face of unprecedented budget cuts.
It was streamed live through LGITU Live with viewers encouraged to vote on a series of questions posed throughout the debate. The poll showed that viewers unanimously agreed that online services can maintain public sector service quality whilst at the same time reducing costs. Although, the role of an online brand as an essential element in delivering cost effective online services or as a way to encourage a sense of place and community was more divisive. More details of the poll can be found here.
A summary of the discussion can be viewed below, and we’d love to hear what you think.