- ‘transactional’ sites up to twenty-three
- transactions offered up by more than 46% compared with 2002
- one third of sites have moved up a rank in the Better connected four rank system
-
a user survey of nine sample local authority sites shows that 83% were
likely to make the website their first port of call if looking for
similar information in future
- performance
in the ODPM’s proposed 14 priority service areas is ‘patchy’ and some
proposed ‘mandatory outcomes’ look certain not to be achieved by end
2005
- report includes
findings in nine new topics including use of forms, search engines, and
compliance with level A WAI accessibility standard
The size of the e-government task to be
achieved by end 2005 has been highlighted in Better connected
2004, the annual report on local authority web sites now in
its 6 th year and published by the Society of IT Management.
The Better connected
survey provides a definitive snapshot of local government performance
on the web. Every UK local authority website is reviewed and assessed
against relevant e-government and good practice criteria and then
ranked as - in descending order of desirability – a transactional,
content plus, content, or promotional site.
This year’s results show that one third of sites have moved up a rank
in status, that 23 sites are now transactional (up from ten in 2003),
and that there has been an increase of 46% in the number of
self-service ‘transactions’ (eg paying council tax or reporting a
faulty street light) available through local authority web sites since
2002.
However, when the
detailed survey findings are mapped against the mandatory outcomes in
14 priority service areas proposed by the ODPM in its recent
consultation paper Defining E-government priority services and transformation outcomes in 2005 for local authorities in England , the results indicate the size of the e-government task local authorities are facing.
While the survey does show evidence of steady progress that, if
maintained, should ensure local authorities achieve mandatory outcomes
in some areas, like online library renewals (60% already), other
services, such as booking sports facilities, have barely started - just
12 instances were found by the Better connected research team. Meanwhile major areas like social housing and benefits have recently been shown in the report Better connected: advice to citizens to be poorly catered for on local authority web sites.
In addition, the report is quite clear that the mandatory outcomes in
two specific areas - conformance with Level AA of the WAI guidelines
for accessibility, and the compliance with e-GMS for joined-up
government - will not be achieved by all councils. In the case of the
accessibility conformance, the report’s conclusion is based on the fact
that its accessibility survey carried out on all web sites shows a
compliance level to just Level A by only 18 councils.
Better connected 2004
contains a wealth of other information, much of it positive, both from
the ‘mystery shopping’ exercise which is the main element of the
research and from nine other surveys carried out with a series of
collaborators (see below for further information). Key findings from
the research include the following:
-
Comparison with CPA results in England shows that top-tier excellent
councils have website rankings that are 16% higher than the rest (in
shire districts the gap widens to 23%).
-
Although access to the Internet across the UK is not really growing
very much, there is positive evidence to encourage local authorities to
invest in their web sites.
- According to surveys carried out for Better connected,
between 3.8m and 5.7m people visited local authority sites in December
2003, (8.2% and 12.3% of the population, excluding under 15s).
-
Feedback from a user survey at nine councils with well developed sites
shows that 74% would make the website their first port of call if
looking for similar information in future
- The number of technical errors on local authority sites has halved during the year according to the SiteMorse tests.
According to Martin Greenwood, programme manager for SOCITM Insight which produces the annual Better connected
report, ‘the next year, and the one after, will not be easy times for
many local authorities implementing e-government, especially in
England, where balancing local priorities against mandatory national
priorities will be challenging. However, o ne way of maximising
resources is to share lessons learned. The Better connected report is very efficient means of doing so.’
Read on at www.socitm.gov.uk/Public/press+releases/20040225.htm
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