Talk:Transformational Government

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[edit] WTF mate

Blair still the PM? Yeah, thought so.

[edit] Article Neutrality

This really does read a little too much like the press release. Is a writer needed to provide a broader and more neutral description of the true horror that Transformational Government really entails? Doctor Wibble 02:07, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

This article is clearly not being maintained, and is equally clearly a puff-piece for the UK government. As Doctor Wibble says, it reads almost exactly like the press release / executive summary of the Transformational Government document itself.

For info, here's some informed comment contemporaneous to the release of the strategy document:

The familiar sound of transformation

When did the prime minister say: "We need to make profound changes to the way government works if we are to make the most of new technology?"

If you're thinking 2 November 2005, you'd be wrong. It was actually little over five years ago - 11 September 2000. Back then, we had "customer focused delivery", Information Age Champions in each department driving through e-business strategies, and of course an e-Envoy and his e-government minister at the helm.

What progress has been made over the last five years? The prime minister has moved on in his own inimitable fashion from "profound changes" to the "potential for transformation".

Alongside the less than inspirational rhetoric, there are new structures. A Service Transformation Board at the top, customer group directors working across departments and the drive for shared services. But what does this amount to? The customer group idea may well work. They may succeed in challenging entrenched lines of authority and accountability in delivering services across Whitehall and the wider public sector.

It's now becoming clear that the transformation board is an attempt to institute a chief operating officer position, just below permanent secretary level across government. But these mini-mandarins will have the unenviable task of challenging the very structures that have seen them and their bosses rise up the hierarchy.

As recounted in Government Computing next month, nine years ago, Roger Freeman, then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told a parliamentary committee about the launch of government.direct, the first e-government initiative. "We have got Sir Humphrey scared," he said. Well, as demonstrated by developments over the last five years, declarations like this may have been a little premature.

Will Sir Humphrey rise up again and defeat this strategy? It would be a bold move to bet against him.