Digital politics is all the rage. Take what Rachel Sylvester described in today’s Times as ‘digital Bennism’ — an online movement that is becoming increasingly influential to the Labour party’s campaign methods. And in the forthcoming Spectator, I’ve a piece discussing why policymakers are adopting internet-centric ideals to challenge the traditional way of doing things.
The government’s digital ventures were discussed at Policy Exchange this afternoon. Rohan Silva — David Cameron’s senior policy advisor — said the government’s digital work is the ‘most radical thing people haven’t heard of’. Silva contrasted Labour’s strategy of using IT to ‘gather ever-more information and power for the government’ with the current mission to improve public services by giving away power and encouraging bottom-up innovation. Open data, crowd-sourcing, procurement and digital transaction initiatives have made this policy rethink an undoubtedly a success — so far.
But the NHS is one area where big changes have yet to be felt. Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information, said he was unable to state how many patients were receiving chemotherapy in the UK, nor for what portion it was successful. The infrastructure and data does not exist to make such reporting possible. Kelsey suggested Jeremy Hunt’s digital regime may the answer to both the conundrum of cost cutting while ensuring that the Mid-Staffs disaster won’t happen again. Hunt’s paperless vision for the NHS by 2018 is optimistic; but if Kelsey et al take up the challenge successfully, it will make the NHS cheaper to run and more efficient by opening it up to higher scrutiny; and, he said, it will offer a great opportunity for the UK to take advantage of the nascent field of genetics
A less-optimistic vision of the future was raised by mention of the concerns surrounding the Universal Credit. A representative from the Government Digital Service toed the line and said that UC is on track — both next month’s pathfinder stage and the project overall. Labour thinks differently and has described the project as ‘in meltdown’. If the government can complete this project, their technology strategy will have triumphed where Labour’s failed. A huge nationwide IT project that will assist the government’s mission.
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