NAO warns our 'National IT Plan' needs bolstering by Cabinet Office

The National Audit Office likes the early progress being made by the government in implementing its ICT Strategy - but has identified areas where progress has not kept pace with the Coalition's ambitions.

According to a six month review of progress published just before Christmas, NAO praises Cabinet Office for its new pragmatic and collaborative approach and has largely met the first round of deadlines for taking action.

It also notes that new arrangements are in place to implement the Strategy and the leadership, governance and mechanisms for making sure Departments comply with the Strategy are different from those in the past and have the potential to secubig re benefits.

It also praises the fact thirty actions from the Strategy have been rationalized into 19 delivery areas, resulting in "a more consistent plan" about how the new approaches and standards and the common ICT infrastructure will be taken forward.

But it worries there are also a number of areas where not enough progress has been made: 

• The Cabinet Office has not yet developed a system for measuring the extent to which the Strategy is resulting in sustained change
• Government has also been managing the resources to implement the Strategy informally up to now and, without a clear resource plan, gaps may start to hinder progress
• Gaps in ICT skills in the public sector also remain a serious challenge.

"ICT is going to play an increasingly important role in changing how government works and how services are provided and the ICT Strategy is in its early days and initial signs are good," noted Amyas Morse, head of the public spending watchdog.

"However, new ways of working are as dependent on developing the skills of people in the public sector as they are on changes to technology and processes.

"The big challenge is to ensure that the Strategy delivers value in each of these areas."

The Strategy is intended to tackle systemic problems in government ICT projects which in the past have tended to be too big, lengthy, risky and complex. Its broad aim: to reduce waste and project failure, create a common ICT infrastructure for government and use ICT to change how public services are delivered.