Smart Public Service Delivery in a Cold Economic Climate | Opening Up the Public Sector Through Collaborative Governance | Going Green – Concrete Solutions from the Public Sector
In the past three years, governments across Europe have been facing mounting pressures on their public finances arising from the need to stabilise the financial services sector. This has led to pressure for changes in the way public services are delivered, as well as a re-assessment of the scope and nature of services to be provided by public authorities, independently of the way in which they are delivered. It has also led to the need to establish more accurate and service-oriented measurement tools to ensure that the scarcer resources now available to the public sector are being used effectively.
The pressures on public finances currently faced by public administrations across Europe are severe though not unique. For example, the United Kingdom in the 1970s, Ireland in the 1980s and Sweden and Canada in the 1990s faced very painful choices with regard to stabilising public finances.
But what is unprecedented in modern times is the number of European public administrations simultaneously facing these pressures. The recognition of the existence of a crisis in public finances was provoked by the financial contributions needed to stabilise the financial services sector, though in fact there has been an underlying trend towards gradually less sustainable public finances over the past decade arising from some of the factors highlighted above, such as an ageing population, a diminishing working population and increasing competitive pressures from outside Europe. These are in addition to other pressures facing public administrations, such as the need to make governments more responsive to society’s needs and demands, and the need to (re-)establish trust between citizens and public administrations. Furthermore, it is widely recognised that there are limits to the extent to which tax increases can be used to stabilise the public finances.
As might be expected in such circumstances, the responses of European public administrations have varied in their scope, scale, nature and effectiveness. However, the need to respond effectively has never been greater - what is at stake here is the preservation of the means to support Europe’s social model for future generations. Can public administrations rise to the challenge of stabilising public finances and preventing another shock from the financial services sector while delivering a high quality of public services? Will this mean bandoning attempts to address diversity issues? Can they also simultaneously protect employment and promote employability? How will this be measured?
This topic was looking for showcase projects based on how public administrations are responding to these challenges and balancing these competing demands in a difficult economic climate.
Specific criteria Theme 1:
| Projects | Country | Organisation | Level of government | Sector | Short english description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Political management based on economic stringency and strategic budgets | Spain | Bilbao City Council | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | To this end, it has designed a strategy based on an economy in which productivity, creativity, new technologies, innovation, emerging clusters and international networks prevail. |
| Projects | Country | Organisation | Level of government | Sector | Short english description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change² - Achieving more together | Germany | City of Mannheim, Office of the Lord Mayor, Administrative Reform Unit FVA2013 | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | ‘Change²’ includes more than 30 projects, ranging from restructuring of departments, mainstreaming international/EU perspectives to all policy areas and drafting guidelines on leadership and communication for city employees. |
| Effectiveness in healthcare - Computer system to manage the surgical process | Italy | Morgagni-Pierantoni Hospital | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | They use a univocal identification of each operative room using a barcode image that is located on the main door of every OR and a univocal identification of each anaesthetic nurse using a Personal Digital Assistant. |
| Innovation in acquisition, development and distribution of digital learning resources | Norway | NDLA | Regional level | Education (higher and lower), training and learning | The specific objectives are to develop open and accessible digital learning resources in all upper secondary education subjects that can be accessed free of charge for everybody. |
| High technology at low cost in the management of cap subsidies in catalonia | Spain | Catalan Government – Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Environment | Regional level | Environment, climate change, agriculture (incl. food safety) and fishery | Public administrations need to advance mechanisms and procedures which enable them to simplify tasks, increase productivity, use resources efficiently as well as keeping material costs down. The administration, as a public body, needs to ensure its objectives are fulfilled at all times. In this project, all these ideas are realised. |
| Projects | Country | Organisation | Level of government | Sector | Short english description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gewerbe-online - An online Platform for all business license matters | Austria | City of Vienna, Municipal Department 63 | Regional level | Economic affairs, competition, SME | ‘Gewerbe-Online’ is part of Vienna’s New Public Management Strategy for administrative modernisation and development of the city administration into a customer-oriented service enterprise. The project reflects the City of Vienna’s strategic focus on advancing eGovernment solutions, which has already produced a wide range of electronic services for the benefit of citizens and business owners. |
| Optimal care of patients with long-term ventilation under qualitative and economic aspects | Austria | Office of the State Government of Upper Austria – Directorate Social Affairs and Health | Regional level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | The establishment of long-term ventilated patients care has the following objectives: Medical/nursing/psychological/social goals: since long-term ventilated patients are usually fully conscious, permanent accommodation in the intensive care unit of a hospital would only be sub-optimally suitable considering the psychological, social and medical aspects. |
| The handheld procedure | Denmark | Danish Immigration Service | National level | Justice, police, human rights and security | The procedure is an new inter-organisational way of thinking and has positive effects for users (asylum seekers) and public agencies, as well as reduced costs. |
| Ambient assisted living | Denmark | Fredericia Municipality | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | The Ambient Assisted Living project began in October 2008 and is expected to be fully operational across all aspects of care by the end of 2011. The overall result constitutes a total saving of approx. |
| Borger.dk MyPage - Joint development and reuse of key infrastructure components resulting in cost saving and a better, more personal, user experience | Denmark | National IT- and Telecom Agency | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The borger.dk (BDK) MyPage initiative focuses on joint development and the reuse of key infrastructure components, resulting in cost saving. |
| Tallinn city services One-Stop-Shop | Estonia | Tallinn City Office | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | Tallinn City Services One Stop Shop has been an example for Estonia’s smaller municipalities in establishing standardised service portals. |
| When nature calls! Managing incontinence | Ireland | Health Service Executive, West | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | This project is one such initiative providing a framework to improve the delivery of continence care by setting up a primary care-led continence advisory service for the local population. |
| Non principal private residence payments system | Ireland | Local Government Management Agency | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The project was started in response to the introduction of the charge on Non-Principal Private Residences under the Local Government Charges Act 2009. |
| Web section 'Mobility & disabled people' | Italy | Automobile Club d’Italia | National level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | This web section is only a part of a wider project of the ACI: its general plan is to set up the same section for disabled people on the national website (www.aci.it). |
| Development and implementation of electronic sick notes and maternity leave certificates managememt applicatin system | Lithuania | State Social Insurance Fund Board under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour | National level | other | Now there is no need to visit the doctor again and ‘to close’ the sickness period, submit the certificate to the employer and to the territorial division of the Fund Board. |
| Bureaucratic simplification of social assistance | Netherlands | Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations | National level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | Objectives of the project were manifold: noticeably improving the quality of social assistance services by municipalities, reducing administrative burden for citizens applying for and receiving socials assistance benefits, but also bringing about a change in the culture in which social assistance applications were assessed. |
| On the spot house | Portugal | Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado I. P. | National level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | This project was based on the analysis of the then existing situation, evaluating the need of each formality associated with businesses in immovable properties, in order to eliminate useless steps and to concentrate the ones which were necessary into a single place, thus avoiding repeated dislocations, saving time and money. |
| Difain csa - Initial decrease of the current phenomena encountered in supervising children left home alone | Romania | Iasi Municipality | Local level | Education (higher and lower), training and learning | The project is a response to the problems of children whose parents are working outside the country, by improving conditions and psychological effects of this phenomenon seen both in Iasi and Chisinau. |
| KEP - Knowledge-based economy project | Romania | Ministry of Communications and Information Society, The Project Management Unit | National level | Information society, technology, media and audiovisual | The KEP is an alliance between the strength of the knowledge-based economy vision and the results already achieved by this project, which put Romania on the list of best practices in Europe. |
| Get moving towards employment | Spain | Barcelona Activa – SAU SPM | Local level | Employment, labour related affairs and gender equality | The programme ‘Get moving towards employment’ is part of a city strategy to raise awareness about the municipal resources for professional guidance. |
| Common shared system for purchasing telecommunications services to be provided at municipal level | Spain | LOCALRET | Local level | Information society, technology, media and audiovisual | This joint public procurement system also has an important impact on local economic policies as it allows the savings to be invested in other actions. |
| Birmingham city council business transformation programme | United Kingdom | Birmingham City Council | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The aim now is to make Birmingham’s example and their ‘CHAMPS2’ methodology the ‘gold standard’ for delivering public sector transformational change, here in Europe and across the world. |
| Projects | Country | Organisation | Level of government | Sector | Short english description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic public procurement platform in Albania | Albania | Public Procurement Agency | National level | other | Electronic public procurement system supporting the automation of all the Albanian contracting authorities. |
| Re-organisation of child care in upper Austria | Austria | Amt der Oö. Landesregierung, Direktion Bildung und Gesellschaft | Regional level | Education (higher and lower), training and learning | The Upper Austrian Child Care Act therefore pursues the following targets: ensuring a high quality of pedagogical training, under consideration of current scientific knowledge; improving the balance of family and career to allow the true equal treatment and non-discrimination of genders; supporting and complementing the families in their tasks of education and care; and further development of childcare offers in terms of a qualified planning of demand. |
| BIS - Budget information system | Austria | Federal Ministry of Science and Research | National level | Science, research, innovation | BIS makes an effective, efficient and outcome-oriented budget planning possible and leads to an increased self-management. |
| Parental education | Austria | Federal State Government of Upper Austria – Department for Family Affairs | Regional level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | Parental education is socio-politically very important. The upbringing of children is a challenge for parents and parental education should support them in doing so. |
| Upper Austrian family card | Austria | Federal State Government of Upper Austria – Department for Family Affairs | Regional level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The Department for Family Affairs issues the ‘Upper Austrian Family Card’ to parents and single parents with at least one child that is receiving family assistance payments. This card offers discounts at organisations for leisure and recreation as well as for trading and service companies. |
| Teleservice centre of the city of Linz (TSC) - first municipal call centre in Austria | Austria | Magistrat Linz, Austria | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | In 2001 the municipal authorities of Linz launched a service offensive with the aim of giving their citizens much better access to the individual services. Based on their customers’ need for information, communication and interaction. |
| Development and use of a new management system for the execution of major construction projects | Austria | Municipality of the city of Vienna,Wiener Krankenanstaltenverbund,Technology Business Division | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | |
| Sozialraumorientierung in Graz´ | Austria | Office of Youth and Family Welfare | Local level | Sports, youth, culture and art | The initiative ‘Sozialraumorientierung in Graz’ has an enormous innovative impact by its commitment to the constitutional principles even in processes of change. |
| Performance-and quality-based control of services for people with disabilities | Austria | Office of the State Government of Upper Austria – Directorate Social Affairs and Health, Department of Social Affairs | Regional level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | The main project objectives were the following: transparency of cost and service structure; defined quality standards; same price for equal services; and service-oriented granting of funds in the form of service contracts. |
| Fair play project - 1st business year | Austria | Steuer- und Zollkoordination der Region Süd, Regionalmanagement | Regional level | Taxation, customs, finances | The idea is to support new entrepreneurs during the first business year to facilitate them becoming fully compliant partners of the tax and customs administration. Support instead of inspection! |
| Audio - internal audit for local government organisations | Belgium | Audio | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | The goal of the organisation is to organise professional audit services for its members, and to stimulate the transfer of knowledge between the members. |
| Epso development programme | Belgium | EPSO | EU institutions | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The agreed aim of EPSO’s far-reaching modernisation programme was to adapt the methods of personnel selection to meet the Institutions’ current and future needs in a more efficient way, while remaining true to the principles of fair and open competition. |
| ITIC - IT Infrastructure consolidation | Belgium | European Commission DG DIGIT A | EU institutions | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | |
| European commission job screening | Belgium | European Commission DG Human Resources | EU institutions | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The yearly Job Screening exercise has strongly pushed towards an alignment of the planning processes for activities, the budget and human resources |
| EPrior - The european eProcurement platform | Belgium | European Commission DG Informatics | EU institutions | Economic affairs, competition, SME | Today this platform is available for free to Member States, in Open Source, and it offers direct and easy connection to PEPPOL. This open source version of ‘ePRIOR’ is known as ‘Open ePRIOR’. |
| Sysper2 | Belgium | European Commission Informatics Directorate-General | EU institutions | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | ‘Sysper2’ is in this context a cornerstone for staff empowerment, administrative simplification and HR professionalisation in the European Commission. |
| Creating value through shared services | Belgium | Jobpunt Vlaanderen | Regional level | Employment, labour related affairs and gender equality | It is a unique shared services centre, creating value for its clients by bringing them together and putting them in touch with suppliers in the private market, thus creating economies of scale. |
| Economic support measures for the flemish soil remediation sector | Belgium | OVAM | Regional level | Environment, climate change, agriculture (incl. food safety) and fishery | In Flanders, land transfer is the main trigger for performing soil examinations and conducting a soil remediation project. Other than distorting the real estate market, postponing these land transfers therefore has a negative effect on the amount of remediated land. |
| Introduction of a centralised automated information system for an eDocument flow in the ministry of interior | Bulgaria | Ministry of Interior | National level | Justice, police, human rights and security | The project results address both the issues of eServices’ quality improvement and the ideas of facilitating the eServices’ end users. |
| Better administrative service through electronic government | Bulgaria | Municipality of Stara Zagora | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The implementation of the system has contributed to improved efficiency, better accessibility and more flexibility and has led the Municipality administration to make a number of radical changes aimed at improving customer convenience. |
| Optimisation, integration and setting up electronic management of the administrative and information services on recognition of university education and professional qualifications acquired in the countries of the European region and in third countries | Bulgaria | National Centre for Information and Documentation | National level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The improved internal organisation and administrative capacity of NACID as national ENIC-NARIC centre contributed to an increase in quality and speed of service delivery as well as to the prevention of corruption practices through effective application of the ‘Single access point’ principle. |
| Cyprus eProcurement total solution | Cyprus | Treasury of the Republic Treasury of the Republic | National level | Economic affairs, competition, SME | In forming the project implementation strategy they have avoided any strict policy or decision-making actions being transferred to the system in order to fit all contracting authority needs, allowing them to use the system in as much depth as they feel appropriate in order to work on change management. |
| IssySpots | France | Issy Média | Local level | Information society, technology, media and audiovisual | ‘IssySpots’ is an enhanced reality application for iPhone – an illustration of future eGovernment. |
| Pastis | Germany | Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. (KAS) | National level | Economic affairs, competition, SME | Its mission to promote the rule of law is founded upon principles of transparency and accountability, in order to optimise financial resources provided by the public purse. |
| IP-Centrex telephone solution | Germany | Landkreis Elbe-Elster | Regional level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | So, the aim of this project is to switch the telephone system from an analogue telephony system to a Cloud Solution: ‘IP-Centrex’. |
| Point of single contact hesse | Germany | Regional Councils of Hesse | Regional level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | At the moment the project is implementing a registration for applicants by using the new German identity card; with this card it will also be possible to sign official documents, which must be in written form. |
| IPEMA® - Integrated personnel management system for the entire state administration of rhineland-palatinate | Germany | Rhineland-Palatinate’s Central Office for IT and Multimedia | Regional level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The goal of this project is to replace several legacy HR systems with one universal SAP HCM ERP 6.0 system which will contain the following components: personnel administration, payroll accounting, time management, organisational management, personnel cost planning, position management, recruiting, training management, pensioners’ administration and personnel development. |
| Municipal claims management - The wiesbaden way | Germany | State Capital Wiesbaden | Local level | Taxation, customs, finances | The results of the project work should contribute to quality assurance and be implemented as soon as possible. Interfaces between multiple functional areas are identified and optimised, and arising difficulties are communicated. |
| Market-based control of commercial-near public services by market-based internal cost-settlement | Germany | Zentrale Technische Dienste | Local level | Economic affairs, competition, SME | The city council will be informed about the results of this market-comparison at product level in the course of the discussion on the public budget. |
| Best practice of alien procedure | Hungary | Border Affairs Unit Gyor | Regional level | Justice, police, human rights and security | The organisational structure was required in the interest of continuous supply of tasks to rationalise the allocation and implementation of tasks and to make the system more efficient through the new concept of professional development. |
| Growth-oriented economy development programme of békés county (NGP) | Hungary | Békés County Government | Regional level | Science, research, innovation | Its objectives were to promote sustainable development of the county’s economy, enhance competitiveness and the number of addedvalue producing jobs and to increase the quality of life. |
| Change your attitude, everything will change! | Hungary | Government Office for Békés County, Policy Administration Service, Subregional Public Health Institute Service for Szarvas and Orosháza | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | Employees’ activities fit the demands of the traditional organisation: they are not efficiencyoriented, and engagement-based self-control is unknown. Changing ‘Clients to consumers’ was not considered by the organisation. |
| Óbuda-eir | Hungary | KSZKI | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The Intranet structure offers executives and municipal departments email, printing and safe internet facilities, as well as central management and effective search for information and documents on a virtual, citywide, online private network. |
| Establishing the ´Good State´ in Hungary - Setting up the capital and county government offices and opening the government One-Stop-Shops | Hungary | Ministry of Public Administration and Justice | National level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The goal is the comprehensive transformation of the regional public administration system on a historical scale. |
| A small central european town in the storm of the economical depression | Hungary | Polgármesteri Hivatal, Jánosháza | Local level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | The most important success is that the Municipality has no debt and each year they can ensure own contribution to the investments. So they have money for further development and they can perform their public services fully. |
| Losingyourjob.ie initative | Ireland | Citizens Information Board | National level | Employment, labour related affairs and gender equality | Losingyourjob.ie has also proved to be very valuable for the more than 1000 staff of Citizens Information Centres around the country, allowing the centres to better manage demand. |
| Www.certificates.ie | Ireland | Civil Registration Service | National level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | It was a new and innovative way of providing the service, resulting in real savings, both by using an online solution, and also taking the opportunity to re-evaluate the current business model, designing and implementing re-engineered processes which increase efficiency, which was the main goal of this project. |
| A fair deal - Electronic charging orders | Ireland | Property Registration Authority | National level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | This is an online system which enables the HSE to apply electronically to register a Charging Order against the interest of a citizen in receipt of Ancillary State Support under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme, which is better known as ‘A Fair Deal’. |
| Blended learning in the selection and placement process | Italy | Agenzia delle Entrate | National level | Education (higher and lower), training and learning | In summary, the idea behind the project is to meet the goals of the training period, both in terms of selection and training, reducing costs and experimenting new ways of training. |
| Income support for workers of companies in difficulty | Italy | INPS | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | The aim of this project is to ensure that all employees of companies in financial difficulty receive a steady monthly income support, to reduce
the time for payment of support, without causing extra burden on public administration. |
| Methodology and tools for objective measurement of operational performances | Italy | INPS | National level | Public administration, modernisation, institutional affairs, reform | So the gap between the existing and standard behaviour can be measured. Following this approach a closed and immediate link between production quality and evaluation of the existing processing modalities is achieved. |
| Social shock absorbers 'in derogation' - Regional management in piedmont in 2010 | Italy | INPS Direzione regionale Piemonte | Regional level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | After specific negotiations with trade unions, firms apply for CIGD to the regional administration, which examines and approves the demands and authorises INPS to pay the benefits to each laid off worker, according to the monthly application forms sent by the employers, stating the number of non-working hours and providing all other useful data. |
| Social security - income integration in derogation | Italy | INPS Sede Regionale Puglia | Regional level | other | The idea behind this project is to safeguard the contractual position of workers from company market fluctuating situations in application of an important principle of labour law |
| Digit 2.0 smart edition | Italy | Tribunale di Cremona | Local level | Justice, police, human rights and security | The goal of realising a fully integrated trial via web for criminal cases, in which judges, public prosecutors, lawyers, detainees and parties can discuss among themselves and share documents via the web, without the ‘costs’ of a physical presence. |
| Individual auction of mobility - Disability aids and household support | Netherlands | Municipality of Spijkenisse | Local level | Public health and social welfare/affairs | The concept of the internet auction is that the MDA is bought at a price that conforms to the market, and that second-hand MDAs which are still in a good condition will be used. |
| More with less / Meer met minder | Netherlands | Provincie Zeeland | Regional level | Regional policy and development, decentralisation | The ‘More with Less’ project leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions, impulse to the regional economy and gives the inhabitants of Zeeland a unique website with both information about energy reduction and registering access. |
| CKI - Coordination and information centre | Poland | Krotoszyn Municipality | Local level | Regional policy and development, decentralisation | The aims of the association for example are, among others, to support the development of initiatives for activation, self-organisation and integration of local communities; to build local partnerships and alliances to solve key problems in the community; to activate local residents focused on the development of human capital, education, qualifications, etc. |
| Increase of the allocation for the action 4.4 of the polish operational programme innovative economy as a ministry of economy' response to negative trends in the economy in the period 2008-2009 | Poland | Ministry of Economy | National level | Economic affairs, competition, SME | New investments of high innovative potential. For instance, the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development – Implementing Body of the Action, received several requests from Beneficiaries to postpone starting dates of implementation of their projects and increase their co-financing due to difficult economic situation. |
| Better access to advance payments for the beneficiaries of the polish operational programme innovative economy 2007-2013 | Poland | Ministry of Economy | National level | Economic affairs, competition, SME | The amendment allowed more Beneficiaries of the Operational Programme Innovative Economy to be paid in advance. This, in turn translated into an increase of their financial liquidity, which is crucial for the implementation of projects particularly during the period of turndown in the world and Polish economy. |
| Online company / Empresa online | Portugal | Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado, I.P. | National level | Justice, police, human rights and security | This service also allows the incorporation of companies following a merger or division. |
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