The future of the UK’s International Centre of Excellence for Local E-Democracy (ICELE), the government-funded e-democracy agency, is hanging in the balance after its host local authority warned it would have to cease operations in three weeks’ time following delays in funding renewal.
The unexpected announcement came from ICELE chair Matthew Ellis, a councillor at Lichfield District Council which has acted as ICELE’s host organisation. In a statement to centre’s partners Ellis said: “We have been awaiting a decision on the future of ICELE from our sponsoring government department (CLG) but that decision which was promised consistently since December 2007 has not been forthcoming…I am therefore in the process of implementing an exit strategy plan which will see ICELE cease operations of any kind with Lichfield DC as the accountable body after the end of June.”
In the medium term, the government is considering an overhaul of e-democracy policy which could bring into being a new cross-government agency to replace ICELE and draw in elements of similar work currently scattered across the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Progress in that direction will be made following the publication by DLG this summer of a white paper on citizen empowerment.
In the short term a small amount of transition funding has been made available to ICELE. CLG has yet to make a public response to Ellis’s statement, though a final funding decision from ministers is expected later this week. However a simple continuation of ICELE’s work is unlikely following the strength of Ellis’s statements. Ellis denied however that his statement had been intended as an act of brinkmanship, as has been suggested by some observers. He told E-Government Bulletin: “The letter I have sent to partners is… not in any way done to force CLG’s hand. Firstly that would be impossible to do anyway and secondly the past 12 months have been sufficiently testing that I would not want to see a continuation of Lichfield DC’s involvement in it.”
ICELE was set up in 2006 to take forward the work of the government’s former national project on local e-democracy and elements of one or two other national projects. Its work has included championing local e-petition projects; creating a free blogging tool for councillors, ‘BloginaBox’, and taking over from CLG the development of the VOICE portal for local community websites.
CLG concern over ICELE’s operations is thought to centre on its spending on staff and management and a failure to achieve its initial broad objectives. However, Ellis told E-Government Bulletin that charges of overspending were “plainly not true”.
He said: “I don’t believe that a figure of £170,000 for 2007-08 is large when you consider the brief was to reach local authorities across the UK as well as trying to meet the UK Government’s wish for a higher profile for this this work in Europe. Less than a handful of people have worked for ICELE, some part time, and I believe they have achieved some positive results from a pretty well standing start and with limited resources.”
What are CLG playing at? They invest decent funding into a national project and fund VOICE to be set up, and then pull the plug.
Talking to people in th know there does seem to be a difference of opinion as to the benefits of all of this. The Ministry of Justice talk a lot but invest and do little and CLG seem to have also lost its way since the demise of e-government as an agenda item for them.
Government really needs to make a decision about whther they want to play in this space or not. Putting effort into rubbish like No.10 e-petitions is not the way forward as this has little real effect and is a harmless tool. We need real investment in tools to help local government engage with their community groups not this current nothingness.
The Government has clearly lost its way on this and lots of other things. Its really seems to be becoming a lost opportunity after all the hard in starting it and then leaving it to rot.
Well I think your frustration is well-founded, though it is not yet clear exactly what will happen to VOICE and other products that are already out there – I would say it is unlikely that they will just be scrapped, though clearly the current management pattern is not helpful. More likely they will be passed to another agency to continue, or a council or even a private sector company or social enterprise. In the meantime transitional funding should help smooth the way.
I am not sure the no10 petitions project was such a bad thing either – whatever one thinks about it, it raised the profile of the possibility of that kind of service as a way of signalling to those in power the strength of feleling on particular topics. Whever e-democracy is in the news, it can;t be all bad!
Clearly though strong leadership is needed in this field, and soon. Some good things have happened, but it has been rather disjointed.
cheers,
Dan.
On the 13 June 2008, the Minister for local e-democracy, Parmjit Dhanda M.P., announced in a letter to the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy (ICELE) Chair, Cllr. Matthew Ellis, that ICELE as a sponsored entity of CLG, would no longer receive any further funding beyond the agreed life-span of the programme.
In the letter, the Minister stated, “I would like to place on public record my Department’s gratitude for all of the good work ICELE has undertaken during the stewardship of you and your colleagues, Cllr. Bill Brookes and Cllr. Mary Reid, and to your support staff during the programme’s life-span.
I recognise that ICELE has taken forward the work of several components of the local e-Government programme including the Local e-Democracy National Project and disseminated these through your award winning website. In addition, ICELE has won some European funding to enhance understanding and good practice around eParticipation and ensured that assistance to local authorities has been available on the complex issue of local e-democracy when required.
However when ICELE was established, CLG gave a commitment of funding up to 31 March 2008 with a key objective for the Centre to “build a model for long-term sustainability beyond the programme life-span”. Regrettably, sustainability has not been demonstrated despite the successful bids for EU grants.
My Department remains committed to encouraging the use of ICT for empowerment in partnership with others to facilitate and enhance local democracy. As part of the Government’s work on the forthcoming Community Empowerment White Paper, we are actively considering how best to utilize new technologies to support community empowerment. ICELE has been very active in responding to recent consultations on a number of issues linked to the forthcoming White Paper and these have been gratefully received. However, in looking at this broad agenda, we have to assess the value, sustainability and potential benefits that other organisations could also offer in taking forward the work in this area.
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that ICELE, as a sponsored entity of CLG, should cease operations on the 30 June 2008 [other than core staffing support activities related to the Review]. I have instructed officials to conduct a further review in partnership with ICELE on the tools and products produced or managed by the Centre. This review will also seek to establish how best any successful elements of ICELE’s work might be taken forward and how sustainability might be achieved.
Finally, I hope that Lichfield District Council and all other users of the local e-democracy tools will continue to play a role in taking the agenda of empowerment using ICT forward. Improving public services and strengthening democracy by encouraging active citizenship is a shared political goal and offers real opportunities to revive our civic society. Your continued support and enthusiasm for making this happen at the local level, either through your blogging as a local councillor or through your advice and guidance to others as Chair of ICELE, is testament to your understanding and leadership over the past two years.”
For information:
• ICELE was officially launched in October 2006 by Communities and Local Government Minister, Angela Smith M.P., at the United Nations CIAPR Conference.
• CLG has provided core funding to ICELE of £386,000 for the Centre’s activities over the past two years and £234,000 to make the VOICE product fit for purpose.
• The Review of the ICELE portfolio will be conducted to investigate how best to take forward any of the tools currently being used. We cannot however continue to indefinitely support non-sustainable or non-viable e-democracy products or tools for which there is no demonstrated need. No decision will be made in respect of any of the tools and products until this has been completed.
• CLG, in partnership with other Government Departments, are actively considering how best to promote and utilize new technologies to support community empowerment as one of the strands in the forthcoming Community Empowerment White Paper.