The End and the Beginning
The 101 in service in Northumberland ended 31st March but a new service using the 0300 1000 101 number began 1st April 2008. Public Sector Forums produced an article that puts all this in context:
"It was hailed as the jewel in the crown of ‘transformed’ public services. ‘A gem’, said Sir David Varney, the Prime Minister’s personal advisor on Transformational Government, that must be 'copied with impunity if we are to put real pace into transforming public services.’
We refer to Northumbria’s ‘101’ Partnership’s award-winning non-emergency hotline, which unfortunately closed down yesterday (Mon 31 March) after the Home Office decided to axe its funding.
PSF readers blessed with good memories will recall just a few months ago John Suffolk, the Govt CIO, Sir David and the-then Minister for Transformation Gillian Merron were falling over themselves to lavish praise upon Northumbria’s service as an examplar of 'best practice'. All of which resulted in much embarrassment when the next day the Home Office announced it was scrapping funding for the project due to what was called 'competing priorities', thus reneging on a Labour Party election manifesto commitment to roll-out the service nationwide.
Northumbria service, run by a partnership of councils and police and one of the five initial '101' pilot areas, was showcased in the 'Blueprint for public service call centres', a key recommendation of the Varney Review and described as "compilation of the best examples of specific aspects of public sector contact centres taken from across government."
Northumbria's project was also featured very prominently in a DCLG/Cabinet Office 'landmark' report last year on successful front office shared services. Its achievements were in no small part accountable to the project having one of the most sophisticated, dedicated technical infrastructure systems of the kind (see this link for more details).
PSF also hears Merron’s successor, ‘Minister for Blogging’ Tom Watson, is said to be ‘not impressed' about the Northumbria situation and has apparently called for 'an inquiry' from officials into how such an immensely successful project which was demonstrably delivering wide-ranging benefits was allowed to go to the wall, and also how it can be revived.
Back at , a farewell note on the service's website yesterday expressing 'disappointment' at its closure read:
"At a meeting of the 101 Partnership Programme Board on Thursday, 14th February 2008, the Northumbria Partnership agreed that without continued Home Office funding and given the short period of notification it would not be financially feasible to continue with the 101 service as is, therefore the Northumbria 101 service will cease in it’s current form on Monday 31st March 2008."
But good news! Rising phoenix-like from the ashes, Northumbria’s now-dead 101 service has been resurrected and was relaunched in a more local form at midday yesterday thanks to the efforts of two of its members, Newcastle and Sunderland City Councils, who saw the service as far too valuable to lose."
