Electronically Accessible Council

Innovation

Using information and communications technology to improve services is not new. Most councils use e-mail, the Internet, and intranet services to provide information on council services to the public. However, not all councils have developed ‘portal’ sites through which residents can get access to council information, community information, and information from a wide range of public and private partners. East Ayrshire Council has developed this portal approach and will be able to extend it still further with the introduction of new online services. We want to co-ordinate and integrate the access to public information and services.

Many councils have provided public access terminals in council premises. East Ayrshire Council has provided public access terminals in council premises, and in shopping centres. We are committed to providing free standing terminals in public locations or touch screen systems in council premises across East Ayrshire. We want to increase access to public information and services.

Many councils provide training and support programmes for their employees. Our project provides training and support for members of the community and is aimed specifically at those members who are most at risk from being excluded from the information society. We want to support more people to access public information and services.

Many councils provide access to all their services through local offices or one stop shops. East Ayrshire Council wants to take this further by providing direct links, through the use of ICT including the Internet and video conferencing technology, to government and health agencies. We want to install these links in council offices and increase the number of services that local people can access through them and over the Internet. A priority will be to work with services so that people could, for example, make their own appointments or bookings electronically. We want to extend the range of public information and services that people can access.

Finally, we want to develop new ways of using web technologies to make sure that as much information as possible, and as many services as possible, are ready to take advantage of advances in connection to the internet. We want to simplify access to public information and services.