Joining-up government in the UK: Towards public services for an information age

The reform of public services has preoccupied managers for several decades. Nevertheless, it is my contention that the present reform agenda has some plausible claims to be different from much that went before. The vision tha t has come to the fore in the Australian federal government's Clients First Program (Information Technology Review Group 1995), in the Clinton/Gore ad ministration's Access America report (Government IT Services 1997) and the recent British White Paper Modernising Government (Prime Minister and Cabin et Office 1999) not only promotes the 'client orientation' in public admini stration, but also reflects a belief in the crucial contribution to be made by information and communication technologies (ICTs). This is a vision for an information age (POST 1998). It is being driven by the conviction that public management has too often been modelled on business 'as it was in the age of US Steel, not the age of Microsoft, Apple, Wal-Mart and Federal Exp ress' (Gore 1993:xiii).