The ICT Professional: David Tosh, Swansea City Council

“There’s simply an overriding need to cut costs, to find new ways of working,” he says. “Sadly, my focus is on headcount reductions. It’s on stopping spending on anything but real essentials or contractually where there is no option.”

 

That's not to say that Tosh doesn't recognise the need for cutbacks. With a population just shy of 3 million, Wales has 22 heads of IT at local authority level. If IT heads in Welsh health and education are factored in, that’s around 60 CIO-level roles with the commensurate salaries, benefits and pensions. “Do we really need 60 heads of IT in Wales?” ponders Tosh. 

 

“There are no text book answers to the current issues but innovation is not just in the application of IT,” says Tosh. “It’s in shaping the current agenda. It’s about coming up with new answers for our public sector CEOs looking at how and where to make unprecedented cuts, £50m or more”

 

Tosh is pragmatic in his assessment of a need for a change in mindset among public sector ICT bodies and professionals. “The bottom line is we must be incredibly innovative to deliver essential services more cheaply,” he argues. “The financial pressures we face as a country are driving us to challenge current conventions. We must look across old political boundaries and sectors for savings.” 

 

 

It wasn't always like this of course. After graduating in metallurgy from Sheffield University, Tosh spent 12 years in the RAF, a period which he says was “an excellent grounding with lots of [well-judged] responsibility at an early age. ” 

 

It taught him leadership, how to communicate clearly – and how jet engines work.  You might think that last skill wouldn't be all that handy in later life, but with an Msc in IT under his belt, aircraft engines were never far away during a four year stint managing IT at GKN Aerospace. “It’s a cyclical industry and we were working on major new aircraft design projects with BAE, Boeing and EADSm” he recalls. 

 

Come 2001 and Tosh was Head of ICT at North Somerset Council where he was in charge of bringing back in house a number of outsourced services. Ironically today the council has signed a new 10 year outsourcing deal, which Tosh helped to spec.  “In 2001 we were looking mainly at the IT services but the current deal is far bigger in scope. It encompasses the entire back office, absolutely everything. The speed with which they’ve done this is breathtaking,” says Tosh, adding perhaps slightly ominously: “Good luck to them actually.”

 

Tosh is all too aware of the potential perils of outsourcing.  When Tosh moved to the City & County of Swansea at the end of 2004, he took charge of an internal service transformation and an external customer service improvement programme.  “It’s fair to say that this ambitious programme has had its difficulties,” Tosh says, with some understatement. 

 

In 2006 Swansea signed a 10-year outsourcing contract with Capgemini, after a prolonged dispute with Unison, including two months of strike action. After a critical report in 2007 by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, the second phase was replaced by a new shared services relationship with Cardiff council. “The main challenges were largely around achieving the change culture and eventually winning the buy-in of many people,” Tosh admits, “and getting their buy-in was key to realising the eventual benefits.”

 

 

The same sort of challenges are likely to be encountered again and again as the cutbacks take hold in the public sector. For his part, Tosh argues that Swansea has been putting its house in order for some years. “Four years ago you could argue that local authorities had fat budgets but that’s no longer the case,” he says. “Over the past three years, Swansea has lost about £4m from the IT budget. We’re now on an operational budget of £10m, including outsourcing, and next year we’ll lose another £500,000.”

 

It's up to ICT professionals to be similarly proactive in their approach to the current demands for austerity and cost-efficiencies, concludes Tosh. If they're not, they might find someone else taking that responsibility from them. “It’s far better we’re in control of our own destinies than have [Local Government Minister] Eric Pickles dictate them,” advises Tosh...