UK counties get public services networks

Network (PSN), with Kent and Hampshire County Councils, writes CIO.

Under the newly-completed Project Pathway, the government's central PSN team worked with network providers Global Crossing and Virgin Media Business, and Hampshire and Kent county councils to prove the processes and concepts for building a PSN, and sharing services and applications via the network.

Robert Parker, head of public sector for Virgin Media Business, told Guardian Government Computing that the testing covered three areas.

One was infrastructure, dealing with interconnections between the Hampshire and Kent Public Service Networks, which are managed by Virgin and Global Crossing respectively. It also covered the systems and support elements for the service.

The second was for the 'onboarding process' for customers within the individual networks to use services employed by another: for example, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service sharing its Kent counterpart's video platform, and Kent using Hampshire's telephony system.

Thirdly came tests for standards in areas such as security, service management and interoperability.

According to LocalGov.co.uk, John Taylor, SRO for the PSN Programme, hails the milestone as a ground-breaking effort.

Taylor says: “It can only serve to increase confidence that PSN is the way forward for local government and central departments alike, so that we can all reap the benefits by driving down costs and increasing the effectiveness of public services delivery.”