A Regional Governance Story John Littleton - Newcastle Conn Crawford – Sunderland Mike Martin - cSBI

Background and Aspirations Includes all the Local Authorities from the Tees to the Tweed. Transport operators. Through our pilots, we work with: –Education, –Health –Leisure –Other regional brands e.g. the football clubs –The commercial sector, transport and industry. Planning a common cause development of shared and trusted Infrastructure services Delivering efficient and joined up service opportunities in the region.

Why do things together? Because we are different: –We must combine our strengths and specialisms to build responsive, citizen centred services. Because we are similar: –We must tap into the economy and efficiency of shared resources. But we can not achieve this unless we operate at a Regional scale. The Challenges we face as a Region Many different sorts of Authorities Many different Agencies Many other Organisations

So why is working in partnership so hard? It’s not just about finding new ways of working together, it requires trust and means of –Sharing information –Making new working practices –Finding sustainable ways of commissioning and governing Issues of joining up and integration must be addressed constantly in response to –New practices and legislation –Government priorities and resource allocation –New demands and expectations of users We must create an infrastructure and environment for the region to deliver better co-ordinated products and services.

About Smart Cards :The benefit for users: We must deliver regional / sub regional benefits of sharing resources and responsibilities without losing our local identities Different users have different needs: –Pupils and students –Employees –Visitors and tourists –Parents and families –Senior Citizens –Visitors and tourists Each represent a cluster of services and facilities which need to be co-ordinated in the interests of the user. Smart Cards allow users, providers and intermediaries to manage their relationships.

The NERSC Approach: (The Challenge for Local Authorities) We must work together at the sub- regional and regional levels to achieve economies of scale: –We can not afford to build and deliver solutions on our own. We need to ensure that access, delivery and participation is local: –Typically on the scale of the local community or interest group. The ability to co-ordinate our resources and relationships at these different scales demands a federation approach.

What do we mean by federation? A set of facilities and services at the regional level to manage: –Identity: controlling how, and by whom, I am known. –Recourse and settlement: knowing where to turn in difficulty. –Publication: knowing where to find what is to be found. These must be universal and work for me wherever I am

Federation requires certain trusted third party services that support this process of joining up across boundaries. The smart card is the tool and token for moving about the region and accessing its facilities. What do we mean by federation?