The UK Government has defined a policy to transform Public Services. Government has placed ICT at the heart of this policy, in order to increase efficiency and improve the range and quality of Public Services. One of the key elements of the Government's programme is the delivery of joined-up services at a community level, which is where Cisco can help.

We have worked closely with many Local Authorities where community transformation can be promoted through information sharing, communications and ICT technologies. A connected approach can help develop the vision, strategy and plans for all aspects of community life.

The 'Framework for Communities and Local Government' includes:

1. The 'Connected Council Blueprint'. The purpose of this blueprint is to explore how technology can support a council's own business and facilitate community service delivery. The technical blueprints include conceptual, logical and physical architectural templates that can expedite risk-free technology installations.
2. The 'Connected Community Blueprint' details how the connected approach can benefit all aspects of community life; including housing, business, transport, city centres, policing, healthcare and education. It provides real examples of where technology can be used to benefit the community. The overall framework explains how technology can support a council's wider business and service transformation goals.

What is the Connected Community Blueprint?
It explains how technology can be used in every aspect of service delivery within a community; in the home, to businesses, in town and city centres, and to support transport networks.

Who is it for?
The Blueprint is aimed at senior business and technical management stakeholders within councils and local partners who are responsible for service delivery.

How can it be used?
Every local authority has a vision for the community it serves. Cisco recommends that any vision for a community be broken down into smaller, actionable items - such as the home, business, town and city centres etc. - each of which have its own action plan that maximises the use of ICT.

How does it work?
The Blueprint describes how a very broad range of connectivity technologies can deliver Connected Homes, Connected Business, Connected City Centres, Connected Transport, Connected Policing, Connected Learning and Connected Healthcare. In each case technology must be built into community action plans to increase communications and collaboration, to exploit rich media and video, and to automate routine processes through the use of ICT.

What do you need?
In order to underpin these community action plans, the Blueprint advocates that every community invest in a 'Community ICT Platform' - a shared infrastructure to deliver the range of services and capabilities that are important to that community. The Community ICT Platform will look very different from community to community, as it must reflect local priorities, but might include the following elements:

• City centre wired and wireless networks supporting CCTV cameras and Information Points;
• Next Generation Access (NGA) fibre infrastructure to support the changing role of the home;
• Smart WorkCentres to support small businesses and reduce the need for travel and commuting.

The Connected Community Blueprint advocates an architectural approach to the planning and delivery of ICT infrastructure and services. This architectural approach to ICT has been endorsed by Government for several very practical reasons:

• An architecture provides a clear statement of industry or vendor best practice that may be adopted by organisations.
• An architecture shows system components and their links in a graphical way and provides a clear indication of what work needs to be carried out over a given period.
• An architectural approach offers real risk management for projects; through the introduction of best practice, through the ability to document current and projected environments, and through the ability of an architecture to inform and educate large numbers of stakeholders.

Cisco uses technical architectures to underpin its own deployment of ICT infrastructure and services. Cisco adopted The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), as mandated by the Government CIO Council, and is able to offer an insight into the above benefits based on our own experiences.

The Connected Community Blueprint includes conceptual, logical and physical architectures and a technical template that stakeholders can use directly with their teams to aid technology planning and migration. The logical architectures include those for data centre; LAN, WAN and MAN networks; wireless, security and home office.