- Public, Friday 23 October 2009 08.00 BST
Challenging role: persuading departments to change without having a direct role, is hard says Nickalls. Photograph: Graham Turner
Jayne Nickalls, chief executive of Directgov, the online gateway to central government information and services, is by nature a technocrat rather than an inspirational leader.
As Directgov's own website acknowledges, "no one wakes up in the morning full of excitement about completing their tax return".
Nickalls' job is not to create excitement, but is rather to ensure that tax-filling, and a wide range of other services, can be done relatively easily online, via the Directgov portal.
Her organisation is celebrating its fifth birthday this year. In that time, it has already moved home. It is now part of the Department for Work and Pensions and is based in the same building as the Central Office of Information, not far from London's Waterloo station.
"There is a huge amount to do, but our plan is clear," she says. "Directgov is where we planned to be. We are going as fast as we can, and bringing everyone along with us. Having got the funding and the buy-in and a political home here in DWP, we can move forward."
The challenge for Directgov has always been not that it isn't a good idea to centralise access to services through a single gateway, but that departments and agencies do tend to prefer doing things their own way - including their own websites and online services.
Nickalls acknowledges the challenge, which her organisation is tackling by building case studies, which will demonstrate the benefits of the Directgov, consolidated approach.
"It's very hard," she comments. "We work for 18 government departments and talking to them to build a holistic case is hard."
Most citizen campaigns delivered by Directgov save money, claims Nickalls, because departments don't have the cost of building microsites, and there are some savings from web convergence, although that isn't huge.
"All I can do is show the good work that we are doing and all the signs are that people are seeing that," she says.
The organisation also wants to introduce innovations, such as a citizen account, giving people online access to personalised government information and services, offering different types of functionality.
At one level, for instance, people would be able to access government services and content relevant to all parents, but would then be able get more relevant and personal information, such as putting in a postcode to show content in a specific area, or setting up personal reminders about services such as car tax renewal.
At its most personal, the account could be used to apply for benefits or other services, with details stored online.
This has been discussed for some time, and citizen accounts are already in use in Scotland and in several local authorities in England, including the London borough of Brent.
"If you don't have the money, you can't tell someone what to do"
Nickalls says her team is working on customer insight, to see what would encourage people to take up such a facility, and she hopes to have the facility available next year.
Nickalls' job is a challenging one, in that much of it is about persuading government departments to do things, without having direct control over any of their decisions.
Directgov employs 150 staff, a figure set to rise to 200 next week, but she has what she describes as another 200 "franchised" staff out in departments - staff who feed into the Directgov operation, but who are not directly managed by Nickalls herself.
"When Directgov started, before it was called Directgov, the approach was more dictatorial, and that didn't work," she explains. "If you don't have the money, you can't tell someone what to do. So it's about influence, about persuasion, about showing the benefits, about building relationships in departments.
"I have a consensual management style, but having said that, there is a point at which you have to say right, we're doing it - because otherwise you would go round in circles."
Nickalls says it is also "usually obvious" to her Directgov team when they are working with staff in departments who understand the Directgov approach and may simply need some assistance, and when they are dealing with departments who are making very little effort.
"Some of that relates to people not really understanding Directgov," she says, diplomatically. "But it is not a them and us situation. Our franchisees in departments are part of the family."
Directgov has recently appointed three new directors from the private sector, who are now busy embedding themselves into the world of the public sector.
Nickalls herself has worked in the private sector and says she was fortunate in her first year at Directgov in having a good mentor. "If you don't have an experienced civil servant showing you the ropes, you will flounder," she says.
