Central government
The UK government has made a substantial investment in making information and services available through the internet, the rationale for which was to reduce the need for expensive contact with the public over the phone or face to face.
Gov.uk offers information about tax and benefits as well as providing details of consumers' rights with regard to utility companies, landlords or local councils. A review of the 750 government websites suggested that information was being duplicated across many websites, which was both costly and inefficient. In direct response to a review of the UK Government's online services, which demanded revolution, not evolution, in the way Government services are delivered online, a replacement for DirectGov is now being developed. A experimental prototype, Alphagov, is currently being tested.
NHS Choices (https://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx Twitter: @NHSChoices) provides health-related advice via Twitter, Facebook and videos. The Twitter feed has over 10,000 followers and Facebook 1300 "fans". It also hosts communities with discussion forums. Increasingly, NHS Choices is diversifying its offering in terms of both style and content, e.g. this video in which a doctor talks about how parents and health professionals can work together to support children with disability.
In England, NHS Choices offers a facility to search for support and services based on postcode.Care Information Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative that provides telephone and online information and advice for older people on: how to find services; care at home; care homes; supported housing; paying for care (including explanation of free personal and nursing care and direct payments); how to complain; care standards; and Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) inspection reports. It offers a search function which can be filtered by postcode.
During National Self Care Week 2010 - a Department of Health initiative to encourage people to take more responsibility for their own health by learning about the support and information - a threefold increase on the number of people visiting the self-care web pages on NHS Choices was recorded (https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Longtermconditions/DH_123950).
While these figures suggest an increasing demand for online information, there is concern about those without internet access, which the UK government is addressing through the appointment of Martha Lane-Fox (Twitter @Marthalanefox), a high profile internet entrepreneur, as the UK's digital inclusion champion and the Race Online 2012 initiative with a mission to create "life enhancing" opportunities for the six million adults in the UK who have never been online.
