Information for Journalists

Who are we?

Kent Connects is the lead technology partnership in Kent and Medway.

Established in 2002 as an e-government partnership, we are funded by our members – Kent and Medway’s public service providers and other sources.

Our partner organisations are:

• Ashford Borough Council
• Canterbury City Council
• Dartford Borough Council
• Dover District Council
• Gravesham Borough Council
• Kent County Council
• Kent Fire & Rescue Service
• Kent Police
• Maidstone Borough Council
• Medway Council
• Sevenoaks District Council
• Shepway District Council
• Swale Borough Council
• Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council
• Thanet District Council
• Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

What is an e-government partnership?

E-government partnerships developed in some parts of the country to support central government’s vision that all councils should offer their services online by December 2005. Kent Connects, having helped Kent and Medway authorities achieve this goal, has continued to develop to support them with technology.

What does Kent Connects do?

Kent and Medway have a population of 1.6 M, with a range of public services being provided, including education, libraries, planning, housings, police, fire and rescue and leisure.

Technology provides opportunities to deliver those services in increasingly innovative ways: changing when, where and how those services can be accessed and improving value for money.

Kent Connects works with its partner authorities to lead the transformation of public services through the application of leading edge technology.  We provide a shared approach to: 

• Research and development of IT solutions

• Options appraisals, assessing the viability of new technology and opportunities

• IT procurement – delivering savings through the economies of scale that derive from a shared approach

• Improving standards in IT and access

• Project management

Practical Examples

Examples of our projects include: 

• Building the IT infrastructure for public service authorities.  For example providing partners’ internet and email access, ‘firewall’ and security services, bandwidth monitoring, resilience, and disaster recovery arrangements

•  Kent Connects web portal – providing a secure environment for Officers from across authorities to share information, meeting papers, and exchange comments and news 

• Metatagging – this sounds like jargon but basically enables the public to search local authority websites for information more effectively using key words 

• We successfully delivered a European funded project in collaboration with French partners providing video-conference services for several local authorities, specifically for public use 

Contact us here