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IA have developed and supplied the NLPG database schema to DNA-Scotland to facilitate the implementation of the DNA-Scotland Gazetteer (DNA-G) now scheduled for launch in January 2007. The vision of a single address infrastructure for the whole nation and all the benefits that this will bring is nearing realisation.
The DNA-Scotland programme is part of 'Customer First' a Scottish Executive sponsored programme to deliver more convenient and responsive public services. DNA-Scotland is being developed in partnership with Scotland's local authorities and managed, with the support of CoSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers), under the direction of the Improvement Service.
Customer First' recognises the need for some common national and local infrastructure and, since most services are associated with a location, funding has been put in place to get the addressing component operating within each authority to help them develop their own CAGs (Corporate Address Gazetteers, equivalent to LLPGs south of the border). The CAGs will then be linked to a national property based gazetteer (DNA-G), which is BS7666: 2000 (parts 1&2) compliant. Thanks to the collaboration with IA the DNA-G will be based on the same database schema as the NLPG, thereby enabling the project to meet its go live date of January 2007. The use of BS7666 and the NLPG schema will enable public sector property based information exchange with public sector organisations across the border in England and Wales and vice versa.
Further collaboration between IA and DNA-Scotland will see common use of DNA-Scotland's web services, a robust technical architecture and XML schema, which will facilitate secure updating and online access of gazetteers, which will be open to the public sector.
"Our collaboration with Intelligent Addressing will have a significant impact on the implementation of the DNA-G, a major building block of the Customer First strategy. In due course Public Sector bodies both north and south of the border will be able to access property data from anywhere in Britain, effectively bringing about a single address resource for the whole nation," said Iain McKay DNA-Scotland Programme Manager.
The first enquiry for access to DNA-Scotland from England has already come from Liverpool County Council for its Children's Services. The fostering of children is a complicated process with associated risks and with many children moving out of the area ensuring the safety of the child becomes paramount and address validation is part of this process. Liverpool County Council has already taken the NLPG for coverage of England and Wales and is looking to gain access to DNA-G when it becomes available.
12 September 2006
