1. Austerity Survival!
A Future Proof Project Measurement Tool
CEMP database
Background
Information Technology (IT) plays a fundamental role in the provision of public services.
However, despite a number of successfulinitiatives, government’s overall record in developing
and implementing new IT systems is appalling. The lack of IT skills in government and over-
reliance on contracting out is a fundamental problem which has been described as a “recipe
for rip-offs”. Cited House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee Government and IT — “a
recipe for rip-offs”: time for a new approach Twelfth Report of Session 2010–12
Community Evaluation Monitoring Project (CEMP)
Designed to monitor performance of projects that change lives of individuals.
Project Overview
The project started in 2011 with a grant Community First grant from Welsh Government. The
brief was to develop a monitoring tool for the Community First projects here within Newport
City Council.

2. The CEMP database has been built using open source free software and has been
developed with one full time and two-part time staff.
The database was built and used in Newport and word got out that it was easy to use and
understand. In 2013 Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council asked if they could buy
into the system for their 8 Clusters.
This escalated and by June 2016 the system holds information for 33 of the 52 Community
First Clusters throughout Wales.
This means the system in financial year of 2014/15 maintained an address database for the
whole of Wales, and monitored 600 Community First projects across Wales with 450 Staff
using the system on a daily basis servicing 43,500 unique Clients.
This means if an individual worker only logged in once each working day of the year we have
117,000 logins to administer. In truth worker’s login far more than once a day and not just in
the working week Monday to Friday.