Agenda item

The ICT and Information Governance Officer presented a report introducing a draft, five-year ICT Strategy which was underpinned by the following five design principles:

·  Continue to implement channel shift to support service delivery that is “online by default” in order to achieve savings.  This would mean that online delivery would be implemented wherever it was practical, affordable and appropriate.

·  Ensure that appropriate access methods were in place for residents and service users who were digitally excluded, including mediated access to online services.

·  Make effective use of the tools and systems that were already in place and ensure that staff had appropriate skills.

·  Provide staff with appropriate tools to carry out their work.

·  Make use of shared services, shared platforms and cloud computing whenever possible, including the use of standard products and processes when implementing new systems.

The ICT and Information Governance Officer explained that the draft Strategy was a strategic document and individual projects to be delivered under the umbrella of the Strategy would be progressed through the Council’s Modernisation and Improvement Programme Board (MIPB).  The MIPB would have the responsibility for ensuring that there was an explicit link between service delivery to customers, ICT service costs and the impact of the ICT service on operational cost and effectiveness.  Cabinet Members commented that they would nevertheless expect all strategies to contain, as a minimum, high-level financial information covering historical costs, current budget provision and projected costs for key projects expected to be delivered over the life of the strategy.  Other issues that arose during the course of the discussions related to:

a)  The need for customers to be able to log in to the Council’s website at a single point and undertake all related transactions, such as payments for Council services.  In that respect, officers referred to the development of the ‘My Account’ facility and it was noted that the Corporate Management Team had recently endorsed proposals to extend that facility to services such as housing, benefits, parking, leisure and adult social care;

b)  The need to keep pace with trend changes and new technological developments in relation to customer interaction.  Officers confirmed that there was a general commitment to ensuring that services were compatible with all devices used to access the internet, such as smartphones;

c)  New services being evaluated post-implementation to ascertain uptake levels, costs of implementation, value for money etc..  In that regard, officers were asked to present a report to Cabinet Members on the ‘My Account’ facility; and

d)  Future ICT equipment roll-outs to offer choice to suits individuals’ needs and requirements, rather than a “one size fits all” approach.  As an example of previous poor practice, the Cabinet Member for Environment referred to the roll-out of laptops and printers to Councillors several years ago while, on the positive side, Councillor McDermott referred to the potential benefits if iPads were to be made available to Councillors.

Cabinet agreed to reconsider the Strategy at its next meeting in the light of the additional financial and other information that was requested.