Meeting documents

Mrs Sarah Barnes and Mr Lloyd Jeffries will provide an update to Members about progress in delivering the priorities of the Technology Service since the report to the FPR Select Committee on 26 September 2017. 

Contributors:

Mr Lloyd Jeffries, Director of Operations 

Mrs Sarah Barnes, Head of TS Operations

The Chairman welcomed Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources, Mr Lloyd Jeffries, Director of Customer, and Mrs Sarah Barnes, Head of Technology Services Operations to the meeting.

·         The County Council and the NHS agreed to recruit a Joint Strategic Director of ICT. This post was designed to enable the team to develop and deliver a joint transformation programme across the Council and the NHS. It will be critical in the delivery of the local Integrated Care System. Benefits would include the opportunity to develop a shared approach to the use of technology and data across the NHS and Adult Social Care to promote prevention and better health outcomes for residents. 

·         In addition to the Joint Strategic Director of ICT, Paul Golland joined the Information Technology Unit as an interim Operations Director. Ben Unsworth will be joining the Council as the new Head of Digital on 25^th June.

·         The Digital team joined the Customer team in February 2018.

·         "Brilliant at the Basics" was a programme to improve the customer experience at the Council. Webchat was due to be rolled out across the County’s website in the next two weeks. The "Fix My Street" application had been launched.

·         The average reading age for the Council’s website was currently too high. Work was in progress to alter the language so that it reached a lower reading age. The recommended reading age was under 15 years old.

·         £15 million was allocated from the capital budget for ICT developments in the next 4 years. Savings of £1 million had been made.

·         The content of the Adult social care pages on the website was to be upgraded to reflect the integration with health. This was currently being procured. A Member queried how this would work if there was no knowledge of where synergies could be made? The synergies would be established by the incoming Joint ICT and NHS CCGs Director.

·         The new Technology Strategy was about stabilising foundations before progressing with other technology.

·         Regular problems with the N drive were caused mainly by inadequate data retention and archiving behaviour. As part of the new Technology Strategy, principles on data retention were needed as well as learning around behavioural patterns using meta-compliance.

·         Service Level Agreement - Web Key Performance Indicators were reported to the Resources Board on a monthly basis. The Committee would receive these on a regular basis.

ACTION: Director of Customer

·         There were ICT workshops ongoing with Members to ensure that Member requirements were specified and that the IT provided met their needs. The Board was working with a Member steering group.

·         Governance monitoring needed to be more robust, especially in light of procurement and functionality issues.

·         Technology Services played a central role in the rationalisation and coordination of 1400+ applications and 80+ microsites.

·         The Customer, Digital and Technology Board fulfilled a similar function to the Asset Strategy Board, reviewing, assessing and appraising business cases for new ICT capital acquisitions and use of capital budget. Funding would be released in instalments as projects proceed.

·         Members questioned whether Board members had a suitable level of skill and knowledge to check and challenge appropriately. The Director of Customer believed that the right membership was present.

·         In the future, any microsite proposal or change would have to come through the Digital team to be published.

·         4 web editors were now in the Digital team.

·         The Council’s website was re-launched in 2016 with a faster speed, based on the gov.uk approach.

·         A milestone was to achieve Socitm score improvement by September 2018.

·         The Digital team would be working with PCG, who hosted the BCC web estate, to understand how to improve customer experience from a look and feel viewpoint. This would include consultation with users and Members to test new ideas.

·         The Digital team would be testing the functionality of different elements of the website in development with external users and members.

·         The Digital team aimed to create more streamlined and efficient digital processes, from which there would be resulting financial implications.

·         Members praised the work of the team in the progress made between January and May 2018.

·         The funding priority for the website (digital front door) was to deliver customer improvements which would lead to improved services and efficiencies. Most investment would be resource based.

·         An efficient digital front door meant delivering as many services as possible online.

·         A written progress update on milestones would be provided to the Committee in September 2018.

ACTION: Director of Customer