Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Deputy John Chapman, Chris Punter, James Tumbridge and Deputy Douglas Barrow.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 7 June 2016.

RESOLVED:  That the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 7 June 2016 be approved as an accurate record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which provided details of Outstanding Actions from previous meetings. The following points were noted:

·         It was confirmed that the text messaging notifications were functioning well. A Member reminded Officers to use personal email addresses as well as corporation addresses when providing information on outages.

·         Approximately 50% of responses to the Member IT survey had been returned.

·         One IT workshop had so far taken place and Members had sent suggestions for further sessions, details of which would be included in the work programme.

RESOLVED – That the Sub-Committee notes the report.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk outlining the proposal for the new strategic work plan.

RESOLVED – That agreement be granted for the revised format of the work programme and the proposed frequency of reporting.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Chamberlain which provided information on the development of the new IT strategy, based around the Terms of Reference agreed at the Finance Committee. Members were supportive of the key objectives, but asked that previous strategies be circulated to the Committee for comparison. 

In response to a question from a Member, the Chamberlain confirmed that the focus on “Buy not Build” would be considerate to the need for systems to be compatible and integrated, with a few key platforms being procured to support the overall business function. There was a discussion on the potential merits of custom built products, and the costs associated with them, and it was agreed that the responsibility should be on departments to adapt their working practices to the potential limitations of off the shelf products.

The Chamberlain confirmed that the completed strategy would be brought back to the Sub-Committee for decision, following further consultation with Officer Groups.

RESOLVED – That the Sub-Committee notes the report.

Report of the Chamberlain.  

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain which provided Members with an update regarding recent developments in the Information Technology Division. The Chamberlain advised that there were a number of elements to improving the performance of the service; the development of a long term vision, improved risk management, having determined priorities and greater resources.

In response to reports from Members of ongoing issues they had experienced with the service, it was acknowledged that there were many areas that needed improvement. Outages were still occurring but it was confirmed Officers were now more aware of how to respond to, and resolve issues quickly. Chief Officers were supportive of the need to enhance the skills in the division and were aware of the scale of the challenge.

In response to a query from a Member it was reported that the Solutions Architect role would be replaced with a two year fixed contract position (with a longer term lower grade position to be determined). Short term interim roles would be used to test new roles in the division and ensure their effectiveness. The learning would inform future job descriptions for the permanent roles that would follow.

RESOLVED – That the Sub-Committee notes the report.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain providing an update on the IT service performance since the last meeting. It was felt that ageing infrastructure and old applications played a significant role in the poor performance figures and it was hoped that issues connected to this would be reduced through the Joint Network Refresh.

Members noted that there had been a recent improvement in change management; with Officers better aware of the implications of changes to the IT infrastructure. There had been no outages as a result of formal changes in the two months prior to the meeting. In response to a query from a Member a representative from Agilisys confirmed that the position of “Change Manager” sat with Agilisys, and that weekly change management meetings took place.

There was a discussion on the use of focus groups to gather the data on public perception and it was noted that each survey took an hour of Officer’s time to complete

It was asked that the performance statistics be presented using percentages as well as graphically, and that they include data from a longer time period to allow for trends to be drawn out.

RESOLVED – That the Sub-Committee notes the report.

Joint report of the Chamberlain and the Chief Information Officer.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain seeking support for the proposal to re-baseline the IT Division Budget.  The additional funding would contribute to the divisions ability to react with pace to issues as they arose as well as to mitigate any risks.

Members expressed surprise that no revenue costs had been allocated to the Oracle programme, and it was acknowledged that a lesson would be learnt from the assumption that this could be absorbed by the budget.

There was a discussion on how other departments spending impacted on the IT division budget and, the extent to which the division could recharge costs to those departments. It was agreed that the division needed a better understanding of departmental spending which impacted on the IT budget. 

A Member asked for clarification on which committee should be responsible for the revaluation of budgets mid-year, and suggested that a change to the Grand Committees Terms of Reference be made to allow for the Sub-Committee to make proposals to the Resource Allocation committee in such circumstances.

The Sub-Committee felt that any requests for budget changes (including either reviewing the base line or zero based budgeting) should not be proposed until there was a thorough understanding of how the budget came to be in the position it was.

RESOLVED – That the Sub-Committee notes the report.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.

MOTION - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 7 June 2016.

RESOLVED – That the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 7 June 2016 be approved as an accurate record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Sub-Committee noted a report of the Town Clerk which provided information of the non-public outstanding actions from previous meetings.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain providing an update on the Transformation Programme.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Chamberlain in relation to the Managed Services Contract.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain providing information on the current level of risk ascribed to the delivery of IT services in the Corporation.

There were no non-public questions.

There was no other non-public business.