Agenda item

Report of the Chief Operating Officer.

The Sub Committee considered a report of the Chief Operating Officer presenting the findings from the Modern.Gov app.

Members discussed this report at length and the Deputy Chairman urged members to embrace digitisation which would create environmental and financial benefits.  It was suggested that Option 7a should be supported in principle whilst recognising the resources and work required to support this huge transformational change. 

The Deputy Chairman stated that if there was a consensus among Members to accelerate change, the tools and challenges to drive this should be identified as the new cohort of Members elected in March 2022 was the ideal opportunity to bring about change by embracing digitisation.  These sentiments were echoed by other Members.

Officers reported that Modern.Gov had national and regional user forums and that Civica had been very responsive in addressing issues with app functionality including glitches with publishing papers to the app. An extranet pilot was also being rolled out to test access to committee papers where connectivity was an issue.  However, at present, confidential papers could not be viewed via the Modern.Gov app.

Officers were having discussions with Civica about the democracy pages so that the branding was consistent with the wider CoL branding.  Taking into consideration the past 18 months where meetings papers had been available electronically only for the most part, now was a good opportunity to collaborate with IT and maintain the momentum for driving for paper free meetings and promoting uptake of the Modern.Gov app.

The Deputy Chairman emphasised that a huge culture shift was required with full buy-in from the Sub Committee and the Policy and Resources Committee.  The Chairman also stated that a clear presentation of costs versus benefits was required to inform the aspirations/vision and inclusive solutions and broad support for digitisation.

Some members had reservations about being too prescriptive as there would always be occasions when hard copies of papers were required and there would be negligible change in the short term. 

The following comments/suggestions were made:

• Establishing a Member focus group to create a digitisation roadmap.

• Anecdotal evidence on the experiences of other Local Authorities which had paperfree meetings was requested.
  
  
• An improved digital offer and appropriate training were key to getting members on board.
  
  
• What resources were required to progress this major transformation

Officers stated that the debate had been informative and also highlighted the challenges before Members.  Thus far, feedback on the Modern.Gov app had been broadly positive and Officers would continue to work collaboratively to progress the digitisation agenda notwithstanding these challenges.  Officers were supportive off Option 7a, subject to evidence to justify this course of action.

RESOLVED –

1. That the report be noted.
   
   
2. That members support Option 7a, a move towards paperless committee meetings in principle, supported by the Modern.Gov app.
   
   
3. That a report including a clear presentation of costs versus benefits and challenges to digitisation be presented to the Sub Committee.