Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee received a report of the Chamberlain, concerning the approval of the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Strategy. The Committee had sight of presentation slides providing an overview of the creation of the Strategy, and its strategic outcomes. Following the presentation, Members were invited to ask questions and make comments.

A Member raised Outcome 4 within the Strategy, to transform services through responsible use of Automation and AI and noted that the Committee had received a Generative AI Standard Operating Procedure at its meeting in November 2023. The Member queried when this policy would be approved by the Committee. The Committee heard that this had been delayed due to waiting for the Independent Data Ethics Advisory Council to review the Policy. It was agreed that an addition within the actions would note that these would be in line with the organisation’s Generative AI policy.

Members raised concerns that underlying control of the Corporation’s websites did not sit with the DITS Service. The response was that the website would form part of the Communications Strategy, but that further work needed to be done at an officer level to determine the direction of travel and the risks, given that there were a variety of applications for the City Corporation’s websites. The Committee were assured that the Communications team were engaged with security, and the websites were actively monitored and reported on if issues were found. The Committee heard that the Strategy was intended not to be a static document, and that the website could be incorporated into the Strategy in the future once the work at officer level was completed.

It was questioned what the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measures or targets would be for the Strategy. The response was that there needed to be further work done to assure that there were the right KPIs for the organisation, and that these would be different to those KPIs from Agilisys. This would be reported back to the Committee in due course. Some work had already begun on some of the outcomes, such as on digitisation and automation and how these would be the most beneficial for the organisation. Again, this would be reported back to the Committee in due course.

RESOLVED – That Members of the Digital Services Committee approve the Shared Digital, Data and Technology Strategy.