Agenda item

Resolved: that the update be noted. It was also agreed that officers would provide additional information regarding:

·         the length of time annotated private documents could be kept in the Modern.Gov application.

·         the ability of Councillors to access home printing.

·         frequently asked questions relating to the use of the Modern.Gov application.

4.1      David Minahan (Digital Transformation Manager) introduced the presentation. The following key points were noted:

·         The paper on the changes to the applications support service had been delayed and a decision would not be taken by Mayor and Cabinet until the autumn.

·         Work had been taking place through the shared service with the London Borough of Brent to improve Lewisham’s IT infrastructure.

·         Efficiencies had been achieved across the organisation. Mobile working was taking place in all directorates.

·         All social workers could access information from their key databases whilst they were out of the office on visits.

·         Services were being moved from face to face and telephone contact to online access. The most recent move to online access was for the benefits service.

·         Work was taking place to modernise other aspects of the organisation, including the development of paperless working and the use of the Modern.Gov application for meetings.

·         A decision on the expansion of the shared service to include the London Borough of Southwark would be taken by the Mayor next week. Decision makers in LB Southwark and Brent had already agreed to progress with the expansion of the service.

·         The expansion of the service would enable authorities to reduce and share fixed costs for infrastructure. It would also improve resilience and offer a better route of progression for staff members.

·         There was no risk to Lewisham in terms of costs from the expansion of the service, there was a potential risk of impact on the delivery of support for business as usual. Additional resources would be provided in Brent to mitigate this risk to enable the transition.

·         Further work would take place in the coming months (including the roll out of Office 365 and the development of a new SharePoint).

4.2      David Minahan responded to questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·         The costs of providing telephone support for people out of hours would be prohibitively expensive. Consideration would need to be given in future about the support provided for Councillors and for people working out of hours, this was particularly the case in social care, where some officers might work in periods of 24 hours.

·         Support for some new systems was currently provided by project teams in the Digital Transformation group. Work needed to take place to determine how ongoing support would be provided.

·         In future, IT support would be provided by the shared service, with a local presence in Lewisham.

·         LB Brent was the provider for IT services to the other Councils in the shared service. Management and accountability of the Service was overseen by through the joint governance arrangement.

·         Partners in the shared service could leave with 18 months’ notice.

·         Information governance rules prevented staff from printing documents at home but Councillors could be added to a list of people who had exception to these rules.

4.3      Councillor Bonavia (Cabinet Member for Resources) responded to a question from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         He had been attending meetings of the joint governance committee for the shared service. No decisions had yet been taken about overall budgets.

·         Decisions on budgets above a certain level had to be made by the executive at each of the councils.

·         A new arrangement would need to be reached for the joint governance arrangements to incorporate LB Southwark.

4.4      Resolved: that the update be noted. It was also agreed that officers would provide additional information regarding:

·         the length of time annotated private documents could be kept in the Modern.Gov application.

·         the ability of Councillors to access home printing.

·         frequently asked questions relating to the use of the Modern.Gov application.