Cabinet Member for Customers, Digital Transformation & Improvement
Minutes:
35.1 The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member for Customers, Digital Transformation and Improvement to introduce Paper MC/20/14, which was for comment only.
35.2 Councillor Morley introduced the report and said that the focus of the ICT Strategy was to ensure that ICT could enable better outcomes for residents and businesses, and that staff can fulfil their roles effectively and efficiently. It sought to unlock value in the existing partnership with Suffolk County Council and existing software estate. She thanked the Council’s own ICT department, but also the ICT team at Suffolk County Council.
35.3 She invited Matthew Harding – Corporate Manager – ICT, to present a high-level summary of the ICT Strategy.
35.4 The Corporate Manager – ICT provided the presentation for the ICT Strategy.
Note: The meeting was adjourned between 6:13 pm to 6:23 pm.
Councillors Amorowson and Pratt left the meeting at 6:23 pm.
35.5 The Chairman invited Members to comment on the ICT Strategy and the presentation.
35.6 Councillor Passmore thought that in order to make access to Council’s service easier for residents, connectivity to broadband and 5G were important factors. It was also crucial that data was used as evidence for allocating resources and that the public was informed on how this data was used. He felt that the ability to link with the voluntary services was important and whether this could be facilitated by platforms such as Zoom. He added that the ICT Strategy should provide a better service to residents and partners in the community.
35.7 Councillor Ekpenyong felt that the exchange of ideas within the Council’s communities required good broadband connections, to enable local economy to grow and to alleviate isolation for residents.
35.8 Councillor Whitehead believed that people were in the centre of the ICT policy, but as the organisation moved to use ICT, more rigor had to be put in place.
35.9 Councillor Mansel commented that there was no mention of Members in the ICT Strategy, only customers and staff. She referred to the cloud-based solution on page 74 of the Strategy and was concerned for the cost and the security implications. She was also concerned whether the Council was looking at the carbon footprint for the data storage and services and if this complied with the Council’s pledge to be carbon neutral by the year 2030.
35.10 The Corporate Manager – ICT responded that the green cost was being reviewed and that a number of the Council’s vendors would be carbon neutral by the year 2030.
35.11 Councillor Geake thought that the use of the term customers in the document was inappropriate, as this indicated that they had choice for the services they wanted to access. She said that customers were not the same as residents, who were also citizens and asked that this was taken into consideration in the Council’s policies and strategies.
35.12 Councillor Field felt there was nothing controversial in the document, if people used modern applications and that the technology and equipment actually worked and was reliable. It required that residents and officers be trained, and that Councillors did not struggle during meetings accessing the platforms used.
35.13 Councillor Fleming believed that the Strategy would support the management of the District, but that it was important to keep it simple. The management and sorting of data, the integration of old data and hard copies would need to be undertaken. Consideration that Cloud storage was carbon intensive due to the coolant of the systems had to be included, however, the Council would be able to share and access information effectively with residents, which would benefit residents and the community.
35.14 Councillor Richardson thought this was an opportunity to improve services to residents and customers by making the service more efficient, user friendly to provide better services for residents. It would also enable the Council to reach isolated Members and lonely residents in the communities. He considered the impact on the Council itself and Members and one of the reflections during the last few months was the relationship for home and flexible working, which had qualitative effect for people in the workforce. He hoped this could be retained in future. Virtually meeting would make local government more accessible for working people. Indirectly he thought that the ICT Strategy would have an impact on the Council’s Climate Change and Biodiversity Strategies, as they benefitted from meetings held virtually and reduced carbon footprint by officers and Members not travelling and commuting to meetings and work. The Council’s Biodiversity action plan would also benefit from the usage of data, which could be used for geographical work in areas such as tree planting and planning. Further, the Council could take a holistic approach by using third party data relating to issues such as air pollution.
35.15 Councillor Brewster commented that ICT had helped the Council to respond to the Covid-19 Pandemic and had enabled the Council to provide support to residents by using existing tools such as online forms for the application of the Business Grants.
35.16 Councillor Warboys believed it was important to embrace technology. However, he was concerned for the security of the data and thought the Council must ensure that residents’ data was protected from hacking. He thought that as dependence on technology increased so did vulnerability. He added that many of the most vulnerable residents found it difficult to access ICT hardware either due to cost or due to access issues.
35.17 Councillor Morley thanked Members for their comments and thoughts and stated that the ICT strategy would not replace a friendly person at the end of the telephone but would allow staff to free up time to engage with the people, who need their help.
Supporting documents: