To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 December 2009.

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 December 2009 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The following points were noted:

Min No 30/09

·                    The Citrix roll-out to Members was continuing and problems were being resolved as they arose. 

·                    Two Members trialling the new notebooks had returned them and it was thought that size was the issue.  Cllr Claussen volunteered to trial one.

It was felt that one issue with regard to both the above points was that they required a new way of working, and it was agreed that Members would benefit from more training. 

Andrew Head would provide an update to the next meeting on these issues and on Broadband availability.<2>

      Min No 34/09

Margaret Bailey‘s concerns were being addressed by regular meetings with Kevin J Taylor.  Final costings would be co-terminus with the adoption of the IT Strategy.

      Min 37/09

There had been no new discussions since the last meeting.  Information from BT/Norfolk County Council was still awaited and was expected late January/early February.

Apologies for absence were received from Mrs M Coffey.

To note the names of any non-members who wish to address the meeting.

Mr P Duigan.

Report of the Director of Governance and Finance.

The Chairman suggested that this item should not be discussed until the financial figures were available (these to be provided in a separate supporting document).  It was also confirmed that the Strategy should not be presented to Exec Board before it had been discussed and agreed by the Sub-Committee.

AGREED to defer this item.  See Minute No 5/10.

Report of the Director of Governance and Finance.

The Head of IT presented this report and said that the key pages were 12-13 which set out the Council’s vision and business direction.

The Director of Governance and Finance explained that following consultation with staff, some simple things were already being done to avoid waste.

The Policy and Performance Manager was looking to see if it would be cheaper to allow colour copying in the Print Room only.  He needed to assess how the Print Room worked before progressing this idea.  It was noted that the Print Room needed to be included in the Print Strategy. 

This was an opportunity to look at changes to working practice to reduce paper use.  The use of wireless technology was to be encouraged, but at present the Council did not have full wireless connectivity throughout the building.   Staff also needed to be educated on the use of the scanning facilities within existing multi-function devices and the use of server storage space.

A Member felt this was also the time to look at the overall business case for document imaging.  It was felt this should be included in both the Print and ICT Strategies.  The Director of Governance and Finance suggested that Document Imaging could be the next big project after Licensing.

After further discussion it was AGREED that this item should also be deferred.  See Minute No. 5/10.

Report of the Director of Community Services.

Lady Fisher introduced this item which she felt gave a view of the current position and gave a ‘line in the sand’ from which to move forward.

The Chairman was concerned that Members had not had the opportunity to read this document and he suggested that it too should be deferred.  A Member suggested that this appeared more like a review and that a strategy was still needed.

The Director of Governance and Finance noted that at page 57 of the report there was an Action Plan which set out the vision for the service delivery. 

Lady Fisher was concerned that there was a lack of capacity to deal with the forthcoming general election which could generate an addition 4,000 enquiries and another Member pointed out that this was likely to coincide with the peak period of calls related to Council Tax.

The Chairman felt that time needed to be spent discussing all three strategies (including integrating the Web strategy with the Customer Access Strategy) and he suggested that the next meeting should be cancelled and a workshop arranged in its place, at which the strategies could be discussed in more details, with all the relevant information, including finance and timelines available.

RESOLVED to defer this item and to cancel the meeting scheduled for 16 February 2010 and to hold a workshop in its place, at which:

(1)               all three Strategies (IT, Print and Customer Access) would be discussed;

(2)               Adam Colby would facilitate and would draw up a programme of major issues to be looked at, including such items at Communications and Web Strategy (to be agreed by Officers in advance).

Verbal update on the status of other projects by the Head of ICT.

The Chairman reiterated that he did not want verbal reports included on the agenda as Members needed time to let their thoughts develop before making decisions.

The Policy and Performance Manager explained that he was working on establishing Project monitoring via the TENs system.  This could include providing a business case, a Project Initiation Document and then a Post Project Review document at the end of a project to ensure all business benefits had been delivered.  He was writing a report to break the system down into three easy steps which could then be tracked on the TEN system.

He suggested that a matrix could be developed to ensure that outcomes would be tracked, and would need to be achieved before projects were formally signed off.

A Member was concerned that there were a number of projects being managed via a number of different forums.  A single governance model was needed to ensure that the expected benefits were realised and that accurate progress and status of projects was available to Members.

The Director of Finance and Governance agreed that there was a need to amalgamate and to make more information available.  Some projects had already been removed because they had made no progress. He felt that at present the system’s weakness was in reporting on achievement of benefits rather than completion of project.

The Chairman agreed that the existing process worked but often stopped short by achieving ‘sign off’ before full realisation of outcomes/returns.

The Policy and Performance Manager was working on mapping out the whole framework from approval, through management to conclusion, providing greater hand-over and ownership, in the event of staff/project ownership changes, etc.

A Member wanted the projects to show as red on the Performance Management system if they were not delivering to plan, which would then require the Service Area to justify the red status.

The Chairman concluded by saying that a list was needed of all projects in existence that had been approved by the Sub-Committee (and the Business Improvement Board before it).  He wanted their progress, timelines and current status to be listed, including achievements and outcomes and he asked the Policy and Performance Manager to work with Kevin Rump to provide the list.

This item was not ready for discussion.

Verbal update by the Head of ICT.

Members had been updated on this item under Minute No 1/10.

Report of the Director of Governance and Finance.

Figures would be provided at the workshop to be held on 16 February 2010.

Report presented by the Head of ICT.

There had been no problems with the Steria service.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

PART B – ITEMS FROM WHICH THE PRESS AND PUBLIC ARE EXCLUDED

RESOLVED that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Verbal update by the Head of ICT.

The Director of Finance and Governance advised that the Director of Community Services was in discussion with Forest Heath.  He would find out how those discussions were going and provide an update for the next meeting.

Verbal update on progress to date by the Head of ICT.

The Senior Business Improvement Officer was in attendance to present this item.  He told Members that the review had started in September and was now in the implementation stage.  There were various streams of work in progress looking at all processes and the cost of delivery.

The Chairman was pleased with an excellent piece of work and just wanted to ensure that the project was finished properly.

The Director for Finance and Governance explained that they had tried to make this a six month project and had therefore had to be precise about what was included and what was left out of the review.  There was still other work to be done and that would be put into work plans to ensure that it was dealt with in the future.

The Chairman concluded by saying that all projects should have a beginning, a middle and an end.

To note that the next meeting will be held on Tuesday 16 February 2010 at 09.30am in the Norfolk Room, Conference Suite, Elizabeth House, Dereham.

It was confirmed that the next meeting would be cancelled and a workshop arranged, in its place, facilitated by Adam Colby.

The Workshop, which would not be a public meeting, would take place at 09.30 on Tuesday 16 February 2010 in the Norfolk Room.