Agenda and draft minutes

Councillors are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 regarding disclosable pecuniary interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the previous meeting held on 4 February 2019.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 February 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any public questions or statements on the business of the Shadow Overview and Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the procedure rules as set out in the Shadow Dorset Council Constitution.

There were no representations from members of the public.

To receive an overview of progress with the Shadow Dorset Council ICT Workstream.

The committee received and considered a report to provide an update on the work of the ICT Workstream, which had been requested by members at the last meeting.  The Chairman noted that the report provided members with assurance that the projects were working well towards day 1 requirements.

Members considered the issues arising from the report and during discussion, the following points were raised:

·                In response to a question, it was confirmed that members elected to Dorset Council would be issued with a new device.  A decision on the devices that would be purchased was to be discussed by the technical teams but it was likely that members would be able to have a choice of a tablet or touch screen laptop, which would be fit for purpose. There was a request for member involvement in this decision

·                The new devices for member use would be corporately owned and personally enabled which would allow members to be able to put their own drivers on to their device.  This would include the ability for members to be able to print directly from their device, which was important from a data protection perspective

·                The new devices would allow members more freedom to deal themselves with any issues with their device

·                Testing was currently underway

·                As part of the member induction process, members documents would be moved over from their sovereign council device, where applicable

·                In response to a question it was confirmed that arrangements for parking would be in place from day 1

·                In response to a question it was confirmed that IT would continue to serve legacy services until convergence took place.  There was no timeframe for this at present.

To receive a report on the Dorset Council interim Intranet.

At the last meeting of the committee, members had requested a report with regard to the interim arrangements that were being put in place until the introduction of a permanent intranet solution in October 2019.  Further to this, members received a report which provided background to the issue, an assessment of progress made so far in resolving it, and next steps.

Members discussed the contents of the report and points were raised as follows:

·                The Constitution and all key committee information would be available

·                Members discussed the search capability of the Intranet site and it was noted that there would be a search facility but that this would be limited to the content of the Interim Intranet and not the legacy sites.  A ‘How do I?’ tab would also be included

·                All content had already been put onto the Interim Intranet site and the Project Team were comfortable with the level of information included.  Further information would be added in due course however it was noted that the information would not replicate that already included on the legacy sites.  The Interim Intranet would signpost to information already provided on other sites.  Work would be undertaken with services in order to ensure that correct information was included

·                The Interim Intranet homepage would include Dorset Council news, blogs from the Senior Leadership Team, alerts, jobs and a ‘How do I?’ section which would route through to legacy council policies and information as relevant.  The legacy sites would not be rebranded

·                A discussion was held with regard to the pros and cons of the use of Sharepoint and Wordpress.  The current direction of travel was towards the use of Sharepoint, however further analysis needed to be undertaken as to how this fitted into the wider picture, before a decision was taken.

To review the latest Programme Highlight Report to be considered by the Shadow Executive Committee on 11 March 2019.

The report will be published within the agenda for the Shadow Executive Committee for the meeting on 11 March 2019 and will be available to be viewed using the link below when the Shadow Executive Committee agenda has been published:

http://shadowcouncil.dorset.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=136&MId=131&Ver=4

A copy of the report will be added to this agenda as a supplement when it is published with the Shadow Executive Committee agenda.

The committee considered the latest Programme Highlight Report which was to be considered by the Shadow Executive Committee on 11 March 2019.  The report provided an update on progress since the February meeting of the Shadow Executive Committee, including the summary findings of the Gateway 2 Review.

Members considered the issues arising from the reports and during discussion the following points were raised:

·                In response to a point it was noted that there was now a plan in place for data disaggregation.  Officers were fully involved and working closely with their Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council counterparts

·                It was noted that parking issues had been referred to in the ameo report.  There had been a need to be aware of the end to end process and it was confirmed that this had been addressed

·                There was an awareness in the Programme Team of the risk of the transitional structure and the personal impact that this could have on the people who were being relied upon to undertake work required.  It was felt that there was now a greater understanding of the process and timeframe

·                A point was raised with regard to the need to undertake exit interviews where staff may be leaving the organisation and it was noted that there was a need for skills and knowledge to be transferred as much as possible.  The Programme Manager confirmed that this point would be taken forward to the HR group

·                Members elected to Dorset Council in May 2019 would be set up with new IT accounts including Outlook

·                Fully comprehensive arrangements and testing with Capita had been undertaken, which included arrangements for disaster recovery

·                In response to a question it was confirmed that there had been a high level of manager and staff briefings and that there was greater understanding of the process

·                The programme would not stop on 1 April and service delivery and customer service would continue to be monitored during April.  Areas of work for April had been identified and further work to be undertaken to move into the next phase of the programme, which would include transformation work.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be specified in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.