Archived decisions

Contact: Colin Hinxman, Chief Executive's Department - 01962 847343 email: [email protected]

1. Background

At their meeting on 11 July the Committee considered a report of the Head of IT Services on current issues and concluded that there were detailed areas within IT that required investigation and scrutiny, for example, charging and procurement. They therefore established a small task and finish group of Members to review the issues and report back. Inquiry Panel 3 was therefore established, comprising Councillors Baulk (Chairman), Collett, K. Evans, James and Weeks, with the remit of identifying and investigating significant IT issues, in the light of the Members' seminar on IT held on 28 July. In the event, because of illness and other County Council commitments, Councillors James and Collett were unable to make significant contributions to the Panel's work so this report primarily reflects the conclusions reached by the three members involved throughout, Councillors Baulk, K. Evans and Weeks.

2. The Panel's Approach

The Panel operated in an informal manner and decided to ask a range of questions of the Head of IT Services and his Senior Management Team; the Adult Social Care Department; and the Children's Services Department (EdICT). The list of witnesses appears below:-

IT Services - Jos Creese; Lynn Cox; Hugh Langford; Andy Holdup; Rory Fitzgerald; Paul Day

Adult Social Care Department - Ken Howard; Julie Tite

Children's Services - Education (EdICT) - David Woodward

The Panel is grateful to all the witnesses for providing informative summary responses to their questions and for appearing at Panel meetings to give further detailed responses.

3. The Panel met on five occasions during the last 4 months of 2005. Notes giving a summary of their meetings and the evidence received can be found at the Appendix to this report. Salient issues to which the Panel would like to draw the Committee's attention are set out in the paragraphs below.

4. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

The Panel considers that the County Council is exposed to substantial risks with almost all its computer infrastructure being based at the Castle in Ashburton Court and Elizabeth II Court. The main risks to which the County Council's computer operation is vulnerable are fire and flood, and there are plans in place to shut down systems on a systematic basis when such emergencies do occur.

The Panel was also aware of a section from the Audit report to Governance Committee which stated that there was still no back-up power supply to the computer suite. However, a controlled shut down was possible in the event of problems with the power supply. After consultation with the Property, Business and Regulatory Services Department, it had been determined that a full back-up power supply was not feasible in the current accommodation. Consideration is being given to relocating the computer suite, but the earliest timescale for this is likely to be two years. Relocation would also potentially provide an opportunity to enter into a reciprocal arrangement with another Local Authority for the provision of IT Services in an emergency.

The Panel consider that Policy and Resources Scrutiny and Select Committee should endorse the approach being advocated by the Governance Committee and press the case for a joint arrangement as part of the long term strategy for the computer suite's relocation.

5. Central/Departmental IT

The Panel looked in detail at the services EdICT provides to the Children's Services Department and to schools. They were satisfied that procurement arrangements were cost effective, but felt that there might be some duplication between services, for example in the area of helpdesks. The Panel were of the view that integration might provide a more cost effective and seamless service for users, and were encouraged to learn that exploratory work was under way to assess how this could be achieved.

Although the Panel had looked at the relationship between Central IT Services and EdICT as the largest departmental support service, they were conscious that other County Council departments may similarly run local IT support services and have their own separate IT staff, for instance Environment; Property, Business and Regulatory; and Recreation and Heritage. They therefore recommend to the Committee that either the Panel or the e-champion should be requested to look further into these relationships to establish whether the service provided was cost effective and met users' needs in terms of quality.

6. The IT Services Department

The Panel investigated in-depth the role of the IT Services Department in the following areas:

· Hampshire Public Service Network (HPSN)

· Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

· Customer Relationship Management and Call Centres

· SAP

· Desktop support

· Benchmarking

· Mobile Working

· Forward Plan for IT projects

· Staff recruitment/retention

· Structure of ICT in the organisation


The evidence which they found supported the contentions on cost effectiveness, value for money and e-government set out in the Head of IT Services' report to the Committee in July and showed that continuing improvements were being made. The Panel had before them the strategy document "Transforming through Technology" which is due for review and re-issue in April 2006, and they suggest that they, and perhaps members of the Committee more widely, should have an input into that process.

7. The SWIFT system and mobile working

The Panel received detailed evidence from the Adult Social Care Department which acknowledged that there had been problems getting the new systems up and running, with particular reference to their interface with SAP. The Panel were confident from the evidence they received that action was in hand to overcome the problems so that the expected gains in efficiency, flexibility, cost savings and improved services to clients would accrue.

8. Conclusion

In conclusion the Panel is aware that IT is a fast-moving area with substantial expenditure in a large authority such as Hampshire. They look forward, with interest, to the development of proposals for customer relationship management in the form of the proposed corporate core centre.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. That in view of the perceived risks to business continuity at the existing computer suite, the Committee endorses the approach of the Governance Committee to eventual relocation of the computer suite, ideally entering into a reciprocal arrangement with another Local Authority for the provision of IT Services in an emergency, and urges that proposals for disaster recovery should be a corporate priority for the County Council.

2. That further investigations be undertaken by the Panel or the e-Champion into the relationship between Central IT Services and Departmental IT staff and support, with a view to ensuring value for money, effectiveness and quality of service to users.

3. That Members of the Panel, and interested Members of the Committee, be given the opportunity to contribute to the review and re-issue of the document "Transforming through Technology", the County Council's e-Government and ICT Strategy.

4. That particular thanks be expressed to Councillors Baulk, K. Evans and Weeks for the contribution they have made to the proposals set out in this report.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclosure exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

Appendix

5eR1131205