Archived decisions

Contact: Jos Creese ([email protected]), ext 01962 847436

1. Introduction

1.1 At the Policy & Resources Select Committee on the 10 July 2007 a report was presented by the Head of IT outlining the actions and outcomes from the IT Scrutiny. There were also discussions around the work underway to join up the central IT Help Desk and the Schools' IT Help Desk.

1.2 The Committee signed off the conclusion of the IT Scrutiny and asked that the Head of IT to give a general six-monthly update. In particular, this first update was asked to consider IT issues for partnership working, including between Health and Social Care.

2. Recommendations

The P&R Select Committee is asked to note this update report.

3. General Update

3.1 Since the meeting in July, there have been a number of IT developments and IT performance assessments.

3.2 Annual Performance Report of the Head of IT

The Annual Performance Report (2006/07) of the Head of IT was endorsed by Corporate Management Team (CMT) on the 5 September 2007 and, on the request of the Leader of the Council, subsequently circulated to Cabinet members. The report looks at:

· How well IT is performing operationally across the County Council;

· Value for money and benchmarking of costs and performance;

· Priorities to ensure IT maximises the value it contributes to the County Council against corporate objectives.

A full copy of the report is published on Hantsnet and can be made available in hard copy for members of the Committee. (http://hantsnet2000.hants.gov.uk/TC/itreports/itannualreport050907.html).

3.3 Benchmarking

Three external benchmarking exercises have been concluded in the last 6 months:

· Through Socitm, (the Society of IT Management) comparing with other local authorities;

· With the Corporate IT Forum, comparing with larger private sector organisations;

· The benchmarking undertaken by RSe Consulting.

These have demonstrated generally high performance in IT and low cost and, once again, copies of the findings of the first two have been published on Hantsnet and are available in report form on request for members of the Committee. http://intranet.hants.gov.uk/information-technology/it-performance/performance-benchmarking-summary.htm

3.3 Review of IT

Following a report from the Head of IT to the CMT in March 2007, a review of IT has been undertaken by the Business Improvement and IT Steering Group, looking at:

· increasing the integration and join-up between local and central IT functions, especially around projects and business relationship management;

· ways of increasing the engagement of service managers in setting IT priorities and developments;

· the way IT is financed - ensuring not just transparency of IT expenditure but appropriate investment to maximise organisational performance;

· development of IT professionalism across the whole of IT.

Good progress has been made in all of these areas, and a report was brought back to CMT in October 2007 and discussed with the Member lead for IT, Councillor Rod Baulk. http://hantsnet2000.hants.gov.uk/TC/itreports/reviewofit311007.html

3.4 `Transforming Through Technology' Strategy

The corporate strategy linking IT to the Corporate Business Plan, called `Transforming Through Technology', has been launched, with three senior management briefing events during November and December. This strategy has seven main themes with associated action plans, led by senior managers across the organisation:

TTT Theme:	Lead Officers:
Customer Focus	Yinnon Ezra/Michelle Smith
Efficiency and Shared Services	Andrew Smith
Information Management	Bevis Ingram
Flexible Working	Karen Murray
Partnership Working	Ken Howard/Felicity Roe
Designing IT Around People	Jos Creese
IT Skills and Exploitation	Richard White/Hugh Langford

Details of the strategy are available on Hantsnet and a leaflet has been printed. http://intranet.hants.gov.uk/information-technology/ttt.htm

3.5 Corporate Programmes

IT is currently contributing to a wide range of major corporate programmes. These include:

· The complete replacement of the Council's main telephone system, which had reached the end of its life;

· The replacement of the main Castle Complex network, supporting both data and voice communications and to improve resilience and management;

· Information Management, providing document management tools and technologies, including the electronic social care record;

· IT support for the Ashburton Court refurbishment project including a range of tools and infrastructure to aid flexible working;

· The implementation of technology to support Hantsdirect, including management and telecommunications;

· The planning for the move of the main County Council Data Centre from the basement in Queen Elizabeth II Court as part of the Ashburton Court refurbishment programme.

The main network programme has concluded to time and budget, with no interruption to services.

New digital telephones have been introduced and the new telephone switch implemented, again within budget and with negligible problems.

These are all examples of large and complex IT programmes on which we all depend which can nevertheless go unnoticed. Credit is due to IT teams across the Council who have worked together to achieve these successes.

In addition to this, IT is supporting a range of initiatives within the `Transforming Through Technology' strategy, especially around the development of mobile and flexible working tools and technology, the implementation of a industry standard IT service management approach (ITIL) and the integration of Helpdesks.

More details on these can be provided on request.

3.6 Contribution to Efficiency

IT contributes to wider efficiency in a number of ways, and this is a key theme of the `Transforming Through Technology' strategy. In addition to this, direct contributions made by IT Services in 2007/08 to efficiency totalling over £830k pa:

· Mobile telephony costs have been reduced during the current year and the benefit passed on to customers. Savings in management fees from the renegotiation of the HPSN contract of £246,000 pa have been reinvested in the Castle telephone system;

· The replacement of the Castle telephone system is expected to deliver efficiency savings through reduced maintenance costs and the elimination of costs associated with moves and changes. Users will be able to retain their number should they be relocated within the complex. Savings are anticipated to be in excess of £50,000 per annum in departmental time;

· The server consolidation programme which commenced during 2006/07 is expected to deliver savings of £110,000 pa from 2008 through reductions in software licensing and hardware maintenance costs;

· Headcount changes in IT Services have included a decrease, including at departmental management team level, creating efficiency savings, and at the same time in some areas headcount has been increased in order to reduce the reliance on external IT consultancy. The net effect of this has been an overall efficiency saving of £200,000 per annum and further headcount reductions are planned, although this is subject to any increase in demand for IT services;

· The introduction of ITIL service processes across IT Services has had a positive effect on service management. Cost savings are difficult to quantify, but improved management information generated as a result of these processes are expected to enable cost efficiencies across IT Services;

· A target of 6% improvement in productivity of the in-house consultancy team, enabled through improved work scheduling, has been assumed in the business forecast. This will deliver efficiency savings approaching £90,000 per annum, based on current work volumes in services to departments;

· Improvements to the Hantsnet Passport service have reduced the cost of support and enabled savings of £40,000 per annum in departmental time;

· A detailed report (on IT Services corporate finance has been prepared as part of the recent budget review process, and a presentation on this given to Members. Both of these are available on Hantsnet:

http://hantsnet2000.hants.gov.uk/TC/itreports/prbudgetbriefing.html

http://hantsnet2000.hants.gov.uk/TC/itreports/budgetscrutinypresentation080108.html.

3.7 Help Desk Integration

A formal project is now underway with the aim of integrating the Service Desk function of the Education IT (EdICT) business unit with the central IT Services Helpdesk. The full costs of the change are not yet fully understood and there are also different business operating models between EdICT and schools, and between IT Services and its customers. This change therefore requires handling with care to avoid a reduction in the quality of service to schools. Subject to these factors being resolved satisfactorily, the aim is for completion of the integration by September 2008 - the beginning of the new academic year.

4. Partnership Working

4.1 The County Council has always encouraged IT partnership working, and already provides IT support to many external organisations. For example, the Hampshire Public Services Network (HPSN) supports all local authorities in Hampshire, and there are a range of shared services in place for sharing applications across a number of local authorities. In addition, through Hantsweb hosting service, the County Council supports over 1000 external websites.

4.2 Nonetheless, these initiatives have tended to develop on a piecemeal basis, and the Hampshire ePartnership has now been asked by the Hampshire Improvement Group (HIG) to advise more generally on priorities for IT that support partnership working. A number of potential projects have been identified, falling into one of two categories:

· How IT can enable more general joined up working across local public service boundaries, including customer service improvement, sharing information, and sharing systems;

· The potential of a shared IT infrastructure crossing local authority boundaries, with consistent standards allowing information to be shared securely but easily.

4.3 The importance of Health and Social Care working together in the interests of public service is well understood:

· Sharing information in ways which improve the service to the public and protect individuals and communities better including meeting specific Government requirements for and national index of children (Contact Point) and multi agency assessment of children through a Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and a health and social care Common Assessment Framework for Adults (CAFA);

· Sharing systems and knowledge which allow more efficient and effective operation, such as planning discharges and avoiding `bed blocking';

· Joint teams using similar systems can collaborate in terms of policy, service planning and delivery, creating greater flexibility. This includes co-location and alignment of priorities.

For this to happen, IT will be essential, eg:

· Improved network links will be central to closer working (security and interoperability;

· This means being able to access electronic systems from either partner's sites as a first step;

· The necessary national IT standards, especially around security and authentication which provide the flexibility with the necessary controls and support for joint working (eg. Government Connect and Connecting for Health);

· Shared administrative systems (directories of staff, diaries, email, etc) that permit both flexible working of joint teams and physical location of joint teams;

· Accreditation of Hampshire's networks and systems by the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and Department of Health to allow sharing of key information

· An index of clients/patients using NHS and other references will aid co-operation and speed assessments and commissioning;

· Sharing of key information systems which can be used by joint teams.

This programme of work is heavily prescribed by Government and will span the next four to five years. Where appropriate we will work with regional partners and our strategic suppliers to take this agenda forward aiming, through participation in government `demonstrator' and `pilot' projects, to help shape the national solutions and ensure best fit to our operational and strategic objectives.