5.55pm to 6.40pm
Minutes:
The Cabinet Member for Business Transformation and Customers, the Head of ICT Improvement and the Digital Programme Manager attended to present a report updating the Forum about the progress of the ICT and Digital Improvement Programme.
Chesterfield Borough Council approved investment in the ICT Improvement Programme in 2018. The ICT service was brought in-house from the council’s public private partnership arrangement with Arvato in October 2018. Recruitment to a strengthened ICT team and procurement of the Salesforce solution also took place in 2018. Implementation of the identified ICT and digital projects began in 2019.
Appendix A of the officer’s report provided a detailed and balanced scorecard which was being used within the programme and the Forum was advised that all targets set for 2021 had been achieved.
The high-level outcomes set for the ICT and Digital Improvement Programme up to the financial year 2020/21 were:
· Outcome 1 - More end to end digital services available: achieved.
Eight key digital projects went live in 2020.
- Salesforce CRM;
- Regulatory Services;
- Digital Services Hub – My Chesterfield.gov.uk;
- Intuitive suite of e-forms – Revenues and benefits electronic housing benefit applications;
- Web chat;
- Test and trace – Self isolation payments (end to end process using Salesforce);
- Covid-19 related business grants (end to end process using Salesforce).
· Outcome 2 - Increased access channels are available for our residents: achieved. The following additional access channels for residents had been implemented:
- ‘My Chesterfield’ online – Almost 4500 accounts had been created to date.
- Web chat – When live between 30-40 chat sessions daily were being averaged.
- Online forms – the number available had increased from approximately 10 to 50.
- Website Accessibility – The ICT team had improved the councils accessibility score on the main website Chesterfield.gov.uk from 1.3 to 9.3. The CBC website climbed from 399th place in the rankings to 6th, a rise of 393 places, the single biggest climber ever seen by SiteMorse.
· Outcome 3 – A stable and resilient ICT Infrastructure had been put in place and the ICT team had continued to bolster the infrastructure. The primary focus had been on the migration of core applications to supplier hosting Software-as-aService (SaaS) during 2020. PSN and Cyber Essentials accreditations had also been achieved which supported improved security levels.
ICT had delivered an upgraded and resilient internet connection. This had provided the council with 10x the bandwidth than previously available and provided better usability for employees. A second internet connection which terminated at Stonegravels Depot had been implemented to improve internet resilience and availability.
The ICT team had accelerated several key workstreams in the ICT and Digital Improvement Programme in response to the Coronavirus pandemic:
· The ICT team had issued 183 laptops in one weekend at the very beginning of the pandemic to facilitate users who needed to work from home;
· An outcome of the ICT Improvement programme, scheduled for delivery in 2021, was the replacement of the ageing, physical Mitel phone system on premise. This was brought forward 12 months, procured, implemented and deployed to all users during the first lockdown and facilitated users to take calls via the internet at home;
· Microsoft Teams was deployed to all users as part of the migration to Office365 in late 2019. A gentle migration to online meetings, with support from the HR business partners, had been planned but it became a learn by doing exercise, with online FAQs published to Aspire. The staff had adjusted and adapted to using Teams extremely well.
During the pandemic, there had been a higher demand for access to online services due to temporary closures of the Customer Service Centre. The Digital team had implemented a number of services to assist:
· Web chat had been introduced very quickly when the Customer Services team transitioned to working from home to allow enquiries to be dealt with when limited telephone services were available.
· A project to launch an online claim form for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support was accelerated. The form allowed residents to claim remotely and almost 60% of all Housing Benefit / Council Tax Support claims were now submitted electronically.
· The Salesforce platform was used to develop an end to end process to apply and process ‘Test and Trace’ payments for those residents that qualified for financial support during periods of self-isolation. To date, the council had received 289 applications, 84% of which have been made through ‘My Chesterfield’ online.
As the second national lockdown was implemented in November, 2020 many businesses had to temporarily close. Within one week of the announcement the ICT team had developed a solution which allowed businesses to apply for financial support online. To date, the council had received 997 applications for various levels of financial support and 97% of the applications have been made through ‘My Chesterfield’ online. Chesterfield Borough Council were one of the first Derbyshire authorities to create and launch an online process for this purpose.
Support had been and would continue to be provided for CBC staff working at home and a full Covid-19 secure ICT Service Desk at the Town Hall had operated throughout the pandemic.
Democratic Services and ICT developed a solution which enabled elected members to attend Microsoft Teams meetings via their iPad. Using a combination of a Digital to USB convertor the meeting would be streamed to the CBC website using a Teams Live Event. Following on from the success of using Microsoft Teams Live Events, a second solution using OBS Studio allowed Democratic Services to improve the production value of the meetings and stream them directly to YouTube Live.
Efforts had been made to encourage uptake of online services to make savings and as of January 2021, over 4,500 residents and business had signed up to ‘My Chesterfield’. There was currently a number of online services available including online reporting forms for Environmental Health, Council Tax, Benefits, NNDR and Covid-19 Support. Further services would also be launched in 2021.
The ICT and Digital teams had worked very closely with the Communications team to ensure that any new functionality had been well publicised through all available media channels and a marketing plan had been developed.
The barriers to the Programme included:
· The ability for some service areas to balance the day to day activities alongside the demands of the Programme because transformation was intensive;
· Recruitment of officers with the rights skill set had been challenging and though it had taken time a strong team had been recruited.
· Internal training was underway but had been challenging to deliver alongside delivery of such a high volume of change activity.
The future plans for the Programme included assessing the projects scheduled for delivery in the 2021/22 financial year against several criteria, including complexity, risk and savings
potential prior to beginning any development. This would ensure that the programme continued to deliver whilst taking account of the pandemic.
It was important that the approach to project delivery timescales remained flexible to allow the team to react appropriately to unplanned activities, particularly due to the pandemic.
The team would begin to consult on the development of an updated ICT Strategy for 2023 onwards to ensure that the council and residents could continue to benefit from technology enhancements following the end of the existing programme.
Members noted the hard work which had taken place to set up remote meetings under the pressures of the pandemic and asked if there could be results against the targets included in Appendix 1 of the officer’s report at the next update. The Digital Programme Manager explained that there had not previously been a lot of data but now data was being recorded in a benefits tracker which would be shared at the next update.
The Digital Programme Manager was asked about the efforts taking place to prevent a digital divide because online services would not be suitable for all. Members were informed that the team were very mindful of the digital divide but online services were aimed at people who wanted to and could use them. All services continued to be provided face-to-face in the Contact Centre. All of the forms were in the same format and went to a central point so that staff had more time to work with the vulnerable people who need more assistance. The team were also looking to incorporate support from external organisations, such as Citizens Advice. The Head of ICT Improvement noted that the accessibility score calculated by SiteMorse for the council’s website had been improved from 399th place to 6th.
Members noted that training to use their council issued iPads would be very useful and the Head of ICT Improvement advised that training could be arranged on Aspire and face-to-face training would be organised when the Covid-19 restrictions allowed.
Members asked for clarification about the savings targets and yearly revenue figures included in the financial information contained in Appendix 1 of the officer’s report. The Head of ICT Improvement agreed to clarify this.
Members asked about what assistance could be provided for homeless people and the Digital Programme Manager advised that this would need to be handled very carefully. There was a significant digital divide in the Borough and the team wanted to get customer input which was challenging during the pandemic but they were utilising the Housing Tenant Consultation Board to communicate with customers. It was emphasised that all services could be accessed in multiple ways and no services were going to be online only.
Praise was given for the virtual Santa which had been set up in the Town Centre and it was noted that it would be good to make this event available to schools in 2021 as not all parents were able to get into the town centre.
RESOLVED –
1. That the ICT and Digital Improvement Programme Update report be noted.
2. That a letter of thanks signed by the Chair on behalf of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum be sent to the ICT and Digital teams.
3. That a benefits tracker be included at the next update provided to the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum.
4. That an annual update on the ICT and Digital Improvement Programme be scheduled in the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum work programme.