Agenda item

Purpose of the item: To provide the Committee with an overview of the IT & Digital Service, in respect of its financial context, areas of delivery and service risks and challenge

Witnesses:

Marisa Heath, Deputy Cabinet Member for Organisation and People

Lorraine Juniper, Head of Strategy and Engagement

Becky Rush, Cabinet Member for Resources and Corporate Support

Matt Scott, Chief Information Officer

Leigh Whitehouse, Executive Director of Resources

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Cabinet Member for Resources and Corporate Support introduced the report, thanking the Information Technology and Digital (IT&D) team for their quick response and device deployment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

2.    The Deputy Cabinet Member for Organisation and People added that the Council had made progress in IT&D not only during the pandemic, but also over the course of the whole of the last council term (2017-2021). Finance and IT now sat at the centre of all projects. Rather than the increased use of IT making the agile workforce seem ‘faceless’ and reducing human contact, the use of IT&D would in fact make a smaller workforce more visible and enable people to work from their local community, including Members, who would be enabled to spend more time in their division with residents. Digital ways of working also enabled residents to solve problems themselves; for example, residents could now report potholes through the Council’s website.

3.    A Member emphasised the importance of ensuring new digital options were well publicised. How was the Council ensuring that residents knew about the digital facilities available? The Head of Strategy and Engagement agreed that this was important and stated that the Council was branding its digital offering to engage with residents and let them know what changes had been made. The branding work was at the planning stage, and the Council was engaging with partners, including the voluntary, charity and faith sector (VCFS), and residents.

4.    A Member asked whether the Cabinet Member for Resources and Corporate Support, who had taken up the role in this Cabinet portfolio two months ago, envisioned changes to the priorities as Cabinet Member for this area, particularly given that the resources and the corporate support portfolios had been combined into one (although some elements had been changed or removed, meaning the portfolio was not double the size of the previous portfolios). The Cabinet Member stated that the digital transformation was a priority, and that she would welcome the placement of IT&D at the centre of every decision. It was important to bring wider innovation in digital technologies into the Council. Also, the Cabinet Member expressed a wish to measure in a concrete way the contribution of IT&D to the transformation programme. Developments in adult social care in Surrey whereby IT in the home would soon be able to monitor elderly residents’ activity, thereby allowing them to live safely and independently, showed the potential of using technology to help residents, and there were many other ways that technology could help residents and improve processes. Priorities would be reviewed after the local government election in May 2021, but the direction of travel in the Council at the moment was positive.

5.    Members offered to support the publicity of the Council’s digital and self-service technology through their interactions with residents, such as mailing lists.

6.    A Member emphasised that the reduced use of paper and reduced need to travel effected by the move towards using digital technologies had an environmental benefit.

7.    A Member asked why the report did not show performance information in the form of metrics with targets. The Cabinet Member stated that the performance monitoring dashboard being used currently was a new system, and so teething issues were a possibility. Also, as Covid-19 had had an unprecedented effect on the rollout of IT equipment, for example, targets or comparisons may not be applicable. The Chief Information Officer explained that the report showed high-level metrics and assured the Select Committee that every month officers examined financial performance, project performance, audit reports, and metrics on calls received and responded by the helpdesk. The Happy Signals platform was used to measure user satisfaction and the Council was looking to extend this further. The IT&D service had had discussions with the Executive Director of Resources about refreshing the indicators being used. The Select Committee’s input on this refresh would be welcomed. The Member expressed dissatisfaction with this response and requested that officers redevelop the performance measuring system for IT&D. The Cabinet Member provided assurance that this would be looked at and that after the Covid-19 pandemic, performance metrics could be monitored in a more regular context.

8.    A Member asked how much money had been spent on temporary staff or contractors in IT&D, what saving had been made as a result, and how many of these staff had been working in these posts for more than one year. The Chief Information Officer said that in total over the last two years, the Council’s IT&D service had spent £1.6m on temporary staff or contractors, primarily in the fields of transformation and resource. £37,000 of that figure had been spent on business as usual resource. In terms of benefits, employing these contractors had contributed to the digital and agile programmes in terms of providing expertise and capacity. Seven of these contractors had been working for the Council for longer than a year. The Member was of the opinion that £1.6m was a large sum of money and asked whether there was a plan to reduce reliance on temporary workers. The Chief Information Officer replied that there was already a minimal reliance on temporary or contractual workers in terms of business as usual work, and any resources of this sort that had been used were time-limited.

9.    A Member enquired what the worst-case scenario and contingency plans were for the risks of a cyber threat and Covid-19 affecting staff availability, which had been recognised in the report as the two most serious risks facing the IT&D service. The Chief Information Officer stated that the cyber threat was indeed a pervasive risk across the private and the public sectors. Surrey County Council closely tracked cyber events that had taken place within other councils and linked in with regional and national cyber monitoring that took place to obtain intelligence on potential cyber vulnerabilities, so that the Council could try to respond before problems developed. The worst case scenario would be that the Council was unable to deliver services for an extended period, which had recently occurred in a London borough council whose cyber systems were hacked. Surrey County Council had been investing in systems to ensure they were secure. There were daily tests of cyber systems.

10.  The Chief Information Officer continued to explain that IT&D capabilities in the case of staff absences or a cyber event had been tested in autumn 2020. This test had found that 20% staff absence would lead to noticeable disruption to the service. As a response to this scenario, an option considered was for Surrey County Council to potentially draw on capacity from the other Orbis councils. The challenge of staff capacity and absence during the pandemic continued to be monitored.

11.  A Member asked how many staff there were in the business as usual teams across all Orbis organisations, how many were dedicated to Surrey and which council paid these staff. How were priorities assigned and determined across the Orbis councils? The Chief Information Officer responded that this was a challenge. Teams triaged activity to determine whether a new project would be required or there was already the capability to respond. After the initial fast paced triage, IT business partners worked with services to assess needs. To date, a formal prioritisation methodology had not been required, but the IT&D service was giving serious consideration to how it could better accommodate demands. The Head of Strategy and Engagement added that the IT&D service’s responses to new requests were aligned to Surrey County Council’s priorities and strategies, such as the digital and workforce strategies. The service would also be prioritising work based on the Covid-19 recovery plans, which would be available soon.

12.  Noting the financial benefits delivered by Orbis as set out in the report, a Member asked whether the savings achieved were significant and whether the Council was exploring the possibility of going out to market to expand the Orbis partnership to other organisations. The Executive Director of Resources outlined how the Orbis partnership had changed over the course of its existence; more services used to be shared between councils, including finance and HR, but it was determined that Surrey should have full sovereign control of these services, so they were withdrawn from Orbis, and this had evidently been the right choice. Other services, such as procurement, remained within Orbis, and it was useful to share knowledge for certain services. However, it was important to regularly review the services contained within Orbis. The Chief Information Officer added that significant savings were delivered through Orbis and Surrey County Council continued to make an effort provide an IT&D service that delivered savings within Orbis. Delivering savings that were sustainable without impeding business as usual work or the delivery of the transformation was a challenge. Surrey currently successfully offered a core service within Orbis, and it would not be looking to expand its Orbis services beyond that, although officers and Cabinet Members continued to work with Orbis partners on new opportunities and leveraging trading partnerships.

13.  The Chairman summarised discussion of this item by outlining key points:

a.    Members offered to help publicise the IT&D service through their interaction with residents;

b.    The Select Committee should be involved where relevant in the development of performance monitoring and dashboards in the IT&D service;

c.     The Select Committee was keen to understand more about the Happy Signals platform at a future meeting; and

d.    A private briefing on the cyber threat should be arranged at an appropriate date in future.

Recommendations:

The Select Committee recommends that:

1.    The Select Committee is involved in the development of performance monitoring arrangements, where relevant, in the IT&D service;

2.    The next IT&D update includes more information about the Happy Signals platform; and

3.    The IT&D service is to arrange a private briefing for the Select Committee on the cyber threat.