Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: County Hall Worcester

Contact: Alyson Grice/Samantha Morris  Overview and Scrutiny Officers

Items
No. Item

212.

Apologies and Welcome

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Meeting.

 

Apologies were received from Mr J A D O'Donnell.

 

213.

Declarations of Interest and of any Party Whip

Minutes:

None.

 

214.

Public Participation

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services  in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 7 March 2018).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

Minutes:

None.

 

215.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

(previously circulated)

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 January 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

216.

Councillor IT pdf icon PDF 89 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

In attendance for the discussion were:

 

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Transformation and Commissioning

The Head of Commercial

The ICT Commercial & Contracts Manager

The Interim IT Manager

 

The Panel received a presentation which outlined:

 

·       The Member allowance for IT and the equipment that councillors were entitled to in order to carry out their role effectively.  The allowance was currently £1000 per term and then £240 per annum (paid monthly) to fund internet connection

·       The balance between ease of use against security, given the sensitive data held by the Council

·       The improvements made to date and how access had been made easier

·       The support available for members

·       The rules in respect of Data Protection Act 1998 (and soon to be General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) and the Freedom of Information Act

·       The next steps to enable calendar sharing for Councillors who were both district and County councillors

·       The enhancement of device management to ensure continued protection against cyber threats.

 

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

 

·       Diary sharing for councillors, who were both district and County councillors was a logical step forward.  The Panel were advised that work in this area had already been started

·       As councillor's knowledge and experience of IT was variable, it was suggested that a handbook for councillors' IT which covered all aspects of what councillors needed to know in a 'plain English' easily understandable format would be welcomed.  The Panel was advised that work had started on this but any suggestions from members were welcome

·       In response to the question about within the constraints of the budget what would be an ideal scenario for the councillor IT provision, the CMR advised that there was an aspiration for one computer system for the whole of the County and discussion with some district councils had already commenced.  Realistically, it could take 12 months to introduce once all councils were in agreement.  It was suggested that an added complication may be political agreement as to the email address domain

·       The Interim IT Manager further advised that at other Councils where he had previously worked paperless meetings had been a priority

·       During the November 2017 and January 2018 meetings, the Panel had spent a considerable amount of time delving into the detail of the current year IT services budget. There had been a forecast overspend of £900k which the Panel was advised was due in the main to the IT support costs (laptops, licences etc) still being incurred as a consequence of a forecast reduction in headcount across the County Council not being realised as quickly as first estimated. Subsequent to this discussion, however, the Chairman of the Panel had discovered that the overspend was for very good reasons, involving supporting other services. If this had been explained fully to the Panel at the time it could have saved the time spent delving into the reasons

·       The preparedness of the County Council for cyber-attacks was discussed and the Panel were reassured that the Council kept up to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 216.