Agenda item

The Panel received a report which provided an overview of how the Council currently shared information with District Councils and others to meet residents’ needs. The Director explained that all Partners across Worcestershire had signed a Worcestershire Office of Data Analytics (WODA) Data Sharing Charter which set out principles for person related data sharing. The other Partners included all District Councils, Worcestershire Children First, the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, Worcestershire CCG’s, West Mercia Police and the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire Service. It was highlighted that Worcestershire was one of the first local authorities to put such a system in place. It was noted that the list of partners was not static and could be added to as needs changed. The Panel was informed that protocols and arrangements had been put in place and the WODA Information Governance Group had met regularly over the past two years to improve information sharing via the ‘Information Sharing Gateway’ and to ensure compliance with the law.

The Director highlighted the scope and benefits of the use of shared datasets, to aid collaborative working and provided some examples of this. For instance, it was helpful for predictive purposes when planning for services post-hospital care, as this then enabled better personalised care for residents.  In terms of emergency situations, front line teams were able to share data at an incident, such as the identification of vulnerable residents, and hence be able to respond more effectively. The Geographical Information System (GIS) was currently being used to co-ordinate maintenance programmes on public rights of way and highways.

The potential of the Worcestershire 5G Testbed was highlighted as a key asset and one which provided significant opportunities for the future. Members discussed the potential for the 5G technology to assist the County with transport assessments and traffic management, for instance via 5G enabled lampposts. The potential for 5G to be brought into procurement solutions when purchasing highways equipment in the future was also highlighted. The Director commented that the key factor was going to be how such technical initiatives were able to be developed and executed. He advised that there was currently not the capability in-house, but there was expertise within the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

The Director reported that the Council had signed up to the Government Digital Service standards and was able to tap into training opportunities and bid for funding.  The Council had been successful in securing funding through a Discovery Project for Registration Services data and had recently been successful in obtaining a further £73k for a project linking Registration Services and housing.

The Panel considered areas in which the Council could work with the District Councils. Members suggestions included:

·         Council tax collection system

·         Information Technology systems e.g. Office 365

·         Customer Relationship Management systems for Councillors

·         Opportunities for business development

·         A system of sharing Best Practice

·         Income generation initiatives.

The Panel were supportive of the desire to work more effectively together with District Councils and other partners and felt that the data sharing was a positive start to that process, showing the benefits that could be achieved. They highlighted some of the issues which would need to be considered in taking this forward:

·         Ensuring that there was co-operation from all the local authorities – which needed to come from the leadership in each case

·         What would be the obstacles or resistance to working together? – e.g. fear of sharing information with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

·         Identifiable benefits in productivity or cost savings needed to drive the process.

·         Were the necessary Management systems and processes in place and compatible?

·         Do the successes of data sharing inspire authorities to see the future potential of joint working?

·         How does the idea of joint working sit with each authority’s organisational priorities, for instance for WCC ‘Digital First’ and ‘One Worcestershire’?

The Chairman agreed to discuss this issue with the Vice-Chairman and consider ways in which it could be taken forward. They would report back to the Panel with a suggested way ahead.