Agenda item

To consider the proposed Digital Approach Strategy and recommend to the Executive Committee that it be approved.

84.1          The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 26-35, attached the Council’s Digital Approach Strategy.  Members were asked to consider the proposed strategy and recommend to the Executive Committee that it be approved. 

84.2          The Corporate Services Manager explained that the Council’s previous Digital Strategy had done a brilliant job of identifying what the Council needed from a digital platform and that had informed the approach that needed to be taken to deliver an enormous amount over the course of the strategy.  The Business Transformation team would be instrumental in its delivery and the lifetime of the document had been shortened to two years as the nature of the team’s work was changing so regularly based on the demands and requirements of different services.  The strategy would be reviewed every two years but the focus remained on savings, efficiencies and, most importantly, the delivery of services being shaped around the needs of customers. A ‘digital by preference’ ethos was being promoted as this would free up Officer time to deliver a service for those who were not able to engage with the Council online.  Members were advised that, since the Business Transformation team went live in 2020, it had made a massive impact on the way services were being delivered and Page No. 33 of the strategy set out the key achievements. The digital priorities had been mapped out for the next two years, as set out at Page No. 34; whilst it was an ambitious programme, it was reviewed on a weekly basis and there were regular updates with the Lead Member and Management Team to ensure the pressures and demands on the team were being managed appropriately.  The work of the Business Transformation team had been recognised nationally and the priorities identified for 2022-2024 would continue that – Officers had been contacted by other Councils interested to find out what the team was doing so this was an exciting time for Tewkesbury Borough Council and its digital journey.

84.3          A Member thanked the Corporate Services Manager for the report and welcomed the changes that the Business Transformation team had introduced across various services, particularly the successful bid for £150,000 Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities funding for a planning application tracker and he asked whether that would be used on top of Liberty Create.  In response, the Lead Digital Officer explained that the purpose of the funding was to provide an open source which was useable by other Councils so, whilst Liberty Create would not be specified, whatever was built would be useable by Liberty Create.  The Member noted from the report that an IT and Digital Technical Board was due to be established in summer 2022 and he asked who would sit on the Board.  In response, the Corporate Services Manager advised it would be headed by the IT Manager and would also comprise herself and a member of Management Team – likely to be the Head of Corporate Services; other services would be asked to join in as it was important to ensure Officers had management of the technology they were using.  The Member went on to ask whether there was a strategy for the long-term storage of information to protect against system failure, security breaches etc. and he questioned how the data currently stored on Liberty Create would be accessed in 30 years time.  The Lead Digital Officer explained that this was essentially covered by the processes in place for disaster recovery; if the system went down there was a chance that some data would be lost, however, the IT and Digital Technical Board would consider the risks and ensure that the right measures were in place during the build to ensure that data would be protected.  In terms of the data in Liberty Create, this was always a standard format so there was no risk of being unable to extract that information once the contract came to an end.

84.4          A Member expressed the view that what3words– an app which worked by dividing the world into three metre squares and allocating each one a unique combination of three words so that locations could be found and shared easily - would be beneficial for Ubico and he asked if there were any plans to introduce this.  The Lead Digital Officer confirmed that what3words was something Officers had been looking at and he could see no reason why it could not be introduced going forward.  Another Member indicated that he would like to see residents provided with progress updates so when they reported something they knew what was being done and when.  The Corporate Services Manager confirmed that this was certainly possible and the bulky waste service was a good example as customers could sign up for text or email updates.  It was also something which was being considered as part of the planning performance tracker as the majority of enquiries received were from people asking for updates on their applications, so it was intended to push out texts or emails when applications reached a critical point.

84.5          A Member welcomed the Digital Approach Strategy and was pleased to hear it would still be possible for residents to speak to someone on the telephone if they did not have the capability to access services online.  With regard to Page No. 27, Paragraph 1.3, a Member noted the success of the bulky waste service which had been achieved without a supporting marketing campaign and she asked if there were plans to promote the service going forward.  The Corporate Services Manager confirmed that would be moving forward imminently and was expected to have a big impact – the success of the bulky waste service had been quite amazing with income having doubled compared to the previous year and Officers were keen to market the fact it was an online service in order to free up Customer Services to deal with customers who could not access it in that way.

84.6          A Member drew attention to the reasons for the recommendation, set out at Page No. 26 of the report, which stated that digital technology had the potential to transform Council services and the lives of residents whilst generating savings and reducing pressure on Council tax payers and he asked how this would be quantified.  In response, the Corporate Services Manager explained that granular data could be extracted from the Engage software – a process mapping tool – to see the impact of every change that was made.  The Head of Corporate Services confirmed that the outcomes would be: cashable savings e.g. moving the bulky waste service online had enabled some Customer Services staff to reduce their hours and those savings had been used by the Corporate Services team to make a temporary post permanent without the need for a growth bid; savings from building systems in-house e.g. £12,000 saved from building the procurement portal in-house as opposed to via Civica; efficiency savings e.g. creation of a credit card portal which would save time for the Finance team, although this was more difficult to quantify; and income generation e.g. income from the garden waste service had increased by £45,000 – these could all be pulled together to create a portfolio of case studies showing the cost benefits.  The Chief Executive explained that the projects already delivered over the last 12 months had resulted in significant savings for the Council and had also made life much easier for customers.  The Business Transformation team had done a fabulous job in taking the Council’s digital services to where they were now and the Digital Approach Strategy would build upon that.  Tewkesbury Borough Council was being held up across the country as a leader in terms of its digital projects and this was backed up across the services which had worked with the team to provide digital solutions – all staff had been supportive and engaged to make improvements together and he hoped Members recognised what had been achieved. 

84.7          The Chair noted that an awful lot of work had been done by a very small team and he questioned how the work outlined for the forthcoming two years would be prioritised.  In response, the Corporate Team Manager explained that, for the first year, projects had been split into two halves – January-June 2022 and July-December 2022.  The nature of the projects meant that Officers were able to work on more than one at the same time and resources were being used to fund a temporary post to bolster resilience within the team.  She provided assurance that the priorities were regularly reviewed and the team was realistic about what could be achieved and would move things around if necessary.  In response to a comment about succession planning, the Head of Corporate Services hoped that the Lead Digital Officer would continue in his role for the foreseeable future and a Digital Developer had been brought in 18 months earlier to support him; a Junior Digital Developer was being appointed on a temporary basis; and an apprentice had been taken on and would lead the land charges project – as such, he felt there was resilience within the team currently but there was likely to be a significant impact if any members of the team were lost.  A Member queried whether there was scope to introduce champions within each service area who could carry out small tasks and the Lead Digital Officer felt it was a nice idea but it would be essential to have the right management and an understanding of how to connect things together; whilst there were probably people in each area that would be capable, it was not considered beneficial to pursue this at the current time.  The Corporate Services Manager advised that other Councils using Liberty Create had taken that approach and had struggled – the Business Transformation team had very high expectations of itself and the services provided which may be jeopardised if rolled out to people without technical knowledge.

84.8          A Member expressed the view that the work being undertaken would have a real benefit for residents and he asked if there were plans to work with Parish Councils in future in order to offer a one-stop shop where information was all in one place.  The Corporate Services Manager indicated that was the ideal scenario - currently, where possible, as online services were rolled out, residents were being redirected to the responsible authority if that was not Tewkesbury Borough Council.  In response to a query in respect of the expansion of the room booking system and the potential to tap into the Local Enterprise Partnership etc. the Corporate Services Manager reiterated that nothing was impossible but capacity to deliver was the main restriction.

84.9          It was

RESOLVED           That it be RECOMMENDED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE that the proposed Digital Approach Strategy be APPROVED.