Agenda item

5.1  The Chair welcomed Christine Peacock, Assistant Direct ICT from London Borough of Hackney (LBH) to the meeting.  Also in attendance was Ian Williams, Corporate Director Finance and Resources from London Borough of Hackney.

 

5.2  The Commission commenced a review of ICT in 2013/14.  The Executive response was received and noted by the Commission in January 2015.  The Commission requested for a further update to monitor the progress of the recommendations.  An update on the progress of the recommendation was provided on pages 35 -46 of the agenda.

 

5.3  The ICT review highlighted that the ICT Strategy came to an end in 2011 and was not replaced.  The presentation on pages 47-70 provides information about the Council’s ICT Strategy.

 

5.4  The main points highlighted in relation to the recommendation update were:

 

5.4.1  Rec 1 - as a result of the ICT review discussions the organisation agreed it needed to produce a new ICT strategy.  The key issue ICT found when developing the strategy was governance.

 

5.4.2  The project governance model used for user engagement and communication for the My office roll out was replicated for the system change in Adult Social Care and the One Account portal scheduled to be rolled out.

 

5.4.3  Rec 2 – improvement groups looking at technology and systems were set up by the Chief Executive and they have now completed.  It was highlighted, setting up full time teams to work solely on ICT in the current climate would be challenging.

 

5.4.4  The digital advisory board has not progressed further from the initial update in November 2014.  ICT have focused on internal governance, but did receive some external challenge from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

 

5.4.5  Rec 3 – the project did not receive funding for phase 2.  ICT are currently in the process of procuring a corporate business intelligence tool.

 

5.4.6  Rec 4 – ICT are still awaiting publication of guidance from the Government (for the last 2 years) in relation to information sharing across organisations.  In the interim ICT are working with Health Services to develop an integration platform for sharing data.  This project is in the very early stages.

 

5.4.7  Rec 5 – this recommendation has been completed with the launch of the new staff intranet.  The staff training material made available is in line with the HR Strategy - individual ownership of self-development and independent learning.

 

5.4.8  Rec 6 – The Council hosted the Hackday and this event was partially successful.  ICT hoped the event would provide sustainable IT solutions but the event did not.  ICT are working with the Regeneration Team on projects like the Fashion Hub for system enhancement.

 

5.5  ICT Strategy update.  The main points from the presentation and objectives were outlined.

 

5.5.1  ICT’s main objectives were to develop an IT Digital Strategy for 2015-2020 through a focused engagement programme with the business.

 

5.5.2  Develop a set of 16 technology solution principles in line with the Council’s strategy & vision.

 

5.5.3  Develop and understanding of high priority business needs across the council through the creation of a business systems “heat-map” facilitated through structured workshops and 1:1’s with key council stakeholders.

 

5.5.4  Understand the Council’s application and infrastructure landscape and identify a long list of potential initiatives to deliver the IT Digital Strategy.  From the workshops and discussions 117 initiatives were identified but 62 were identified as either in-flight (37) or key business strategy initiatives (25) that should be prioritised.  The selected 62 key initiatives were categorised as “stabilise - grow - innovate”.  The biggest value will be derived from projects focussed on innovation and growing the capabilities and services.

 

5.5.5  Review and prioritise business and system initiatives (where appropriate), and develop a high level delivery roadmap and resource plan

 

5.5.6  Focussing on delivering the 62 key initiatives significantly reduced the budget overrun, but indicated a significant capacity problem if no further investments is made, either in additional staff or by freeing up other capacity, e.g. through streamlining Business as Usual (BAU) processes.

 

5.5.7  It is evident the council has a large portfolio of current and new initiatives that are competing for resource and funding.  The creation of an effective IT Governance framework will be key to the successful delivery of the portfolio of initiatives as outlined in the diagram on page 59 in the agenda.

 

5.5.8  The governance structure will be based on:

·  A Gateway/Stage process for approvals, including the process for getting to Stage “0”

·  A business-case led approach for new projects and initiatives

·  A new organisational structure for the governance of ICT-related initiatives, supported by shared Business/ICT structures

·  Evaluation criteria for new initiatives.

 

 

5.5.9  The governance will have three tiers:

Strategic – The Business ICT Strategy Board will  formally review business cases (Outline and Full) and will oversee the management of the portfolio of ICT initiatives

 

Tactical - The Technology Advisory Board (TAB) will review and provide advice and guidance for submitted initiatives against the IT Principles detailed in the Business IT Strategy

 

Operational - BAU governance involves the weekly meeting to plan and manage the delivery of ICT change requests that originate from the business or from ICT.

 

5.6  Questions, Discussions and Answers

(i)  Members enquired about the skills gap in the ICT industry and the management of this risk.  Members also enquired about the service redesign strategy and the implication of this on ICT resources.

 

The Assistant Director ICT informed the Commission Hackney Council attracted staff by informing applicants they will be working on unique and interesting projects.  The Council also has a relationship with City University and regularly takes on students in their sandwich year on work experience. 

 

The Council tries to make sure their salary is competitive and regularly bench marks against the industry; with the aim of paying the median salary of the market.  ICT have access to paying a skills supplement to try to retain staff.  For example there is a skills shortage of network engineers, therefore the Council would consider it successful if they retained a member of staff for 4 years.

 

(ii)  Members referred to the information about the development of the health information platform with the Council’s partners.  Members wanted more information about this area of work.

 

The Assistant Director ICT explained the project is at the scoping stage.  It has two stands of work.  One is child protection.  The other is improving their system for identifying vulnerable people.  The local hospital (Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) received funding to do this.  They will be building on the current interface between LBH and the hospital.  The challenge to this work is, they are working with open data and dependent on the current systems being used by the organisations.  The project will cover City and Hackney.

 

(iii)  Members referred to the business intelligence tool and asked for more information about the tool being purchased.

 

The Assistant Director ICT informed Members they were purchasing a data warehouse – where the data will be stored - similar to the tool they reviewed for the parking services system project.  ICT anticipate the suppliers they have been working with on the parking project will submit a bid for the new system.

 

It was highlighted a key challenge to using open data is making sure they have good quality data to use and that the data is of good quality across the system.  They need to ensure the information is accurate.

 

Members were informed during the development of the ICT Strategy they developed a Heat Map for the next 5 years.  From this they have developed a set of core solution principles.  ICT conducted a number of workshops with the business service areas to develop the Heat Maps.  This process enabled ICT to collect volumes of information about the businesses and their aspirations.  From the information gathered ICT started looking at resources and identified the projects they will be taking forward.  The current positon now is finalising the funding and plans. 

 

Members were referred to page 49 of the agenda that outlined the strategic objectives and technology solution principles 1-16.  Business areas are asked to fill out the solution principles template in response to question 1-16.

 

The information was reviewed for external challenge by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).  The feedback confirmed all the requested made by the business reflected normal requests.  However PWC were intrigued by the high aspirations of the business areas.

 

As a result of the workshops with the business areas ICT learned that the business believed ICT were currently working on 117 projects.  Many of these were as a result of a discussions and not a formal decision making process.  Following the workshops ICT prioritised the projects by grouping them into categories of high/medium and low value and risk.  This helped to identify what value the project will bring to the business and what they will get from it.  If a project was identified as low value and low risk it was deprioritised.  Following this review they have confirmed 62 key initiatives will be progressed.

 

(iv)  Members enquired how ICT defined the value of the projects and how new projects would be added to the list.

 

The Assistant Director ICT confirmed after identifying the 62 projects to advance they learned 37 were already in progress.  The projects were categorised into 3 groups: Stabilise, Grow and innovate.  Following an assessment this confirm if the project would add value to the business.  It was noted if the project would grow and innovate, it would be of significant value to the business.

 

It was pointed out if ICT proceed with the current number of projects and their current resource, they would completed all the projects within 2 years.  Currently all the projects are in the process of confirming their funding stream.

 

To add projects to the current list of confirmed work they developed a governance model – it was acknowledged publicity about the governance procedures needed to be improved.  For the existing projects they used the existing governance structures, the new governance model will be applied to new ICT projects.

 

There will be 3 areas for governance:

·  Operational – day to day

·  Technology – will have 1 for each Group Director’s area

·  Strategic – will be current AD level.

 

(v)  Members commented on the projects business case and the rigor applied to the production of the business case.  Members enquired about the questions asked at pre-business case stage asking if this process ensured the solution required was a new IT system and not a change to the business service delivery model.  Members wanted information about how ICT ensured business areas make use of their existing system to reduce additional costs.

 

(vi)  Members commented the ICT strategy outlined a process that would be applied to a settled organisation.  Councils were currently in a state of turmoil, changing circumstances with external factors impacting the organisation.  Members enquired about the strategic drivers and Hackney’s vision to improve ICT?

 

The Assistant Director ICT explained to Members at the tactical level they provide challenge.  This is the first phase of the process.  Once the project has proceeded to full business case ICT will then review the market for available products to suit the ICT need.  If a product is available they will purchase.  It was explained to the Member open source products generally do not integrate well with Hackney’s systems.  As a principle they do consider all possible types of products.  It was noted that open source products are good because they are free at the point of source, but maintenance costs do need to be taken into consideration.

 

In response to Members query about driving down costs.  Members were informed the migration of services online and the development of the One Account is aimed at driving down costs for the business.

 

(vii)  Members referred to the 16 technology solutions - in particular principle 8. Members wanted confirmation that ICT will not completely write off building a system from scratch if required.

 

The Assistant Director ICT confirmed if there is an off the shelf application they can use they will purchase it, however if there are no suitable products ICT will have a bespoke system built.

 

Members were informed there is a Pan London Head of ICT group that Hackney attends.  This group shares information about successful bespoke systems to consider how they can be used by other boroughs or business areas.

 

(viii)  Members appreciated the information provided about the ICT Strategy and governance model.  Members wanted to understand how the ICT Strategy would help the organisation to save money.  Members commented it would be helpful for them to receive an update about the key projects that would contribute towards service changes and cost savings.  Members were interested in linking the vision (in the ICT Strategy) to projects that were expected to produce future savings.

 

Members requested for the Assistant Director ICT to return and give an update on the top 10 transformation projects that would contribute towards, reducing costs and changing the way services are being delivered.

 

The Officer agreed.

 

ACTION

Overview and Scrutiny officer to schedule update in G&R work programme.

 

The Chair thanked the Officer for the update and commended the progress made to date.