Agenda and minutes

To receive declarations of interest (if any)

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the non-exempt minutes of the meeting of the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee – Resources held on 12 May 2022

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee - Resources held on 12 May, be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

(Questions may be submitted to be answered by the Scrutiny Committee, or Council officers who are attending the meeting as witnesses, on any item that is within the scope of the Committee. Please see the procedure for the submission of questions at the end of this agenda)

There were no public questions.

Peter Handford, Director of Finance and ICT attended the meeting and provided a presentation to the committee on  ICT Strategy Development update.

Members had received a copy of the presentation in advance of the meeting.

Reference was made to the journey so far with the current ICT Strategy, and Mr Handford made reference to what had gone well and what hadn’t, and referred to observations and feedback that had been received following consultation. He then went on to explain why there was need for a different approach.

Details were given of the proposed development of a new ICT Strategy and that this would follow a themes approach:

•        To support the Derbyshire's core mission statement, objectives and business plan, a number of key cross-cutting themes have been identified. The vision and strategy for ICT was influenced by many internal and external drivers. The themes had been developed from the needs of the Council, its stakeholders and partners, whom are tasked with delivery of services to the county.

•        The themes had also been aligned with and recognise the Vison for Derbyshire.

•        The Council’s work with other local authorities, stakeholders, partners and central Government agencies and industry specialists had identified a number  Key Themes for the provision of ICT, around which objectives had been defined and grouped the Council’s outcomes and success factors

•        Each theme is linked to the Future Council’s Vision and supports the key aims of the Business Plan; the main features of the themes are:

          Each theme will be informed by and inform other dependant strategies

-      No theme is independent – all are interlaced

-      Together they create a Strategy Framework for change

-      They will create a minimum, acceptable standard - a ‘Reference Architecture’.

-      They will be governed and assured centrally; informed and enabled with our stakeholders and partners.

-      Each theme will have set KPI’s

-      Each theme will have a business case

A series of fundamental strategic themes of operation had been identified as key to how the ICT function operated. The aim was to simplify, standardise and share by being : customer focused, innovative, open and empathetic, planned and consistent, service orientated, data driven, and developing every day.

Members made a number of observations and comments and asked questions that were duly answered or noted. Particular reference was made to the many potential benefits that new ICT systems could provide to the residents of Derbyshire when accessing council services but the technical architecture would need to be absolutely right to enable success. The way the Council wished to work should drive the development of the new ICT Strategy

The Chairman thanked MR Handford for his interesting and informative presentation.

RESOLVED to note the presentation on the development of the new ICT Strategy

The Chairman welcomed Joe O’Sullivan, the newly appointed Executive Director for Corporate Services and Transformation to the meeting.

Joe thanked the committee for inviting him to attend and took the opportunity to outline his three key priorities to members:

1.    That Corporate Services and Transformation be seen as the enabling function that helps to make all other departments in the County Council work;

2.    In terms of transformation, the ability to change and nurture aspirations around change whilst continually evolving and developing the capacity internally to do that; and

3.    That the individual person be valued and feels a connection with whet they do in their individual roles and the outcome that has for residents in the local communities.

Members were given the opportunity to make comments and ask question which were duly answered or noted

The Chairman thanked Joe for attending and that the Committee looked forward to working with him moving forward.