Agenda and minutes

An apology was received form Mark Williams, East Devon District Council Chief Executive.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2019 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

None.

A period of up to 15 minutes will be set aside to deal with questions to the Committee from members of the public.

Each individual will be restricted to speaking for a total of 3 minutes.

Where a question does not relate to an agenda item details of questions should be notified to the Proper Officer of the Relevant Council at least two working days prior to the meeting.

None.

To receive questions from Members of the Councils.

Where a question does not relate to an agenda item details of questions should be notified to the Proper Officer of the Relevant Council at least two working days prior to the meeting.

None

The Strata IT Director presented the report on activity from 1 August to 31 December 2019, identifying key activities, successes and areas for improvement. 2019 had been a very productive and successful time for Strata, despite a challenging five year period to reach the current successful position.

The successes included: savings of £110,000 over the three authorities as a result of renegotiating the mobile phone contract (this figure is not included in the overall Strata revenue savings figure); the replacement of the previous 20 year telephony platforms with a new single platform across all three authorities, enabling agile working; 50% of East Devon Councillors being migrated to Microsoft O365 platform, providing more functionality on the assigned portable devices (iPads); the re-certification to the annual PSN CoCo ahead of target for all three authorities; and the delivery of an IT environment to support the consolidation of Exeter staff into one building at Exeter Civic Centre.

In relation to Climate Change, the use of iPads by Councillors had significantly reduced printing demand; corporate print paper costs had decreased by utilising a thinner print paper but which did not affect print quality; and the replacement of handsets to headsets for Skype for Business have made a £2,500 energy saving per saving at Teignbridge District Council.

All savings had been achieved without any detriment to the service.

Future projects included the roll out of cyber awareness training (DoJo) to officers and councillors and cyber accreditation (Cyber Essentials Plus); Windows 10 migration rollout, to ensure all three authorities remain supported; and all three authorities collaboratively working more efficiently and effectively; progression of commercialisation; and the rollout of the new Strata vFire portal on 3 February, which would improve reporting and requesting IT issues for the customer. It would also enable access via a mobile app, and understanding demands and trends to achieve internal efficiencies.

The presentation is attached to the minutes.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The Strata Director (Finance) advised on the financial position of Strata at the end of November 2019.

The projected revenue saving in 2019-20 was on track at £323,759. The projected 2020-21 savings of £500,000 would be provided to the authorities at the beginning of the financial year, therefore Strata was on track to deliver the savings set out in the business plan. This was after taking into account the approved £50,000 expenditure on exploring commercialisation. The report also detailed key financial variations, the savings of £100,000 on renegotiating the mobile phone contract, and cost of additional equipment ordered by each authority.

Future challenges included the renegotiation of the Microsoft licence which had been factored into the Business Plan, although this is only an estimate of what the renewal costs might be.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

 An update was given on the Strata 2020 Business plan, with projections to 2025, which would be considered by all three authorities, and signed off by the Joint Executive. The plan would build on the ‘solid foundations’ that had been created over the last five years. With a flexible, stable and scalable IT environment, supported by skilled resource and sound processes, the authorities could now look to further exploit the environment for organisational benefit.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Further to consideration of this matter at the last meeting, an updated version of the Governance paper was created and circulated. The paper would be discussed between the three Council Leaders, the Chief Executives of ECC and EDDC and the Managing Director of TDC. Any agreement to the proposed changes in the Strata Governance model, would be implemented form 1 April, 2020.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The Strata Director updated Members on the potential for the commercialisation of a number of Strata services. A consultant had been engaged to undertake the discovery phase, the scope of which was set out in the report. A further report would be presented to Members on the results of the discovery phase in due course.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

An update was given on the development of a single storage and retrieval of content (including documents, emails, spreadsheets, etc) for all three authorities, which were currently stored in multiple locations. The project had highlighted the current extent and type or date storage. The new system would provide a Google search for all authorities.

It was envisaged that the findings of the investigatory work would be reported to Members in March 2020.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

An update was given on the discovery phase which was being funded by £71,000 successful bid to MHCLG as part of the Governments Local Digital Declaration Initiative. The three authorities were working in partnership with Sedgemoor, Basildon and Brentwood on the discovery phase. The Government Digital Service GDS would consider the findings of the discovery phase in determining whether to award additional funding for the next phase of the project.

The project had attracted media coverage and the recognition of innovative IT progression in the West of England.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13 January 2020.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.