Agenda item

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee received an update from the Scrutiny ICT Working Group, which advised the Committee of its serious concerns regarding the governance and management of the ICT Shared Service.

The Committee was updated verbally as follows:-

·         The Working Group believed that governance was weak and lacked Member involvement.

·         A number of key documents which the Working Group had asked to see, appeared to be either missing or unavailable. Records of reports, minutes and decision making were not available. It appeared that meetings had taken place without all three partners present.

·         No entity existed to deliver the shared service.

·         No cost allocation system appeared to be in place.

·         There was no 3C ICT Business Continuity Plan, Disaster Recovery Plan and Security Policy.

·         The first time a shutdown and recovery test had been undertaken was on 9^th February 2019. There was no evidence of any process in place to ensure proper testing took place.

·         There was a concern to ensure that the people producing the disaster recovery plan, should not be the same as those testing it.

·         The Working Group was deeply concerned at the risks to the Council and believed that all documents requested by it should be made available urgently and, if not in existence, the Working Group should be informed accordingly.

·         The Working Group was still in discovery phase but its scope was widening. It was likely to recommend bringing in external support for the service.

The Committee was informed that the Chairman had written to his counterparts at Cambridge City and Huntingdonshire District Council. He had received a response and agreement to a meeting from the City Council Chairman, but no response to date from the Chairman at Huntingdonshire District Council. A proposal had been made for a joint scrutiny review of the service.

The Committee noted that the Lead Cabinet Member for Customer Services and Business Improvement had attended a meeting in place of the Leader last week, and had raised a number of concerns including in relation to Member involvement; compliance with the Service Level Agreement; service performance; the need for requests for evidence to be acceded to in full and the need to set up a joint scrutiny. Some assurances in relation to these issues had been received.

The Committee noted that the Leader had another meeting scheduled with partners that week and would raise these concerns again.

The Committee was informed that the consultants undertaking the organisational review had also identified the Shared ICT Service as the Council’s greatest risk.

Following a suggestion by the Leader, the Committee supported a proposal to share the update at agenda item 8, setting out the Working Group’s concerns about the lack of policies and testing, with the Chief Executives and Leaders of the partner councils.

The Committee was concerned at the delay in the Council Anywhere project, which was hampering the effective working of staff, most notably the newly established joint Planning service.

The Committee concluded that the Working Group should be provided with the 3C ICT Business Plan immediately, even if this was in a draft form.

The Committee NOTED the verbal update from the Scrutiny ICT Working Group