Agenda item

ICT Insourcing from Capita

Report of the Assistant Director, ICT Service Delivery.

 

Minutes:

5.1

Mike Weston (Assistant Director – ICT Service Delivery) attended the meeting and presented the report.

 

5.2

Mike informed the Committee that Capita had moved Capita One Education, Integra and AIM Pay 360 to their final hosting locations, but had failed to move Academy Revenues and Benefits to the new Software as a Service Solution and given that the Council was now heading into annual billing, it had been agreed that this will now not move until May 2021 to ensure no adverse impact on the annual Council Tax Billing process, which started in late December 2020.

 

5.3

The Council’s ICT Service had moved all other applications except one from Capita to their new hosting application. The one remaining application – Housing Information at Work – was scheduled to move to Northgate in December 2020, but this was hampered by the availability of Northgate resources and was now scheduled to be completed by 1 February 2021, although the Council was pushing Northgate for an earlier date.

 

5.4

Insourcing ICT had been successful and the Council now had full control of its ICT infrastructure.

 

5.5

Councillor Angela Argenzio asked whether Capita staff had been transferred over to Sheffield City Council via Tupe and whether the insourcing had included archived information.  Mike Weston informed Committee that staff had been insourced via Tupe on 4th January 2020 and full consultation had taken place beforehand.  It had been difficult to build knowledge while officers were working from home during the pandemic, but a full skills analysis was being carried out.  All information, including any archives had been transferred from Capita.

 

5.6

Councillor Adam Hurst thanked Mike for his report and asked what was being done to ensure that service desk helplines were open and available to Members to ensure they were put through to the right person to help them.  Mike Weston responded that there was a lot of self help available and communications were going out to encourage people to use the self help where possible.  Service Desk was under a lot of strain at the moment and was currently logging calls and then passing them on to the appropriate person to help.  Service Desk capacity had been increased, but it was a difficult balance.

 

5.7

Councillor Simon Clement-Jones said that due to the pandemic, there had been a lot of reacting over the last 9 months.  How much of it had been planned work and was the department confident in the roll out of IT that had taken place and how future proof was it.  Mike Weston responded that prior to the pandemic, Members had agreed to invest in IT.  The Tech 2020 project had been established and the pandemic had hastened the roll out.  7000 laptops had been issued and cloud solutions were in place, the Council was moving towards collaborative technology.

 

5.8

Councillor Mohammed Mahroof said a lot had been achieved in a short time and asked if there were any teething problems.  Mike Weston noted that there had been teething problems and steps had been taken to rectify them.  Remote access to systems had been changed and support was continuing to help people access systems.  There were still some problems with remote access that were being investigated by Microsoft.

 

5.9

Councillor Dianne Hurst said that it was inevitable that there would be teething problems, but it seemed to be getting easier.  She asked whether there had been any Health and Safety considerations.  Members had been offered an equipment upgrade and had there been any analysis of staff and supplying the necessary equipment for keeping them safe.  Staff were spending long hours using IT and Zoom.  Eugene Walker (Executive Director – Resources) explained that officers had been asked to carry out Health and Safety risk assessments of their home working area.  Equipment such as chairs, keyboards and mice had been delivered to those staff members who required them.  For those who struggled with home working, a bookable space had been made available in Moorfoot, but it was currently unavailable for the duration of the current lockdown.

 

5.10

Councillor Angela Argenzio said that she worried about staff having difficulties working from home and the effect it could have on those who struggled to cope.  What support was available for staff?

The Chair explained that the Head of Member Services had informed her that all support available to staff was available to Members and would be forwarded to them.

5.11

The Chair asked how the transition to home working had gone.  Dave Phillips (Head of Strategic Finance) explained that a huge amount of work had gone in to enabling staff to work from home.  Technology had vastly improved since November.  Gillian Duckworth (Director of Legal and Governance) explained that the difference between the first lockdown and lockdown 3 was incredible.

 

5.12

Councillor Adam Hurst said that the Council needed to be mindful that people’s circumstances could change and working from home could become difficult. However, it was much easier to arrange meetings and increased working time.

 

5.13

Councillor Mohammed Mahroof felt that a key concern with staff working from home was security of equipment and information.  Mike Weston confirmed that systems had been put in place and data was encrypted.  The biggest risk to information security was people, but it was usually accidental.  All breaches were reported to the Information Commissioners Office.

 

5.13

RESOLVED: That (1) the successful insourcing of the ICT service from Capita and the migration of the vast majority of Council ICT systems to their new locations be noted, and for a final update report to be provided to the Audit and Standards Committee by June 2021 by the Revenues and Benefits Migration Project Lead Officer.

 

(2) A note of concern from the Audit and Standards Committee be sent to HR to ensure that staff are given full support in both mental health and equipment.

 

 

Supporting documents: