ITEM 8

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SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL

S CABINET

DATE: 1 NOVEMBER 2011

REPORT OF: CLLR HELYN CLACK, CABINET MEMBER FOR CHANGE AND EFFICIENCY

LEAD OFFICER:

PAUL BROCKLEHURST, HEAD OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY (IMT)

SUBJECT: CHANGE & EFFICIENCY PUBLIC VALUE REVIEW: IMT

KEY ISSUE/DECISION:

To consider the report following the Public Value Review of the Information Management and Technology (IMT) Service and to approve the related recommendations and appended action plan (Appendix A).

DETAILS:

Background

Background to Public Value Reviews

1. On 14 July 2009 as part of its consideration of the paper ‘Leading the Way: changing the way we do business’, the Cabinet agreed to undertake a three-year programme of Public Value Reviews (PVRs) to look at all services/functions provided by the Council.

2. All PVRs share a primary objective, which reflects Surrey County Council’s ambition to move from being a one star to a world-class authority, by delivering improved outcomes and value for money for the residents of Surrey. The outcomes are expected to be services that place the Council in the top 25% of local authorities for performance and the lowest 25% for costs.

3. Two specific outputs from each review are a zero based budget and ensuring robust quality assurance systems are in place. The PVR Steering Board oversees delivery of the overall programme.

4. Each review follows a standard PVR methodology:

Challenging why, how and by whom a function/service is provided;

Comparing performance with others in the quest to be world class;

Consulting widely including with residents and specifically vulnerable groups and communities and with staff;

Collaborating with partners and/or contractors; and

Testing the market to see if the service could be delivered more efficiently, effectively or economically.

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Background about Information Management and Technology (IMT)

5. Information Technology (IT) in Surrey County Council (SCC) is provided by an integrated IT service, Information Management and Technology (IMT), which manages and supplies the full range of IT services from infrastructure (PCs/laptops, servers, networks) through to business systems implementation and support.

6. Whilst all the provision is managed by IMT, some services are provided by third parties, the most significant of which are the Council’s Network (SWAN), provided as a managed service by Cable & Wireless, SAP, provided as a hosted service by Cap Gemini, and support of Schools (provided as a service by Babcock/4S)

7. IMT was created in early 2006 by pooling IT teams from across the Council, reducing staff numbers by 25% (49 posts), freezing technology refresh programmes and establishing IMT as an IT service targeted at just supporting ‘business as usual’ IT services with little capacity to innovate and undertake new projects.

8. In 2006 a strategy was set limiting investment in new systems and infrastructure to focus on the further development of SAP. As a result, much of the Council’s IT provision is 10 years out of date (7,500 PCs, 2 Data Centres, key business systems etc) and urgently requires upgrading.

9. The current status of IT represents a risk for the Council. The Council’s risk register currently records two strategic IT risks in relation to the desktop PC estate and primary data centre. In addition there is limited capacity in the data centre to support the required expansion in the use of IT in the Council. It is necessary to modernise and maintain the IT provision to appropriate industry standards to reduce risk for the Council.

10. Rapid change within the Council and the increasing reliance on IT means that IT provision no longer matches business need. The out of date technology has hampered business progress and impacted the Council’s ability to deliver key services that maximise the use of new technologies.

11. A change of direction for IMT was initiated under new leadership in late 2009, and since then there has been an IT improvement programme of activity to upgrade key systems and technologies. Much progress has already been made e.g. new systems in Adults, Childrens and Highways, the rollout of new PC equipment and new data centres, however the IT provision of the Council still falls significantly short of that required and will not enable the Council to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible.

12. Prior to 2009 customer relations had been poor with little strategic engagement with the services. Engagement with the services during PVR highlighted the extent of this issue, but also confirmed the progress made since 2009 in building good relationships with customers.

13. The current IT improvement plan, which is well underway, is just the start. A series of further improvements will be planned as it is essential that the Council implements and continues to provide modern IT. Responsive and efficient delivery of new IT provision and projects will enable business change. Innovative use of current and emerging technologies will drive new ways for the Council to deliver services and engage with residents.

14. IMT underpins transformational change in service delivery, improving efficiency and reducing costs. The Council has to deliver significant savings over the next four to five years and use of IT is a key enabler for these savings.

15. The use of new equipment and an updated staff technology skill base will help drive a change of culture. Investment in ‘modern equipment’ for a ‘modern council’ will support the Council’s objective of becoming a leading public service delivery organisation.

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IMT Improvement Programme

16. The PVR methodology has helped validate existing IT improvement plans. Significant progress has been made with improvements over the last two years, these include completed and ongoing areas of work:

Establishing Technology Boards with services so that IMT priorities are decided jointly with the business. Relationships with the business have significantly improved with good joint working, shared teams, priorities and objectives.

Successfully updating key systems in Adults Services, Children’s Services and Highways. For example SWIFT (used by 2,000 Social Workers to manage critical social work cases) was unsupported by the supplier, being five levels behind; it was running on an unsupported version of the Oracle database on end of life hardware and was at very high risk of failure. This was all updated and replaced within a very short period. Work is now in hand to update other key systems such as Libraries and the Council’s Internet site.

A programme of work to upgrade the desktop and laptop infrastructure to Windows 7 replacing around 7,500 devices spread over 200 locations. This programme is underway and will complete by February 2012.

Implementation of a new secondary data centre in Guildford. In addition plans are well advanced to replace the failing County Hall data centre with a new industry standard primary data centre in Redhill, which will be shared with partner organisations. This programme will complete by May 2012.

Partnership working with Surrey First, Health and other partners to deliver a new Public Services Network in autumn 2012 for SCC and its partners. This will replace the Council’s ageing SWAN network, and enable IT services to be more readily shared across partners. This project is working very closely with the ongoing super fast broadband rollout across the county.

A cost reduction programme that is reviewing and renegotiating all existing IT contracts and is already delivering significant savings (as shown in paragraph 62)

Removal of single points of failure and the introduction of more modern working practices will be achieved through planned changes to the organisational design.

Steady improvements in IMT culture and morale have resulted from staff engagement and changes to a more coaching/enabling style of leadership.

Plans for a series of further IT improvements that will support the Change and Efficiency vision for 2017.

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PVR Goals and Objectives

17. The IMT PVR ran from January 2011 to November 2011. Julie Fisher, Strategic Director of Change and Efficiency, sponsored the review. Paul Brocklehurst, Head of IMT and Mike Barker, IT Planning and Transitions Manager led the review. The PVR involved extensive consultation with IMT staff, users of IMT services and key senior stakeholders across the Council. The IMT Leadership team has collaborated to undertake the work for the PVR and this builds on the current strategy and improvement programme that is already underway.

Goals

18. To design an IMT Service model that is:

Customer focused;

Lean and efficient;

Fit for partnership working; and

Facilitates the Council in achieving its key business objectives through the provision of efficient and effective information technologies that support both business delivery, and enable and promote business change.

19. To produce:

A service ‘vision’ defining the extended/new capabilities the changed service will deliver.

A service ‘blueprint’ describing the service structure/composition needed to deliver the service vision.

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Objectives

Reduce costs, making recommendations for delivering a net saving of £3.4m by 2015/16.

Improve performance, making recommendations for moving to top quartile performance by 2014.

Review key customer facing processes (such as the IMT first line customer support process), ensuring that they are fit for purpose in order to increase productivity of both the provider and customer.

Identify areas of service where a different delivery model could deliver efficiencies or could better position the Council to make business change in key areas such as partnering and new ways of working.

Ensure robust quality assurance measures are in place.

Ensure the service is fit for partnership working in the future.

IMT Vision

20. IMT’s vision is:

“Provision of innovative, effective and reliable IT Services, delivering IMT projects successfully and maintaining excellent relationships with customers

and partners”

Key drivers for change

21. The PVR work has verified the following drivers for change:

IT underpins the delivery of Council services but does not meet current or future service delivery needs.

There is a high demand for IT projects to support business change. There is also a need to build capacity to enable different ways of working (staff and resident), and facilitate shared working with partners (Districts, Boroughs, Health, Police)

Innovative use of current and emerging technologies will drive new and more efficient ways for the Council to deliver services and engage with residents. Increasingly service delivery will be through collaboration with partners, through resident self-service and through use of social media.

The Council needs better insight into its own performance and the demand for its services, this insight will be achieved through effective use of Council data and use of new tools such as managers ‘dashboards’, as approved through the Financial Management PVR.

Strategic Aims

22. The following strategic aims have been developed to meet the above drivers and support the IMT vision:

Work closely with customers to align IT delivery to service need, and to provide an excellent day to day customer experience.

Implement modern innovative IT that is reliable and robust.

Responsive and efficient delivery of new technologies that enable business change, adopting IT industry best practice.

Build for the future through ‘horizon scanning’ and forward planning to set the direction for how technology will be deployed to drive efficiency and innovation.

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Delivering IT in partnership to achieve efficiencies, service improvements and joined up services.

Achieve best value for residents through rigorous control of IT expenditure and provision of IT that enables cost effective service delivery throughout the Council.

Developing the direction for IT for 2017

23. IT underpins the day to day processes of all employees across the public sector in Surrey. It is essential that the modern worker is empowered for true flexible working, anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with access for all to the latest technologies e.g. Document imaging/management, workflow management, video and audio conferencing, messaging, file sharing and collaboration. Flexible working drives productivity benefits and efficiencies, and results in improved staff satisfaction.

24. The PVR has identified a requirement to increase the pace at which new IT is deployed to transform the way the Council works, and the need for IMT to provide a strong lead for the Council in how benefits can be maximised from the use of technologies.

25. As a result, IMT is collating the full technical requirements of a modern council employee and Member. This will be available by December 2011 and will include a wide review of available and emerging technologies, exploring the ‘art of the possible’ and taking into account partnering and longer term customer requirements. This will define the key IT improvements and investment decisions up to 2017.

26. The use of new equipment and an updated staff technology skill base will help drive a change of culture.

27. The following roadmap is indicative and outlines some elements of the plans to transform the Council’s way of working, and highlights the intended range and timescales for the introduction of transformational technologies over the next 3 years.

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Key: EDRM – Electronic Document and Records Management MFD – Multifunction device – printer/scanner/copier WiFi – wireless networking BYOT – Bring Your Own Technology – use of personal devices for work purposes

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28. This will be expanded and a forward plan and roadmap will be updated to reflect and enable Council transformation priorities up to 2017. A recommendation of this report is that an investment plan is developed to support delivery of the forward plan.

29. Investment in ‘modern equipment’ for a ‘modern council’ will support the Council’s objective of becoming a leading public service delivery organisation.

Roles and responsibilities

30. IMT is accountable for the delivery of effective IT for the Council. It is therefore essential that the organisation and operation of IMT provides the best outcomes within the available resources. The PVR has reviewed the organisation and operation of IMT and has identified a number of areas for improvement including:

Removal of single points of failure – ensuring essential skills and capacity for support of key systems and technologies.

Reallocation of resources across IMT to better match the demands for IT services.

Strengthening of technical leadership in key infrastructure areas.

Establishing a function to focus on customers and partners targeted with improving the customer experience and driving forward partnership activity.

Operational processes to be revised and updated to match the introduction of modernised technology.

Wider involvement of senior and middle Managers in IMT Project and Technology Boards.

31. The reconfigured IMT service will address a number of issues identified during the PVR including those listed above. A new organisational model is being developed that is taking the successful elements of IT service design from other organisations into a new service blueprint that will meet the requirement for the Council.

32. The PVR confirmed that IMT staff have a good range of skills and capabilities; however the IMT improvement plan and new service blueprint require that skills, processes and approach are updated to support the new technologies and changes in IMT operation. A skills development plan is required to develop a dynamic, responsive and modern IT workforce.

33. Staff and Members have different levels of IT skills that need to be brought up to a consistent standard in order to operate effectively in a modern organisation. Current skills are in the use of older technologies (10 years old) and the introduction of new IT will require skills to be updated and regularly refreshed to match technology developments.

Processes and policies

34. As part of the PVR there has been extensive consultation to understand where IMT changes need to be made. Current processes in the main are directed to operating and supporting technologies that are over 10 years old. Both the technologies and processes are no longer fit for purpose. As the technologies are modernised, the processes will also be updated so that they are aligned to industry best practice and are fit for the operation of a modern technology infrastructure.

35. Across the IT industry there are a range of accepted standards for best practice and processes. These include PRINCE 2 for project management and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), an IT management framework that provides practices for Information Technology Services Management (ITSM), IT development and IT operations. In addition there are specific processes and best practice around individual technologies.

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36. IMT has not yet fully adopted all the standards, practices and processes that support optimal operation, and those relating to specific technologies will require updating as those technologies are modernised.

37. In parallel to the IMT reorganisation, plans will be developed to implement updated best practice processes and standards, and for the wider adoption of relevant best practice processes and standards.

38. The consultation exercise revealed that some IMT customer facing processes are inconsistent and difficult to use. A greater focus on improving consistency and ease of use will be put in place as part of the changes to the IMT organisation.

39. As part of the work across the Change and Efficiency Directorate, the IMT ‘to be’ processes have been mapped onto the following model. This supports the organisational design that has emerged through the PVR process.

40. The implementation of modern technology introduces new and smarter ways for Council staff to communicate and interact with each other, with other organisations and with residents. In addition, technology is being implemented to enable more flexible ways of working. Council policies relating to IT security are limiting the adoption and use of new ways of working. These policies are in urgent need of review to get the right balance between protecting the Council and trusting staff to use the technology appropriately.

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41. The increasing amount of information stored and used by the Council, along with new ways to access and share information, has significant governance implications. There needs to be a cohesive approach to information management across the Council, which includes the technology, the business processes and practices that underpin the creation and use of information, as well as the information itself.

Quality assurance

42. Quality assurance (QA) is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project or service to ensure minimum standards are achieved. There are currently a number of QA mechanisms in place across IMT where industry best practice has been adopted and is working well:

Work prioritisation – A standard set of processes are used to assess and prioritise all incoming work, resources are allocated using an IMT standard process.

Project Management – Projects conducted to PRINCE 2 methodology with a project office that operates defined project processes and control standards.

Programme boards including representation from the business govern the implementation of projects.

Risk Management – Each project operates a formal risk register, risks may be escalated to IMT’s overall risk register or as far as the corporate risk register depending on severity. Risk registers are reviewed regularly by programme boards.

Progress status for all projects is published monthly to the business to ensure complete transparency.

Systems Development – A set of standards and best practice is deployed within the IMT development team to assure consistency.

Key IT projects are subject to additional quality assurance from partner organisations.

43. However the review highlighted some areas of IMT where the approach to best practice and QA requires updating, for example:

Technical Infrastructure Management – Most processes in the infrastructure are directed towards managing outdated technologies and will require updating in conjunction with the technology infrastructure. Some elements of ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) quality systems have been implemented to assure quality in fault resolution and change management. This is addressed as outlined in the section on processes and policy above.

Customer and Performance

44. IMT supplies services directly to around 8,600 users, but additionally supports systems that provide services to partner organisations, for example, supporting the running of 50 different payrolls for 56,000 people, which are done through SCC systems. Back office services are provided to 400 schools on SCC systems. Residents access information and are able to ‘self serve’ through the Council’s web site.

Facts and figures for IMT – September 2011

155 Full Time Employees

£23.4m Annual revenue budget

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SCC infrastructure provided and supported by IMT – September 2011

6,064 Desktop PCs

1,235 Laptops

700+ Applications (SAP, Notes, SWIFT etc)

300 Central Servers

8,600 User accounts administered

187 Sites connected to our SWAN network

6m eMails sent and received in a month

Customer Satisfaction

45. Despite the ageing IT infrastructure, in 2011 78% of users felt they received a positive service from IMT. The level of satisfaction has declined from a score of 90% in 2010. The score has been driven down because only 37% of users think the current technology is reliable enough, and only 42% think that current IT enables them to do their job. Engagement with senior stakeholders as part of PVR has highlighted a shared view that despite the infrastructure issues, IMT has improved significantly over the last two years both in terms of what IMT delivers and how it works with customers.

Measuring value for money and performance

46. Two comprehensive benchmarking studies were undertaken by SOCITM, the Society of Information Technology Managers, to measure value for money and performance. SOCITM are the professional association for public sector IT management in the UK. In the first study SCC was compared against a national survey of local authorities, in the second SCC was compared against SE7.

47. Other key sources of data used in the study:

Surrey County Council (SCC) Finance analysis of Council spend across the South East.

VFM Data Ltd report on value for money.

Gartner IT key metrics report:

o Global independent industry analysts.

o Offers insight on areas of IT providing research, market trackers etc and metrics for public sector.

o Benchmarks government IT across European public sector.

48. Benchmarking results - The findings from the benchmarking show that the cost of IT provision in the Council compares well with other Local Authorities and with wider benchmarks across all industries.

Costs

Benchmark – Local Authority Peer Group

Measure Peer group average SCC

No of FTE (full time equivalent) deployed in IT 190 FTE 155 FTE

% of operational council budget spent on IT 2.56% 2.15 %

Benchmark - all industry sectors (Gartner benchmark data)

Measure Cross industry average SCC

% of organisation FTE deployed in IT 5.0% 2.05%

% of operational budget spent on IT 3.3% 2.15%

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49. A comparison of cost and deployed resources shows IT provision in the Council to be ‘lean’. This is not surprising given that IMT was restructured during BDR (Business Delivery Review) to remove 25% of resources (49 FTE) to set up an IT service to provide only business as usual (BAU) support. However over the last two years IMT has managed to deliver a number of significant change projects in addition to providing day to day support.

Performance compared to other Local Authorities (SOCITM benchmark)

Measure SCC score

Upper quartile score (National Survey)

SCC position compared to the SE group

Service availability 89% greater than 88% Top

Resolution of reported incidents 95% greater than 91% Mid placed

Incidents resolved within 4 hours 76% greater than 79% Top

Incidents resolved at point of contact 63% greater than 60% Top

50. A comparison of service availability and problem resolution shows top quartile performance. The current good performance is partly as a result of the use of relatively stable but old technology. Over the last few months, and since the benchmark study, stability has declined as old equipment starts to fail. New technologies and business systems are more complex, so maintaining the above levels of performance will be challenging.

Partnership Activity

51. IMT are already partnering with other public sector organisations both in and beyond Surrey, and are moving towards increasingly closer links with other public sector organisations with the aim of joining up our services, sharing costs and achieving efficiencies.

52. IMT are fully engaged with the South East 7 Councils and Surrey First IT streams to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness through partnership delivery of IT services:

Surrey First: A joint IT Strategy has been developed and agreed by Surrey Chief Information Technology Officers group (SCITO) on behalf of Surrey First and a number of key initiatives are already underway that will reduce cost and improve service delivery: o Shared Public Services Network (PSN) across the county. o Data centre capacity for use by all Surrey public sector partners. o Surrey Cloud – delivery of shared applications hosted in the countywide

Shared Data Centre. o Shared equipment for public sector employees encouraging joint use of

public buildings. Next steps will include investigating further sharing of business applications and data, common email and desktop platforms.

South East 7 (SE7): o Joint Procurements of IT, e.g. the current procurement of a Property

Asset Management system with Hampshire County Council on behalf of the SE7 Authorities.

o Common approach to cost reduction and assessment of collaboration opportunities, e.g. SAP, IBM, Microsoft.

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o Desktops, mobile and flexible working – identification of efficiencies and service improvement, and where cross-organisational collaboration could achieve improved outcomes and lower operational costs plus development of shared strategies and best practice.

o Shared support e.g. shared helpdesks and shared support for key products like SAP and EMS.

53. The PVR has concluded that an enhanced focus on strategic partnering within IMT is required to achieve delivery of partnership objectives.

Consultation

54. The review involved consultation with a range of stakeholders including:

IMT staff – Staff survey, Team SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), IMT Staff Forum, weekly staff ‘drop-in’ sessions, ‘Open Space’ event to feedback to staff the results of the consultation.

Change and Efficiency Directorate Leadership Team,

Members, including Portfolio Holder, Member Reference Group and Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee,

Corporate Leadership Team Directors,

Senior stakeholders from across the Council,

External contacts,

SE7.

Consultation Results

55. The results of the consultation confirm that IMT customers are asking for IMT to:

Provide reliable secure and effective IT – 24x7.

Play a key role in enabling service change and improvement through the use of IT.

Bring our horizon scanning expertise and insight to help support the emerging partnership agenda.

Provide a smooth and efficient experience.

Plan for the future and have a modern IT service.

56. Summary SWOT analysis from consultation:

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57. IT is a rapidly changing discipline; challenging technologies appear with little notice and are quickly adopted, changing how society operates (e.g. social media).

58. It is clear from the review that whilst day to day delivery of IT must be managed in a structured way, the exploration and rapid exploitation of new technology opportunities must be approached in a more pro-active way. The SWOT analysis highlighted a key opportunity for the innovative application of IT to enable service transformation and to support performance improvement.

Challenge

59. The Cabinet Member and Portfolio Holder for Change and Efficiency, and the Change and Efficiency Member Reference Group, chaired by Zully Grant Duff, have been consulted during the review and support the proposed recommendations.

60. The report was scrutinised by the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee (recommendations attached as Appendix B), and as a result of their input further budget detail has been included in paragraphs 62 to 68. In addition the planning and reporting requirement has been strengthened in the section ‘What Happens Next’ at the end of this report.

61. Graham Bulpitt, Director of Information Services at Kingston University, and Mike Dicker, Knowledge Manager Surrey Primary Care Trust, provided independent external challenge. The strategy fully supports the joint SCC and Surrey Chief Information Technology Officers (SCITO) strategy for IT, and was presented to and agreed by the Surrey First Chief Executives.

Financial and value for money implications

Zero Based Budget

62. The current Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for IMT includes future target savings of £2.3m from 2012/13 to 2014/15. The MTFP also makes an allowance for inflationary pressures to create the following budget:

IMT - Current MTFP Budget 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 Total

£000s £000s £000s £000s

Prior Year MTFP 23,406 22,482 21,496 23,406

Inflation-Pay 76 110 145 331

Inflation-Non-Pay 189 208 204 601

Sub-Total Inflation 265 318 349 932

Savings

Networks (including MaD changes) -519 -694 146 -1,067

Application Support & Software -200 -90 -290

SAP -300 -300

Org Design / Process Efficiencies -200 -220 -420

Data Centre -270 -270

Sub-Total -1,189 -1,304 146 -2,347

MTFP Total 22,482 21,496 21,991 21,991

63. The savings will be achieved through completion of the IMT improvement plan and implementation of the recommendations in this report.

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64. Delivery of the above savings is well advanced and there is a high degree of confidence that savings targets will be achieved without impacting current performance.

65. Work is ongoing to confirm where there is potential to drive out further savings in the short to medium term.

66. The Council needs to continue investment in IT to ensure that longer term savings are achieved through the exploitation of technologies to improve services, operations and communications.

Future MTFP

67. Work is currently underway to create the next MTFP, covering the period from 2012/13 to 2016/17. The planning process will include a review of inflation assumptions. As in previous years, the inflation added to pay will be corporately determined and agreed with Cabinet. Non-pay inflation is reviewed with procurement and considers major contracts, underlying inflationary pressures, price indexes and market forecasts.

68. The PVR has identified additional savings of £1m giving £3.4m in total to be achieved over the next four years. These savings will be captured in the new MTFP, together with any agreed investment (see paragraph 70-71) and any proposed change in inflation. The identified savings are explained in more detail below.

IMT Savings 2012 / 13 2013 / 14 2014 / 15 2015 / 16 Total

£000s £000s £000s £000s £000s

Current MTFP Savings 1,189 1,304 -146 2,347

Proposed Savings 2,665 409 4 275 3,353

Additional Saving 1,476 -895 150 275 1,006

Updated Proposed Savings

Networks (incl.MaD changes) 481 104 -146 100 539

Application Support & Software 480 90 570

SAP 1,001 100 1,101

Org Design/Process Efficiencies 200 80 280

Data Centre 450 450

Data Centre Income 53 35 150 175 413

Total Savings 2,665 409 4 275 3,353

Investment

Invest to save requirements

69. The funding for technology upgrades in the IMT improvement plan is already included in the MTFP. The additional budget is being used to enhance technical leadership and increase capacity within IMT to enable more effective delivery of new technology.

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Investment plan

70. The first recommendation in this report is to establish an ongoing technology refresh programme that enables SCC to retain a modern and supported IT infrastructure. An equipment replacement reserve (ERR) budget is already in place to fund an ongoing technology refresh programme. This fund enables money to be put aside to cope with peaks in required investment. However this fund may not be adequate to allow the Council to keep pace with the upgrades required to maintain a supported technology infrastructure. Work is required to establish and cost prudent refresh cycles and then compare the costs against current budgetary provision. This work will be undertaken as part of the IMT PVR action plan (Appendix A), and a report will be submitted recommending any required changes to refresh budgets on an annual basis as part of the normal budget cycle.

71. There is a requirement to establish what funding would be required to drive further innovation in the use of IT within the Council to generate service transformation. A high level estimate will be prepared for the 2012/13 budget setting and the revised Zero Based Budget will be prepared. Urgent work will follow to refine and confirm what investment is required as part of the development of the vision for 2017.

Equalities implications

72. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Service Design has been completed and signed off by the Head of IMT and included the following recommendations:

The implementation phase of the IMT PVR will ensure every effort is taken so that all new systems and processes arising from PVR recommendations will not exclude any staff. A detailed analysis of the impact of new systems will be undertaken once further details on the systems to be implemented are known.

Suitable training will be made available to all IMT staff, and will ensure that staff are trained to support the new technologies, best practice and processes. The training pathway will comprise both technical training and non-technical training.

Any recruitment processes will be inclusive and objective, to ensure fair and equal recruitment.

Developing the organisations skills and competencies is a recommendation of this report with the aim of ensuring that the workforce is adequately skilled and prepared for using the new technologies.

Risk management implications

Non-financial risk

73. Completion of the current IMT improvement plan and implementation of the recommendations in this report will deliver a ‘fit for purpose’ IT service operating a modern and secure technology infrastructure.

74. The most significant risk arising from failure to implement the recommendations and improvement plan is that technology would remain unfit for purpose. Risks to data security and integrity would not be addressed and this would impact the Council’s ability to deliver services. Failure to implement a new operational model for IMT would significantly restrict the Council’s ability to introduce new business efficiencies and partnership working.

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Financial risk

75. The delivery of £3.4m savings is dependent on the timely completion of the IMT improvement plan. The new operational model and partnership working will deliver additional efficiencies, which are put at risk if the recommendations are not implemented.

76. The report recommends establishment of a regular technology refresh programme, however there is a risk that existing budgetary provision for this may be inadequate; this will be costed as part of the PVR implementation.

Implications for the Council’s Community Strategy priorities

77. The recommendations in this report will deliver reliable and fast to change technology that supports the Surrey Strategic Partnership Plan underpinning the Council’s Community Strategy priority.

Climate change/carbon emissions implications

78. Surrey County Council attaches great importance to being environmentally aware and wishes to show leadership in cutting carbon emissions and tackling climate change.

79. Energy usage across the Council will be reduced as a result of the introduction of new desktop and laptop equipment with lower power requirements. Flat screen monitors will replace ageing CRT monitors. Flat screens consume less power, have a longer life and are more readily recycled at the end of their life. The Council’s supplier of desktop and laptop equipment fully complies with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations and operates its own recycling plant in Birmingham where no waste is sent to landfill.

80. The current primary data centre uses 40% of all energy consumed at County Hall. The planned replacement primary data centre will use the latest energy saving technologies including fresh air cooling significantly reducing data centre power consumption. The new data centre will be rated in the highest category for energy efficiency as defined by the Green Grid consortium, and the estimate is for a carbon reduction of 150 tons per year against a conventionally cooled data centre.

Legal implications/legislative requirements

81. No specific legal/legislative impact has been identified in terms of the proposed new organisational model for IMT.

82. The forward roadmap and strategy will be constrained by legislation/regulation around data security and this will need to be built into forward plans. There are also regulations in respect of the disposal of IT equipment; these have been taken into account in the current technology refresh programme.

83. The third recommendation in this report includes an action to work with other services to ensure that the outcomes of their PVRs, including requirements driven by legal and legislative changes, are taken into account in the development of a forward roadmap for IT.

Corporate Parenting/Looked After Children implications

84. This report has no direct impact on the Council’s Corporate Parenting role or looked after children. However information that is essential for discharge of these duties is stored and managed in Council IT systems. The key recommendations of this report will improve information security and the systems reliability.

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Section 151 Officer commentary

85. The Section 151 Officer confirms that all material financial and business issues and risks have been considered in this report.

PVR RECOMMENDATIONS:

These recommendations will be implemented using the Surrey Way best practice approach of Plan, Implement, Review. An outline action plan for the implementation of the recommendations is appended to this report (Appendix A). Recommendations 1 and 4 will ensure that the IT infrastructure and operation of IMT are updated and maintained to appropriate levels to support Council service delivery. Recommendation 2 will ensure that there are longer term plans for the use of relevant new technologies, which will improve and transform Council services.

Recommendation 1: Establish and embed an ongoing technology refresh programme throughout the council

86. A series of IMT improvement programmes will implement modern fit for purpose IT for the Council. To maintain this provision, it is recommended that an ongoing refresh programme should be established by:

Regularly confirming the IT requirements of the modern worker.

Aligning technology refresh timescales with industry best practice and product lifecycles.

Confirming that adequate investment and renewal funding is built into the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan, and reviewing this provision annually.

Forward planning technology refresh activities into IMT and Procurement plans.

Recommendation 2: Produce ongoing longer term IT innovation and improvement plans

87. Complete the implementation of the current improvement plan and develop the next phase of improvements for 2017. This will include a wide review of available technologies, exploring ‘the art of the possible’ and taking into account partnering and longer term customer requirements.

88. Some examples of areas to be explored immediately would be:

To reconfigure, where practical, the Council’s IT security and information management policies to remove barriers to new ways of working, including use of social media, mobile and collaborative working.

To explore and recommend new technologies and devices that could provide a much wider range of support for mobile and flexible working. This would take into account a reconfigured security model for the Council and emerging trends in mobile working.

To explore and recommend what software and approach will best support the Council’s direction for partnership working and collaboration (including messaging, email and document sharing). This would take into account the technology used by key partners and the latest developments in the marketplace.

89. The initial output from the above will be a costed proposal to implement the 2017 vision for a modern worker.

90. It is recommended that as part of its ongoing operation, IMT constantly explores and evaluates IT innovations that could deliver step change in how the Council operates.

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Recommendation 3: Developing the organisation’s IT skills and competence through joint training provision within Change and Efficiency

91. Recent experience in implementing new systems has highlighted different levels of IT skills across the Council. IT training is not managed by IMT but resides within the HR service. IMT will work closely with HR training to ensure that training matches the forward plan for IT within the Council.

92. It is recommended that an IT training board is set up jointly with HR to ensure that the forward plan for IT training matches business need, is clear about mandatory training required for new equipment and is appropriately resourced.

Recommendation 4: Implement an effective and efficient customer focused service model that is fit for the future

93. This will be done inline with the overall Change and Efficiency ‘Fit for Future’ strategy, implementing a model based on the activity framework shown in the Process and Policies section above. The IMT model takes the successful elements of IT service design from other organisations and builds them into a new service blueprint comprising the following functions:

IMT Function Rationale

Business Solutions

New function, higher level of work required reflects complex workload to deliver information systems that support transformational change.

Technical Architecture & Delivery

Modern appropriate and forward looking technical infrastructure and effective technical leadership for day to day services and change.

Applications Architecture & Delivery

Responsive and business focussed applications delivery to meet new demands - scanning, content management, social media and removal of single points of failure.

Customer Services & Partnerships

New function to develop partnership activities and to provide a focus on support excellence to customers.

Business Development & Resources

New function to deliver the ongoing cost reduction programme, effectively manage contracts, assets and ensure overall resource provision matches demand.

94. Implementation of the new IMT blueprint will include:

Establishing a clear and simpler set of job families to improve skills management and progression with clear roles and responsibilities.

A reporting structure with appropriate spans of control, enabling team managers to more effectively manage their areas, including improvements to resource management to ensure that task delivery can be effectively tracked against work allocation.

Developing an ‘end to end’ approach to delivery of business solutions improving business alignment and efficiency and quality of delivery.

Dedicating resource to effective management of the financial and commercial elements of IT delivery including contract monitoring.

Improvements in quality assurance through the extension of the use of IT industry best practice models across IMT.

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Introduction of succession planning for middle and senior leadership level with more deputising at senior leadership level.

A focus on improving skills and developing managers.

Work to further improve the effectiveness of Technology Boards in agreeing overall priorities for IMT.

Recommendation 5: Ensure IMT delivers value for money

95. IMT needs an ongoing programme of activities to ensure that the Council achieves good value for money from its investment in IT. The IMT improvement plan is already delivering significant savings through a programme of work that is reviewing and, where appropriate, renegotiating existing IT contracts. Joint procurement, strategic partnerships and ongoing benchmarking will be embedded within IMT to drive best value. Activities will include:

Regular review of the market cost against IT contracts to identify opportunities to renegotiate better value terms.

Ongoing monitoring of all IT contracts to ensure delivery meets contractual obligations.

Regular benchmarking of IT activities and costs.

Review of IMT Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure they remain appropriate to the business and take into account the impact of new technologies.

Ongoing review of the application portfolio to categorise, consolidate and rationalise applications to reduce costs.

Rigorous asset management of both hardware and software assets to ensure usage is maximised.

Benefits tracking to ensure that planned benefits from IT investment is realised.

Maintenance of top quartile performance.

Recommendation 6: Further development of strategic partnering

96. Further development of strategic partnering will be achieved in line with the overall Change and Efficiency ‘Fit for Partnering’ strategy and provide better value and more joined up service provision for Surrey’s residents by:

Reducing duplication and sharing costs (e.g. plans for the Council’s data centre and Public Services Network to be shared with partners).

Improving economies of scale (Surrey partners can purchase desktops and laptops through the Council’s current contract).

Driving better savings through joint procurement (e.g. current activity to jointly procure a Property Management solution with Hampshire County Council on behalf of SE7).

Enabling services to be delivered in partnership through integrated technology.

97. This will be achieved by:

Full participation in partnership activities, e.g. Surrey First and SE7 IT workstreams.

Working in partnership to produce plans to deliver economies of scale and joined up service delivery.

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IMT will take a lead where the partners agree that the scale and expertise of the Council will benefit partnership activity, or IMT will support other partners where it is more appropriate that they take the lead.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

It is recommended that the Cabinet: 1. Agree the recommendations 1-6 within this report. 2. Agree that implementation of the action plan should start immediately, led by

the Head of IMT. 3. Agree that progress will be reported quarterly to the PVR Steering Board, the

Member Reference Group and Portfolio Holder. 4. Agree that progress will be reported every six months to the Council Overview

and Scrutiny Committee.

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS:

To achieve savings and efficiencies identified through the Public Value Review process.

To achieve high levels of user satisfaction.

To move the Public Value Review of IMT into the implementation phase so that improved outcomes and value for money are delivered for the residents of Surrey.

This supports the Council’s ambition to be a world-class authority.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

The Head of IMT will lead delivery of the action plan and will publish a chart with implementation timelines, costs and resources required for delivery.

The C&E Programme Office will track delivery.

Consultation on the reconfigured IMT Service.

The IMT community will be briefed and involved during the implementation phase of the project.

There will be quarterly progress reports to the Public Value Steering Board. The Member Reference Group and the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee will also scrutinise delivery.

Progress reports will be provided to the Cabinet Portfolio Holder.

Contact Officer: Mike Barker, IMT Planning and Transition Manager, 0208 541 9833 Consulted: Portfolio Holder: Helyn Clack (Change & Efficiency)

Former Portfolio Holder: Tim Hall (Change & Efficiency)

PVR Steering Board

Change & Efficiency PVR Sponsor: Julie Fisher

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Member Reference Group: Zully Grant-Duff (chair) Richard Walsh Hazel Watson

Change & Efficiency Senior Management Team Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) Members of the Council Performance Team (CPT) IMT Staff Key Service stakeholders

Graham Bulpitt Director of Information Services Kingston University Mike Dicker Director of Knowledge Management Surrey Primary Health Care Trust Sources/background papers:

SOCITM UK1 Benchmarking Report

SOCITM SE6 Benchmarking Report

VFM Ltd Legal & ICT Report 2009

Gartner IT Key Metrics Data 2011: Key Industry Measures: Government: State and Local Analysis

Gartner IT Key Metrics Data 2011: Key Industry Measures: Cross Industry Analysis

Surrey County Council Corporate Services – comparison with other Councils 2009

Surrey Chief Information Technology Officers Group (SCITO) ICT Strategy 2011

South East 7 Joint Working ICT Theme Project Initiation Document - Desktop

South East 7 Horizons paper

South East 7 – Desktop and Mobile Flexible Working Technology Themes

West Sussex County Council IT Structure

Northamptonshire County Council IT Structure

Surrey County Council IT Strategy 2003

Surrey County Council IT Strategy 2009

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead IT Strategy 2010-2015

Hammersmith and Fulham IT Strategy 2010-2013