Agenda and draft minutes

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 11th March, 2013.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting held on 11th March, 2013 be approved as a correct record.

Consideration was given to the delivery of Councillors’ post by car, which was previously proposed as a budget saving and never implemented.  It was therefore, suggested that notice be given for delivery now to cease with effect from the Annual Council Meeting and Councillors be responsible for collecting their own mail from the Town Hall.

Resolved:-  That notice be given as to the cessation of delivery of Councillors’ post with effect from Friday, 17^th May, 2013.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which sought approval for the exemption from Contract Standing Orders, to allow Redstor to continue to provide the annual licences, support and maintenance for the Redstor back-up system for Rotherham’s schools.

The Council had used Redstor for the provision of its school’s online back-up system since 2009. The cost of the licence and support for 2013/14 was £41,318 and adequate budget was available to cover this (the cost is re-charged to schools).

Failure to renew the contract would put the continued use of the service at risk which could result in the loss of school’s data.

Resolved:-  That the contract for licencing, support and maintenance of the Redstor online back-up service be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.3 (requirement to invite at least three written quotations for contracts with a value of between £20k and £50k) and the contract be awarded to Redstor.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which sought approval for the exemption from Contract Standing Orders, to allow Civica to continue to provide the annual support and maintenance for the Authority Public Protection System.

The system was used by Neighbourhoods and Adult Services, Environment and Development Services, Children and Young People Services and the Customer Services Contact Centre and the contract between the Council and Civica for the maintenance of the system has been in place for many years.

The cost of this for 2013/14 was £36,184 and adequate budget was available to cover this.

Failure to renew the contract would put the continued use of the software at risk resulting in several key services being unable to operate and both businesses and vulnerable customer groups being affected.

Resolved:-  That the contract for licencing, support and maintenance of the Authority Public Protection System be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.3 (requirement to invite at least three written quotations for contracts with a value of between £20k and £50k) and the contract be awarded to Civica.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which sought approval for the exemption from Contract Standing Orders, to allow Webroster to continue to provide the annual support and maintenance for the Electronic Homecare Scheduling and Rostering System .

The contract between the Council and Webroster for the provision of its Electronic Homecare Scheduling and Rostering System had been in place since 2011 and it was envisaged that this would continue until at least 2015.

The cost of the licence and support for 2013/14 was £9,800 and adequate budget was available to cover this.

Failure to renew the contract would put the continued use of the software at risk resulting in a key service being potentially unable to operate and vulnerable customers being placed at risk.

Resolved:-  That the contract for support and maintenance of Webroster be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.2 (requirement to invite at least two oral or written quotations for contracts with a value of £5000 but less than £20,000) and the contract awarded to Webroster.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which sought approval for the exemption from Contract Standing Orders, to allow Northgate to continue to provide the annual support and maintenance for the OHMS Housing System.

The OHMS Housing system was in the process of being replaced by Civica Universal Housing, although this was not expected to be completed until May 2014. In the meantime there was a need to maintain an annual support and maintenance contract.

The cost of this for 2013/14 was £72,004 and adequate budget was available to cover this. Failure to renew the contract would put the continued use of the software at risk resulting in several key services potentially being unable to operate and the management of Housing stock and associated income would also be affected.

Resolved:-  That the contract for licencing, support and maintenance of the Northgate OHMS Housing System be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 48.1 (requirement to invite three to six tenders for contracts with a value of over £50k) and the contract be awarded to Northgate.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which sought approval for the exemption from Contract Standing Orders, to allow ROCC to continue to provide the annual support and maintenance for the Uniclass Enterprise Service Planning System.

The contract between the Council and ROCC for the provision of the system had been in place since 2008. The system was in the process of being replaced by Civica Universal Housing, although this was not expected to be completed until May 2014  In the meantime there was a need to maintain an annual support and maintenance contract.

The cost of this for 2013/14 wass £42,302 and adequate budget was available to cover this. Failure to renew the contract would put the continued use of the software at risk resulting in several key services being unable to operate, it would also impact on the work of partner organisations and the repair and maintenance of housing properties would be adversely affected.

Resolved:-  That the contract for licencing, support and maintenance of the Uniclass Enterprise Service Planning System be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.3 ( requirement to invite at least three written quotations for contracts with a value of between £20k and £50k) and the contract be awarded to ROCC.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which detailed how the Council uses Axios Assyst as its main service management tool allowing I.T. to efficiently manage I.T. incidents, problems and manage calls to the service desk. It was also used to manage customer requests for new equipment and software and to track I.T. costs.

The annual maintenance of the software was £29,856 and exemption from Standing Orders was  sought on the basis that only the software supplier (Axios) was capable of supplying and supporting this software.

Resolved:-  That the contract for the licence, support and maintenance of the Axios Assyst system be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.3 (requirement to invite at least three written quotations for contracts with a value of £20,000 but less than £50,000) and the contract be awarded to Axios.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which detailed how the Council used Certero AssetStudio as its main I.T. asset tracking, software compliance and reporting tool.

The annual maintenance of the software was £11,700 and exemption from Standing Orders was sought on the basis that only the software supplier (Certero) were capable of supplying and supporting this software.

Resolved:-  That the contract for the licence, support and maintenance of the AssetStudio system be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.2 (requirement to invite at least two oral and written quotations for contracts with a value of £5,000 but less than £20,000) and the contract be awarded to Certero.

(a)       Simon Cooper, Human Resources Manager,  reported on a number of issues including:-

·      National Pay Award and the further meetings that would be taking place.  A revised offer was expected on the 24^th April, 2013 following rejection of the previous offer by the Trades Unions.

·      Investors in People reassessment which would commence week commencing 22^nd April, 2013.   It was hoped the outcome would be positive.

·      The integration of the HR/Payroll staff from Doncaster had gone smoothly and the restructure was complete.  People were working well within the new system.

·      An update was provided on the current position with regards to bridging the funding gap.

(b)       Colin Earl, Director of Audit and Asset Management, gave an update on the current position with regards to Municipal Mutual Insurance and the initial levy figures.

(c)       Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, gave an update on the current position with regards to the use of Ipads and on the WiFi access within the Town Hall.

(d)       Stuart Booth, Director of Finance, reported on a number of issues including:-

·      Budget outturn and the expected positive position.

·      Account close down with delivery by the end of June.

·      Revised budget proposals for 2014/15.

·      Discretionary Rate Relief Policy to be submitted to the Cabinet on the 24^th April, 2013 for approval.

·      Council Tax Collection levels and the exceptional performance.

·      Update to the procurement system for optical character recognition. 

·      Training was to be rolled out shortly for collaborative planning to enable budget holders to manage their budgets effectively.

The following item is likely to be considered in the absence of the press and public as being exempt under Paragraph 3  of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended March 2006) (information relating to the financial or business affairs)

Resolved:-  That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act (as amended March, 2006 (information relates to finance and business affairs).

The Chair agreed that this report should be considered as a matter of urgency as the previous providers (2e2 Ltd) had recently gone into administration and the new support arrangements needed to be effected as soon as possible.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Colin Earl, Director of Audit and Asset Management which sought approval for exemption from normal contract standing orders. This was to allow Daisy Group to provide the licences, annual support and maintenance for the Wisdom Electronic Document Records Management System (EDRMS who have now purchased the Wisdom product.   A support contract needed to be established with Daisy to ensure continued use and support of the product.

Resolved:-  That the contract for licencing, support and maintenance of the Wisdom EDRMS to be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 48.1 (requirement to invite three to six tenders for contracts with a value of over £50k) and the contract be awarded to Daisy Group.

Resolved:-  That the next meeting take place on Monday, 10^th June, 2013 at 9.30 a.m.