Agenda and draft minutes

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 7^th October, 2014.

Reference was made to Minute No. D13 (Fareshare Food Contract Extension) and clarification sought on the tendering exercise taking place which would continue the preventative service post March, 2015.  An update on progress was requested.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the minutes of the previous meeting be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

(2)  That an update on progress be provided on the tendering process moving forward.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Colin Earl, Director of Audit and Asset Management, which set out in detail the performance against budget for the Environment and Development Services Directorate Revenue Accounts at the end of September, 2014 and to provide a forecast outturn for the whole of the 2014/15 financial year.

Only the Internal Audit and Insurance elements of the report related to the portfolio of the Deputy Leader.  ICT was currently reported under the Resources arrangements.

It was noted that Internal Audit had a £7k pressure which was staffing related, and that attempts were being made to generate income to offset this. It was noted that this would be unlikely to eliminate to overspend fully by the end of the year.

Moving forward it was suggested that future budget monitoring reports align to the portfolios of Cabinet Members to ensure that the relevant budgets were being properly monitored.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the latest financial projection against budget for the year based on actual income and expenditure to the end of September, 2014 for the relevant areas be noted.

(2)  That future budget monitoring reports be aligned to each portfolio for Cabinet Members.

(3)  That this report be referred to the Self Regulation Overview and Scrutiny Select Commission for information.

Further to Minute No. D14 of the meeting of the Deputy Leader held on 7th October, 2014, consideration was given to a report presented by Colin Earl, Director of Audit and Asset Management, which detailed how the Council used Good for Enterprise as its mobile email application and also as a mobile device management application. Good for Enterprise was a vital tool enabling agile working through remote and 24/7 access to email.

The current charging agreement was per device and consisted of an activation charge and an annual subscription charge per device. At present the Council had Good for Enterprise installed on 351 devices, at an annual charge of £23K. However, as around five hundred blackberries were retrieved from staff over the next few months, the usage of Good for Enterprise would increase substantially. Along with other expected increases in demand, this would create a large increase in the number of devices requiring Good for Enterprise and a substantial increase in charges under the current charging licencing agreement.

In view of the above, it was proposed to move to a subscription model for 1,200 user licences for use on unlimited devices, which was expected to meet the Council’s demand for the next three years. The annual subscription charge would be around £41k and would represent a saving of £55k per year when compared to projected costs using the current per-device approach.

Further information was provided on how projected future demand, how it was expected that the licences would work and how services would pay relative to usage.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the move to a three year subscription model for Good for Enterprise be approved, which would cost £41k per year and achieve savings in the region of £164K over the three year period.

(2)  That this proposed change in subscription be exempt from the provisions of Standing Order 47.6.3 (requirement to invite three to six tenders for contracts with a value of over £50k) and the contract be awarded to Good via Vodafone.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which set out Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s proposed policy towards computer hardware disposal and re-use. It was proposed that when a computer became surplus to requirements it could be bought by Members or officers for personal use or donated to community groups.

In the period since May 2013 RMBC had sold or donated one hundred and thirty seven laptops, the vast majority of these having being donated to community groups or schools. Whilst this had been beneficial for the recipients of the laptops it had become burdensome for Corporate ICT because the recipients have an expectation that the laptops would be supported by RMBC indefinitely.

Corporate ICT did not have the resources to support donated equipment post-donation and following a letter of complaint it was suggested that some consideration be given to the Council discharging its digital inclusion responsibility to an agency who could then appropriately manage requests and dispose of any surplus equipment.

The Deputy Leader and Advisers suggested that this matter be deferred pending further investigation as to agencies who would be able to facilitate this process for computer equipment disposal and how relevant requests from community groups and Elected Members would be fielded.

Resolved:-  That the report be deferred pending further investigation and for this to be submitted to the next meeting of the Deputy Leader for consideration.

Further to Minute 96 of the Cabinet held on 26^th November, 2014, where it was agreed that a permanent solution for webcasting was to be introduced, consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Copley, Corporate ICT Manager, which presented the main issues, a summary of the costs and benefits of webcasting.

Discussion ensued on the model to be used by Public-I, the issues that had arisen using the temporary webcasting kit, the location of the webcast library, the reliability of the current microphone system, which had experienced problems especially with the hearing loop system, and the need for a full operating training pack for staff and a microphone training session for Chairmen and Elected Members.

The current proposal called for the Council to lease the hardware for two years which was then monitored remotely by Public-I with some intervention from staff to start/end the webcast and manage its progress.  The detailed arrangements for day-to-day management of the webcasts was to be shared across a variety of teams including the ICT, Press and Communications and the Town Hall.

A webcast survey had now been undertaken and once the details and any remedial costs of this had been received it was hoped that a fully integrated system would be up and running from February, 2015 onwards allowing for the respective work to be undertaken during January, 2015.  Until this time Cabinet and full Council would continue to be webcast under the current temporary arrangement until installation was complete.

Once installation was finalised all webcasts would be overseen by Public-I and published on the website.  Whilst it was noted that all webcasts would be viewed live, there may be a need for a protocol to be established dealing with transparency and legal matters.

Resolved:-  (1)  That webcasting of selected meetings as part of the Council’s commitment to improving engagement and transparency in local democracy take place from February, 2015.

(2)  That appropriate training be made available for Chairmen and Elected Members on the use of the microphone system.

(3)  That further consideration be given to legal aspects for publishing webcasts.

(4)  That the location of the webcast library on the website be made more accessible for the public.

(5)  That further information be provided on any remedial costs associated with the webcast installation.

(6)  That the webcasting process and viewing figures be reviewed in twelve months time to ascertain if this model remains cost effective.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Stuart Booth, Director of Finance, which detailed how to enable the Council to implement the Housing Benefit SHBE Oct 2014 Changes, HMRC/RTI Oct 2014 and ATLAS/ETD Oct 2014 functionality from 1st December 2014, there was a need to use the Northgate software functionality enhancement.

An exemption from Standing Orders was, therefore, sought for procuring these new, software licence keys as the provision of the Housing Benefit software could only be supplied by Northgate.

Resolved:-  That the contract for the purchase of a software licence key be approved and 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 £5k but less than £20k) and the purchase be made from Northgate.

Resolved:-  That the next meeting of the Deputy Leader and Advisers take place on Tuesday, 13^th January, 2015 at 4.30 p.m. with a briefing at 4.00 p.m.