The Head of Business Improvement gave the background to the restructuring of the Council’s ICT service which, with ¾ of the posts in the new structure now in place, was nearing a conclusion. Among other things it was important to ensure that there was proper support for all applications; swift response to issues raised with the service desk; and out of hours service provision to support the Council’s website.

The document before the Committee had been used at the beginning of the consultation process and included aspirational ambitions which were now tied down by detailed metrics in service level agreements.

Community Centres would benefit from computers (to allow online applications for applications for example) and any funding to support that would be welcome.

A major programme to upgrade employees’ ICT kit was being planned  with invitations to tender out in April and the ambition of rolling out over the Summer.  A programme to upgrade Member’s iPads was also underway.  New devices would be issued from May following the local elections, initially to new members elected for the first time and then, on a phased basis, to all other members.

The Committee agreed to note the report.