Agenda and minutes

It was reported that, under the Local Government (Committee and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, Councillor Mrs P A Cooper had been appointed as replacement member for Councillor C E H Marfleet, and Councillor T Ashton had been appointed as a replacement for Councillor Mrs Brockway, for this meeting only.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs J Brockway, Mrs P A Cooper and C E H Marfleet, Patricia Barnett (Parent Governor Representative) and Reverend Phillip Johnson (Church Representative).

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

          That the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 29 November 2018 be    approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman informed Members that he had attended the Executive on the 18^th December 2018, where he had presented a number of comments from the Board on the 2018/19 Business Plan Quarter 2. The Chairman also presented the responses received to the queries raised by the Board, which had been circulated to members of the Board by email.

None were received.  

None were received.

(To receive a report from John Wickens (Chief Digital Officer) which invites the Board to consider a report on the Continuation of Windows 10 Notebook and PC rollout which will be presented to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT between the 27 December and 8 January 2019.

The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive Councillor as part of part consideration of this item)

The Chief Digital Officer invited the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board to consider a report on the Continuation of the Windows 10 Notebook and PC rollout, which would be presented to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT between 27 December 2018 and 8 January 2019.

Members were referred to appendix A, which detailed the report and recommendations to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT.

It was noted that during 2017-18, there had been a project to deliver Windows 10 Notebooks and PCs to Lincolnshire County Council Network users, which had resulted in the deployment of new Hewlett-Packard (HP Notebooks, Tablets and PCs into social functions and also to start the replacement of the Windows 7 Notebooks and PCs in general corporate use.

It was highlighted that the end of support date for Windows 7 would be January 2020, meaning that the security of Windows 7 devices could not be assured after that date due to the discontinuation of security patches from the vendor. 

As the existing project to rollout the devices to social care workers was near completion, the IMT service sought to commission the completion of the rollout to replace the remainder of Windows 7 devices in general corporate use before the end of support date in January 2020.

Members were informed that the new HP devices had been well received and there had been a high level of satisfaction from users with a notable difference in speed and performance, as well as a financial saving compared to similar devices from other suppliers. There had been a high demand for the roll out of the new devices to the remaining users.

So far there had been 1200 devices rolled out, with 4600 still to be rolled out, which would include a mixture of notebooks and PC's.

A £5m budget had been allocated to cover the costs of the new devices.

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were raised:

• In relation to equality and diversity, it was confirmed that products were getting better at addressing disability requirements which has helped to reduce the costs of specialist accessibility. Software, peripherals or devices were still provided as required and were included within the budget.

• It was confirmed that currently there was no scheme in place to sell off old equipment. Cleansing and erasing data on old equipment for disposal often costs more than the potential resale price. Equipment was recycled internally when it was still fit for purpose.
• A breakdown of how the £5M would be spent and what the benefits of the rollout would be were requested.
• The enablement of biometrics for security purposes was supported. It was confirmed that the use of biometrics, which would include fingerprints and facial recognition, would be enabled once more notebooks had been rolled out.
• It was confirmed that there would be a four-year support package in place for each new device. A small number of notebooks would also be kept in reserve.
• Concern was raised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

(To receive a report which enables the Board to consider and comment on the content of its work programme for the coming year to ensure that scrutiny activity is focussed where it can be of greatest benefit)

Members were provided with an opportunity to review the Board's Work Programme.

The Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer informed Members that the item on the IMT Strategy would be presented later than the original planned date of January 2019.

The Chairman questioned why there had been a delay in the IMT Strategy, and requested that an explanation be circulated to all members of the Board.

RESOLVED:

          That the Work Programme be agreed.