Agenda item

(To receive a report from John Wickens, Assistant Director  IMT, and Donna Fryer, Head of Portfolio and Resources, IMT which provides a retrospective review of the IMT Strategy 2019-2022, undertaken in September 2020 and also provides an update on the progress made against key IMT related transformation and transactional projects being undertaken by Serco and other third party suppliers)

At the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board on 2 July 2020, it had been agreed that the Chairman and Vice Chairman should meet with officers to discuss the requirements for future reporting of IMT to the Board. The result of this and subsequent discussions had now led to the Board being asked to consider a report from the Assistant Director - IMT, and Head of Portfolio and Resources - IMT on a retrospective review of the IMT Strategy 2019-2022. The report also provided an update on the progress made against key IMT related transformation and transactional projects being undertaken by Serco and other third party suppliers.

The Board was asked to: seek reassurance about the performance of the IMT service in delivering the IMT Strategy 2019-2022, and, the Key IMT- related projects being undertaken by Serco and other third party suppliers and provide feedback.

It was noted that since the last report to the Board in March 2020, the IMT service had been responding to requests from Lincolnshire County Council staff for support to deliver services throughout the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This had impacted some of the projects which were planned prior to the pandemic, but had demonstrated IMT’s ability to react and respond to the ever changing working environment. The projects impacted by the redirection of resources for the pandemic were now being progressed again and project resourcing would be brought back on track over the coming weeks. Work would also commence on the production of a high level strategy document for Council approval in 2021.

Members discussed the report, and during discussion, the following points were noted:

·       Members welcomed the comprehensive report and noted that IT support to councillors had improved and that Simon Firth from Serco was acknowledged as having made a significant contribution to that improvement.

·       Going forward, full use of the IT currently available should be exploited.

·       A review of business and departmental processes would be undertaken to ensure they were standardised and simplified where possible.

·       Innovation had taken place as a result of new ways of working during the Covid – 19 pandemic, and some projects, like the introduction of Teams, had been introduced earlier than planned.

·       The IT team had worked hard to fix 'the basics' and despite a significant workload, a number of projects had been delivered before the pandemic struck.

·       Lessons had been learnt from the four-year delay in delivering the2015 strategy. The causes of the delay had been as a result of commercial and strategic issues and the over reliance on one prime provider. A more pragmatic approach had been taken and specialist providers were now being utilised where advantageous.

RESOLVED:

1.      That the Board was satisfied with the reassurances given about:-

a.      The performance of the IMT Service in delivering the IMT Strategy 2019-2022, and the performance of key projects;

b.      The review the IMT Strategy 2019-2022 Retrospective Review and;

c.      The review of the Key IMT-related projects being undertaken by Serco and other third party suppliers report.

2.      That the comments made at the meeting on the reports as outlined above be noted.