If any

The Chairman had no announcements.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on 22 February 2010.

RESOLVED

that the minutes of the Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 22 February 2010 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record, subject to the addition of Cllr Richard Stay to the Members in Attendance area.

To receive from Members declarations and the nature thereof in relation to:-

To receive petitions in accordance with the scheme of public participation set out in Annex 2 in Part 4 of the Constitution.

The Chairman announced that no petitions had been received.

To consider proposals, if any, to deal with any item likely to involve disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant paragraph(s) of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 prior to the exclusion of the press and public.

No items on the agenda contained exempt information.

To receive a presentation regarding the proposed governance arrangements for the Total Place initiative and the lessons learned from the pilot in terms of accelerating the Council’s own efficiency agenda.

The Committee received an update from the Director of Customer and Shared Services and the Portfolio Holder for Business Transformation regarding progress with Total Place following the successful completion of the pilot project.   

It was noted that the pilot project had now been completed and a way forward regarding implementation was now being considered.  All agreed that the principles of Total Place were robust and a good basis for joined up efficient and effective services.  Committee members noted however that effective and timely governance arrangements would be challenging given the number and complexity of the partnerships involved and responsible for delivering the various elements of the Total Place agenda.  Members therefore agreed to expand the remit of the already established Business Transformation Strategy Task Force to include a focus on Total Place, its governance arrangements and action planning.

RESOLVED

that the remit of the Business Transformation Strategy Task Force be expanded to include a focus on the concept of Total Place, its governance arrangements and action planning with a view to reporting findings to a future meeting of the Customer and Central Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

To receive and consider the draft Strategy approved by the Web Development Task Force.

The Committee considered a report regarding the Web Development Strategy. It was acknowledged that during the creation of Central Bedfordshire the website had needed to be constructed very rapidly, merging three legacy authorities’ web content. While work had been done throughout 2009 to improve the website, a fundamental improvement plan was needed and a Web Development Team had been tasked with creating a draft Web Development Strategy, which had been approved at the final Web Development Team meeting on 1 March 2010.

The Web Development Strategy aimed to unlock significant organisation wide savings and to give customers a better service. It was proposed that this would be delivered through five key areas of work:

·        Getting the basics right

·        Doing it better online

·        Personalising services

·        Getting involved in online conversations through social media

·        Bridging the digital divide

It was anticipated that the project would take 2 years to be implemented in a phased approach, and that benefits of the strategy would start being realised from the second year of implementation onwards.

Members noted that while the majority of Central Bedfordshire residents willingly used, or would use, the internet; there was a significant minority who may not have the resources or inclination to use the internet in their daily lives and that the Council would need to be mindful of how these users accessed services or information.   In addition, it was noted that 10 ikiosks had been placed in towns and villages to help members of the public who did not have access to computers otherwise.

It was noted that the website must be written in a language which was accessible by the public.  An example would be to make sure that Waste was also locatable via ‘garbage’ and or ‘rubbish’.  It was important to remember that not everyone uses the same words when referring to services.

It was noted that the Elections pages within the website should be updated for the upcoming General and Local Elections.  These pages would be receiving more visitors than non-election periods and needed to have accurate and timely information available at all times.

RESOLVED

1.            that the draft Web Development Strategy be approved for consideration by the Executive at its meeting on 6 April 2010.

2.            that the Efficiencies Board ensure the robustness of the proposed financial savings flowing from this initiative and monitor progress accordingly.

3.            that the Council’s website is managed proactively to ensure the provision of accurate and timely information, particularly with regard to known, planned, events such as elections.

4.            that the Web Development Strategy Task Force be thanked for its work.

As this was the last meeting of the Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Chairman wished to express his thanks to the Members of the Committee and Officers for all of their work over the last year. 

It was noted that Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be merged with the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee to form the Customer and Central Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee with effect from 22 April 2010.