Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J Cattanach and M McCartney.

A copy of the Register of Interest for each Selby District Councillor is available for inspection at www.selby.gov.uk.

Councillors should declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest in any item of business on this agenda which is not already entered in their Register of Interests.

Councillors should leave the meeting and take no part in the consideration, discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Councillors should also declare any other interests. Having made the declaration, provided the other interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest, the Councillor may stay in the meeting, speak and vote on that item of business.

If in doubt, Councillors are advised to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Policy Review Committee held on 15 January 2019.

The Committee considered the minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2019.

RESOLVED:           

To approve the minutes of the Policy Review Committee held on 15 January 2019for signing by the Chair.

The Chair announced that he was stepping down from his role as Councillor as he would not be standing.  He extended his best wishes to the Committee for the future, and thanked them for their contribution and commitment. He further thanked members of the Executive for their attendance when required, along with all officers and support staff who had presented policies to the Committee for review.    

To note the progress made against the objectives of the Digital Strategy.

The Committee received the report from the Business Transformation Officer, which asked the Committee to note the progress made against the objectives of the Digital Strategy, since its approval by the Council’s Executive in July 2018.  The report gave an up to date position on the Digital Strategy and highlighted successes, as well as areas of concern; along with detailing the projects coming up within the next twelve months.

The Committee noted that the Digital Strategy set out how technology would be used to support and enable the improvement and acceleration of the digital and transformational agenda, with the focus for the next three years on:

·         modernising and simplifying the ICT infrastructure to improve resilience and security,

·         improving accessibility and increasing the services delivered on line to increase customer engagement and;

·         creating a digital culture and improving digital skills within the workforce. 

The Committee queried the resource within the current software systems team and whether there would still be a need after all the planned projects.  It was explained that IT services were delivered by North Yorkshire County Council through the Better Together project, the Selby District Council software systems team would continue to deal with the increasing number of updates as they were released.

Members raised a number of concerns regarding customers who may not have access to IT equipment or have problems with connectivity.  The Committee was assured that the Contact Centre and telephone options would still be available and that the Strategy was about adding more options for customers who wanted to help themselves, not limiting them.

It was noted that work had already begun to procure a Microsoft Partner to design, implement, and roll out the necessary software, with the team meeting potential suppliers to ensure that a new system integrated into the back office systems already in place, whilst also delivering value for money.

In relation to queries regarding the possibility of security breaches and disaster recovery, the officer confirmed that the Digital Strategy would ensure that all the key systems were on the latest version possible which helped to reduce the risk from possible cyber attacks; and should the IT system fail a new back-up solution had been configured through North Yorkshire County Council, enabling information to be pulled back at any time.   

Members asked for clarification on some of the abbreviations contained within the report and requested that a glossary be provided in the future.

RESOLVED:

To note the progress made against the objectives of the   strategy.

To agree the Committee’s Annual Report for 2018-19 and authorise the Chair of the Policy Review Committee to agree the final version of the Annual Report 2018-19 following the inclusion of details from the meeting on 12 March 2019.

The Committee received a report from the Democratic Services Officer which asked them to agree the annual report for 2018-19, and to authorise the Chair to agree the final version of the Annual Report 2018-19 following the inclusion of details from the current meeting.

RESOLVED:

i.              To agree the Annual Report of the Policy Review Committee for 2018-19, submitted by the Chair of the Committee.

ii.            To authorise the Chair of the Committee to agree the final version of the Annual Report 2018-19, following the inclusion of details from the meeting on 12 March 2019.

To agree items for inclusion on the Policy Review Committee’s 2019-20 work programme.

Members expressed concern regarding the issue of litter, as this was a topic that the public contacted their local Councillors about regularly, and agreed that they would like to see a “deep-dive” of street cleansing and re-cycling added to the work programme, and brought to the next meeting of the Policy Review Committee.

The Committee considered and agreed the work programme for 2019-20, with the addition of the above item.  It was expected that more items would be added to the 2019-20 draft work programme in the coming months.

RESOLVED:

i.              To agree the Work Programme for 2019-20.

ii.            To ask the Democratic Services Officer to add street cleansing and re-cycling to the Committee’s work plan as a topic for the next meeting of the Policy Review Committee.