1.       CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

2.      INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

2.      

2.1     The Council has had digital strategies or similar since 2011.  The previous digital strategy covered the period 2018-21, so it is timely for a new strategy to be adopted for the next 3 years. Excellent progress has been made during the last decade, but the digital landscape continues to change – what was cutting edge 2 or 3 years ago may now be outdated - and there continues to be more to do to build on previous successes.  There also remains more to do to ensure everyone can be digitally included, and the Council is working in partnership with Kent County Council to tackle digital exclusion in the borough. 

2.2     During the period of the previous strategy – 2018-21 – the Council delivered some important digital projects and was able to move from a primarily office-based way of working to almost full homeworking for office-based staff overnight.  Some examples of the achievements delivered are listed in the draft strategy, and the following are of particular note:

·         Meeting the required accessibility standards for our main council website and being the first public sector organisation to obtain a score of 100 for accessibility from SOCITM in 2021

·         Implementing Skype for business for all our people – staff and members

·         Making use of information using Oneview, so that we were able to predict who was likely to become homeless and intervene early to prevent this – of the group the team worked with, less than 1% became homeless, compared with 40% of the group the team were unable to contact due to a lack of capacity. 

2.3     The draft strategy proposes the following vision:

We will be an agile and data driven council, using the best of modern digital design, technology and ways of working to deliver excellent user-centred services that make a difference to the lives of our residents.

2.4     The vision will be achieved by progressing 5 different workstreams which are led by different officers across the organisation, with the Head of Transformation and Property providing programme oversight as the lead senior officer for the overall strategy.  The workstreams and responsible officers are as follows:

·         Workstream 1: Provide simple, accessible, end-to-end services that are easy to use and based around users’ needs – Gary Hunter, Transformation and Digital Services Manager

·         Workstream 2: Giving our people the tools they need to do their jobs – Tony Bullock, ICT Programme Manager

·         Workstream 3: Making data work for us – Anna Collier, Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance Manager

·         Workstream 4: Digital inclusion – Angela Woodhouse, Head of Policy, Communications and Governance

·         Workstream 5: Creating a digital culture across the council – Georgia Hawkes, Head of Transformation and Property

2.5     The draft digital strategy document does not attempt to make an exhaustive list of all work that will be carried out under each of the workstreams – it is important that we are more agile than that and respond to threats and opportunities as they arise – but instead gives a high level framework and flavour of the sorts of actions and projects that will be required over the next 3 years to deliver the digital vision.

2.6     The digital strategy will be refreshed annually and will be taken to Cabinet for agreement along with a progress report covering work completed and performance on the envisaged benefits.

3.   AVAILABLE OPTIONS

3.1     Option 1 - Adopt the Digital Strategy 2022-25 – this would mean the digital vision was agreed and work would continue on each of the workstreams to deliver the outcomes and benefits set out in the strategy.

3.2     Option 2 - Do not adopt the Digital Strategy 2022-25 – some actions in the strategy would not be carried out. Some work contained within in the various workstreams would continue, but without a guiding vision and the structure to ensure benefits are realised.

3.3     Option 3 – Adopt an amended version of the Digital Strategy 2022-25 – the strategy could be adopted in part. For example, one or more workstreams could be excluded from the final agreed version.

4.        PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1     Option 1 – adopt the Digital Strategy 2022-25 is recommended as the strategy and the work required to deliver it has been designed to involve the right officers from across the Council to ensure the Council continues to build on its digital successes and works in partnership to ensure those who are digitally excluded or at risk of being digitally excluded get the support they need.  If the strategy is not adopted (option 2) or an amended version is adopted (option 3) important work will not be delivered and the Council will not deliver the range or level of benefits for residents and for staff and members envisaged in the strategy.

5.       RISK

5.1    The risks associated with this proposal, including the risks if the Council does not act as recommended, have been considered in line with the Council’s Risk Management Framework. The strategy itself is inherently about minimising threats of not adopting a more digital approach and enhancing opportunities to improve ways of working for staff and members and the delivery of services to customers.

5.2    The key risks associated with the strategy and steps that will be taken to mitigate them are:

5.3    We are satisfied that the risks associated with adoption of the strategy and those that require management to mitigate the threat of not delivering the digital vision are within the Council’s risk appetite and will be managed as per the Policy.

6.       CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

6.1     None.

7.       NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

7.1     Should Committee decide to adopt the strategy, the workstream leads will continue to deliver the planned projects, which include incorporating increasing awareness of the digital vision and building digital into the culture of the organisation.

8.        REPORT APPENDICES

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·         Appendix 1: Digital Strategy 2022-25 (draft)

·         Appendix 2: Equalities impact assessment

9.        BACKGROUND PAPERS

None.