Agenda item

(Report of Portfolio Holder for Finance, Risk and Customer Services, the Portfolio Holder for Voluntary Sector, Town Centre, Evening economy & Community Safety and the Assistant Director, Growth and Regeneration)

Report of the Portfolio Holder, for Finance, Risk and Customer Services, Portfolio Holder for the Voluntary Sector, Town Centre, Evening economy and Community Safety and Assistant Director, Growth and Regeneration, to give a progress update to Corporate Scrutiny on the Assure project for Environmental Health.

The Head of Technology Gareth Youlden introduced the report and highlighted the following:

Assure, would replace the current system M3 used by the Environmental Health team This is a web based product which is more flexible than the current system and better meets the needs of the Council.

It was reported that M3 would have a de support date of March 2024 and the team would be working towards delivering the project ahead of that date.

Progress identified since the last update included, there now being formal project management in place and a Project  Initiation Document which set out governance and that project workstreams were in place.

It was reported that staff had attended document production training, a demonstration of the public facing portal and had looked at templates in M3 ensure that only relevant documentation is was taken in to the new system.

It was confirmed that the Assure test system had been upgraded so that work could start on migration and testing.

It was identified that resourcing was a challenge to deliver the project and that options were being considered around looking at a support package through the provider and the cost associated with this. A business case was being prepared to look at a back-office cover so experienced officers could work on transition.

The next steps identified were to look at project workstreams in detail and develop a project plan, agree resources, understand the level of support required from NEC and making decisions on the self-service options whilst continuing to data cleanse the old system.

The Committee sought and received the following clarifications:

1.     In respect of the tender process, The Head of Technology confirmed due diligence had been carried out around other options, including looking at cost impact on resources, staff upskilling, and transition and the outcome was that Assure was considered the best route. The Council had considered whether the system was fit for purpose, budget, and resources. Subsequently, it felt that Assure was best value. In terms of the value for money process, as the Council already runs the M3 system, transition to Assure, the successor system to M3, would be a less costly option in terms of resource and cost.

2.     How confident they were in the security of the system? The Head of Technology confirmed that the transition was based on internal systems which were protected by current boundary security. Further clarification was sought on processes in place to ensure validity of documents and the Head of Environmental Health, confirmed that face to face validation processes that currently takes place would continue.

3.     The difference in cost? The Head of Technology confirmed that there was no difference in cost on a ‘like for like’ basis, however additional costs would be incurred if the Council took on the additional modules such as the self-service portal, but this could be offset in terms of a business case. The committee sought clarification on what the self-service system would look like for users, for example in taxi licensing, The Head of Environmental Health confirmed that the system would enable taxi drivers to provide all necessary information online before the back-office team picked up the application, as opposed to the current email system.