Members of the Committee are requested to bring their copy of the agenda for the Executive meeting on
Minutes:
The Committee considered the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the meeting of the Executive on 22 September 2021:
(5) MAKING BROMLEY EVEN BETTER
Report CSD21098
The report presented the refreshed corporate strategy “Making Bromley Even Better” 2021-2031. The ambitions outlined would be delivered through a wide range of strategic and operational plans across the Council and partner agencies.
In opening the discussion, the Chairman noted the extensive work that had gone into gathering comments and developing the refreshed strategy and thanked the Assistant Director for Strategy, Performance and Transformation for this work.
The Assistant Director reported that in developing the Strategy, she had engaged in one-to-one discussions with at least 20 Members and this had facilitated the development of the Strategy presented for approval by the Executive on 22 September 2021. There had also been an awareness of the need to reflect the requirements of the Council’s regulators, and this was one of the key reasons for updating the Corporate Strategy. It was recognised that the development of the Strategy had been unfortunately delayed by 12 months as a result of the demands imposed by the Council’s response to the Covid pandemic.
Whilst the Strategy was a high-level plan it was not static. The priorities set out in the Strategy would be delivered through the Portfolio Plans and delivery of objectives would be monitored through PDS Committees with amendments implemented as and when necessary.
The Committee noted that monitoring would be undertaken through a formal annual report as well as through the Chief Executive’s appraisal process. Through this monitoring process the corporate strategy would be reflective of Portfolio Plans and the key agendas within each Portfolio.
Members welcomed the document noting that it was important that, as a roadmap of the Council’s future intentions, the document was reflective of any significant changes in the direction of corporate strategy and policy and was updated as and when necessary. It was suggested that as a working document it may be helpful to number paragraphs in future versions.
A Member suggested that there should be further clarity around the statistics relating to employment in the Borough, and it was noted that this detail was captured in the Economic Development Strategy. In addition, noting that Bromley had the highest number of settled travellers in the United Kingdom a Member suggested that in fact the Borough had the highest number of settled travellers in Europe (although this statistic may be difficult to verify).
Noting the description of the Borough as the fourth most affluent borough in London, a Member highlighted that the Council should not hide away from the considerable areas of deprivation in the Borough. In response, the Assistant Director highlighted that the Strategy included a number of actions and objectives setting out the ambitions for the more deprived areas of the borough.
The Committee noted that following Executive the Strategy would be presented to Full Council.
RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to approve the refreshed Corporate Strategy; Making Bromley Even Better 2021-2031
(6) CRM REPLACEMENT PROJECT - WEBSITE REDESIGN AND UPGRADE
Report CSD21097
The report provided an update on the CRM replacement project and sought Member’s approval to progress the complimentary scheme to redesign and upgrade the Council’s public facing website.
In opening the discussion and noting the estimated underspend of approximately £372K for the CRM capital project scheme, the Vice Chairman questioned whether there had been correct budgeting in the first instance. In response, the Assistant Director for Customer Services explained that the process had required a review of individual aspects of the project. Only once this process had been completed was it possible to reduce the scope of the project, although it was recognised that the underspend represented a significant proportion of the original budget.
In response to a question, the Assistant Director confirmed that a review of all the web pages was already underway with a view to deleting or updating out-of-date content.
The Assistant Director reported that content could be updated quickly where necessary and this was facilitated by colleagues in Liberata who
consistently achieved the required service levels.
In response to a question, the Assistant Director explained that Jadu were one of the market leaders in the provision of local authority websites and Bromley had a long-standing relationship with Jadu and had recently extended other contracts as part of the CRM project. As such, re-tendering and potentially breaking away from the Jadu suite of software invested in would create a disjoint in functionality and customer experience and lose some of the customer benefits being achieved. Liberata had recommended engaging with Jadu for the redesign.
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A Member noted that the Council had a number of websites that sat outside the corporate website. These sites (e.g., parking permits and committee documents) were aligned to departmental back-end systems.
The Committee noted that as part of the project there would be engagement with a range of customers at an appropriate point. In addition, a Member walk-through and Member introductions were included within the project plan.
In summarising the discussion, the Chairman set out that whilst the Committee recognised the advantages of keeping eco-systems of products, in future Members would like to see exploration of other products in order to deliver an enhanced user experience.
RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to
1. Note the estimated underspend of approximately £372K for the CRM capital project scheme as outlined in this report. The actual figure will be confirmed within the capital scheme project closure report.
2. Approve additional expenditure of £175K on the website redesign and upgrade project, to compliment the CRM replacement project.
3. To fund the website redesign and upgrade project from the existing CRM capital programme provision and to amend the capital programme to reflect the revised total estimated costs to be funded of £625k.