Sunderland City Council ICT The next 18 months…….

The next 18 months…… Over the course of the last 3 years we have seen a period of unprecedented change in local government, not only in the nature of the services we are providing but also in the way we provide those services and that applies equally to front-line and support services, such as ICT. With the financial pressures greater than ever before we are looking to deliver services differently through a range of alternative service delivery models in our journey to become a Community Leadership Council that facilitates and supports change rather than directly delivering services. ICT is no different and we are now looking to procure a business partner to help the Council and its partners design, develop and deliver technology enabled change solutions that meet the priorities for the city. It is anticipated this will take around 18 months before we have signed contracts and are working in a new way and therefore we have developed a set of key priorities and principles to guide our work until then. These are all about ensuring we can operate effectively and efficiently and become fit for purpose for this challenges we face.

PRIORITY 1: Maintain and Improve Operational Stability Migration to a virtual infrastructure has brought many benefits but it has also heightened our sensitivity to service failures. Whilst we have designed a high performance resilient infrastructure we are still experiencing operational failures and service degradation. Principle 1 Achieving operational stability is a key priority for the unit and therefore all of our actions must be assessed against the risk of compromising operational stability. Principle 2 Operational housekeeping activities must be identified, understood and assigned a suitable priority and corresponding resource alongside other tasks. Achieved by Assessing our infrastructure and creating a ‘traffic light’ heatmap Focussing efforts on red status items Putting a medium term plan in place to improve the overall position Planning and resourcing all maintenance and improvement activities and closely monitoring achievement

PRIORITY 2: Maintain compliance with ISO, PSN & PCI-DSS ISO27000 compliance is a clear and visible sign to partners and accreditors that we operate and maintain an IS Management System. It is the kite mark of the ICT world and supports our on-going PSN and PCI-DSS compliance both of which are pre- requisites to us carrying out the business of the council. Principle 3 We will satisfy the controls necessary to comply with IS27000, PSN CoCo and PCI-DSS. Achieved By Increasing the number of ICT staff actively engaged in the ISO process by running Internal Auditor courses Sharing the workload and auditing responsibilities between a greater pool of resources Briefly utilising consultants to assist in the move to the 2013 version of the ISO standard Creating, resourcing and managing an audit plan that meets and where relevant, exceeds ISO demands Sharing ISO and PSN requirements across ICT staff to ensure understanding and achieve true saturation across the unit

PRIORITY 3: Procure a partner We are seeking a business partner that can; -Innovate – design, develop and deliver creative solutions to address the most complex issues facing the city -Enhance – design, develop and deliver an infrastructure that enables interoperability, connectivity and collaboration across an eco-system of public to private enterprise and for communities and citizens -Enable – design, develop and deliver ICT as a utility Principle 4 We will clearly set out our requirements for each of the three areas and ensure the proposition is fit-for-purpose for entry to the market place. Achieved by Appointing the necessary internal and external support Base-lining all of our assets and partnerships and assessing for inclusion in the bid Engaging with key stakeholders including external partners who may support the bid Devising the market proposition and procurement documentation

PRIORITY 4: Deliver the agreed Work-Plan The Council’s transformation agenda affects all services and includes many multi- agency partnerships. Much of that service transformation relies upon technology change and innovation and it is important the ICT can deliver against what it commits to. Principle 5 The ICT Unit will develop technology options to enable service transformation. Principle 6 The ICT Unit will maintain and publish a Work-plan documenting agreed deliverables covering all aspects of BAU and Project related work. Principle 7 Additions, deletions and amendments to the plan of record will be agreed by the ICT Leadership team and communicated accordingly. Achieved by Consolidating all work plans (project/BAU/Maintenance) Discussing and agreeing priority items and required resource Managing resource conflicts and seeking new and innovative ways to deliver with the resource pool Communicating the Workplan and managing flow of work in, through and out of the unit consistently

PRIORITY 5: Deliver within the agreed budget envelope The financial pressures upon the council continue which means it is imperative we deliver within our agreed budget envelope and achieve our savings targets. ICT have a savings target of £450K for FY15/16 and a further £300K for FY 16/17. Principle 8 Existing ICT assets should be reviewed, rationalised and exploited as far as possible to maximise the achievement of principles 1-7 and to eliminate waste. Achieved by Scrutinising current ICT budgets and structures Realigning budget responsibilities to the most appropriate place Identifying areas of under and over spend and review for savings Identifying contract areas for potential savings Reviewing functionality delivered within core application base and identify opportunities for consolidation and savings Completing the work to catalogue the services delivered by the unit and ensure that services are properly costed Identify opportunities for service cease or change that will deliver positive budget changes which do not impact customers

PRIORITY 6: Identify and exploit opportunities for change We have all agreed that a structured review and remodel of the ICT service is timely and we have a great opportunity to improve the service offering and ‘do different things’ rather than simply just doing things differently. Principle 9 We will review all areas of our business outlined within our 100 day plan and use the evidence to inform new and better ways of doing things. Achieved by Reviewing and setting out the ICT Units service offering so we and our customers know what it is we deliver Understanding how work flows through the unit and identifying the changes required to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the operation Remodelling the resource available within the unit be best meet need Reviewing and reassessing the application estate and identifying opportunities for improvements Completing the ICT Service Desk move to CSN

Delivering the Priorities We have a plan and have begun to deliver against that plan but we need the help of everyone in the ICT Unit and our key stakeholders to ensure we achieve success. We will do this by; Supporting an ICT Improvement Forum where ideas will be generated, tested and implemented Produce a communications plan which will include all stakeholders so we can understand who we should be communicating to about what and ensure we fulfil our commitments Actively engage with all members of the ICT unit through regular briefings, forums and written communications Operate and actively encourage an ‘open door’ policy so ideas and concerns can be shared. Actively engage with Trade Unions as we generate ideas for improvement and with key support areas such as Finance and HR colleagues Operate within the Council’s values at all times