Policy and Finance Cabinet Member – Minutes – 24 March 2016

52 (52) AGILE WORKING POLICY – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which outlined and sought approval of the council’s new Agile Working Policy.

The shared services programme between North Lincolnshire Council and North East Lincolnshire Council aimed to create modern working practises that would produce effective and efficient ways to deliver services.

The council’s Agile Working Policy provided clarity to employees around where and how they could carry out their work to enable collaborative working across multiple sites. It also aimed to maximise cost efficiencies and improve and enhance business performance.
Resolved – That the Agile Working Policy be approved and implemented.
53 (53) PAY AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE NATIONAL LIVING WAGE 2016 -The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which outlined the requirement for a temporary increase of spinal column points 6,7 and 8 in order to comply with the new National Living Wage.

The most recent National Joint Council pay award was implemented with effect from 1 January 2015. As part of this spinal column point 5 was deleted with effect from 1 October 2015.

A new National Living Wage was due to be introduced from 1 April 2016. The new rate of £7.20 per hour would apply to all employees (and casual workers) who were aged 25 or over. The council would need to pay at least this rate of pay in order to be legally compliant.

The National Living Wage would affect National Joint Council spinal column points 6, 7 and 8 which were below £7.20 per hour. It had been hoped that the agreement of the National Joint Council pay award nationally in time for the 1 April 2016 would have negated this as an issue. However, nationally two of the three trade unions were balloting their members on the employers’ final offer.

Resolved – That the temporary increase and revised pay policy be approved and adopted.
54 (54) EMAIL ALERT PILOT UPDATE – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which provided a summary of the outcomes of the email alert pilot together with a proposed way forward.

In recent years a number of leading councils had introduced email alerts to engage with customers about council services, information, attractions and offers.

The use of email alerts was a recommendation for all councils in the 2015 Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM) Better Connected Report (an independent review of over 430 UK council websites).

Email alerts went live on the corporate website in June 2015 using the market leading GovDelivery platform. Since then almost 13,500 customers had signed up for the email alerts to date.

Resolved – That the Email Alert function as outlined in the report be retained and developed.

55 (55) WEB CHAT PILOT UPDATE – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which provided a summary of the outcomes of the recent three month Web Chat pilot together with a proposed way forward.

In recent years a number of leading councils had introduced operator web chat which provided customers with a live online chat function with a council agent.

A three month web chat pilot was included within the councils approved 2015-16 Digital vision which focused on the Waste Management pages of the corporate web site. During this time there were 465 customer Waste Management web chats. The report gave details of the aims of the pilot.

Customer Services had agreed to retain the web chat function and would continue to resource the function.

Details of a wider pilot were outlined in the report.

Resolved – That the Web Chat function as outlined in the report be retained and developed.

56 (56) INFORMATION GOVERNANCE AND IT SECURITY POLICY FRAMEWORK UPDATE – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval of proposed changes to the Information Governance and IT Security Policy Framework/schedules.

The scope of the Information Governance Policy Framework had been broadened to include IT security requirements. The framework had been re-titled as the Information Governance and IT Security Policy Framework. This would be implemented from 1 April 2016.

The report outlined the changes and updates made to the policy.

Resolved – That the new Information Governance and IT Security Policy Framework be approved and implemented.

57 (57) CYBER SECURITY INFORMATION SHARING PARTNERSHIP – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval to join the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP).

As more emphasis was placed on digital services, central and local government organisations were becoming increasingly more reliant on technology to deliver critical front line services. A significant cyber incident at Lincolnshire County Council recently attracted national attention.

CiSP was hosted by CERT-UK, the UK’s national Computer Emergency Response Team, which sat as part of the Cabinet Office, and had data and information feeds from a wide range of sources. This created a diverse and more comprehensive picture of the threat landscape, as well as a broad spectrum of advice and mitigation.

Membership of CiSP would enable the council to share threat information, have access to best practice guidance, receive cyber advisories and alerts, provide an analysis of common threats and lessons learned on incidents. It would also help to spot trends and develop an understanding of the threat landscape. CiSP also contained useful advice and material which gave details of how to raise awareness of the cyber risk and potential mitigation strategies at a more senior level.

Resolved – That the proposal for the council to become a member of the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP) be approved

58 (58) VIREMENTS 2015-16 – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval for changes to revenue and capital budgets for 2015-16 as part of the council’s policy of active budget management.

On 24 February 2015 Council approved the revenue and capital budgets for the 2015/16 financial year.  The report gave details of virements that required Cabinet Member approval.

Resolved – That the virements at paragraph 3.1 of the report be approved.