Agenda and minutes

Apologies for lateness received on behalf of Councillors Adje and Beynon.

The Clerk to the Committee – Mr Hart advised the meeting that at the Full Council meeting on 17 July 2006 agreed the replacement of Councillor Butcher  with Councillor C. Harris.  The Chair asked that the Committee note the change to the Membership.

NOTED   

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgement of the public interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

(Report of the Chief Executive)  To propose a new organisational structure for the Council’s IT Services function, and to seek delegated authority to finalise the structure within the envelope specified in the report.

In accordance with Standing Order 32.6, no other business shall be considered.

Mr Holliday - Assistant Chief Executive TABLED some supporting papers in respect of the circulated report before the Committee. (A copy of the documents will be interleaved with the minutes).  In outlining the proposals as detailed Mr Holliday highlighted the issues that necessitated a new organisational structure in accordance with ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) recommendations as set out in para 7 of the report.  Mr Holliday then commented on the staffing situation and transference of staff from NIS to the Local Authority as part of the ‘in sourcing’ programme, and the continued interim use of temporary staff.  Mr Holliday referred the Committee to the detailed tabled comments of the Head of ICT and e.government at the LB Waltham Forest in support of the proposals to move towards an ITIL. 

The Chair thanked Mr Holliday for his introduction and asked if there were any questions from members.

In response to questions from Councillor Whyte in relation to the use of staff with short term contracts Mr Holliday commented that the use of staff on short term contracts was in order to ensure deliver of the project and that such knowledge and expertise was not available from Northgate. The majority of short term contracts were for an average period of about 5/6 months, with a few lasting for 2/3 months and a small number since May 2005.

Concerns were expressed by Councillor Patel as to the whole issue the review of the service and the difficulties that had occurred with the Tech-refresh project, and the use of temporary staff and consultants across the Authority.  Councillor Patel also sought clarification that although one other Local Authority had endorsed the ITIL model was this in fact the best solution for Haringey and whether there was confidence in this proposal. 

In response to the concerns Mr Holliday commented that in respect of tech refresh this had been contracted by Northgate/Deloitte and that the decision had been taken in to now mange the service in-house. Deloitte has ceased to be involved in the contractual arrangements, and Members were aware a decision had then been taken to part company with Northgate.  The Council would be taking on a number of staff from Northgate under TUPE arrangements.  In the interim there would be the need to use specialised temporary staff to bridge the gap between the recruitment process for newly created IT support posts in-house and training/bringing up to speed of newly appointed staff.  The use of temporary staff would only be used in the peak period, and that once full and recruitment and training to the new posts had been completed trained these temporary contracts would be terminated.

In respect of the comparisons with other Local Authorities Mr Holliday advised that it was difficult to obtain a ’like for like’ comparison given the historic management of the current IT service in Haringey.  It was the case that some Local Authorities had split in-house and external suppliers to their IT service, and some were solely external, though  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.