SERVICES OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE AGENDA ITEM NO. 10TH APRIL 2013
TOWARDS A PAPERLESS COUNCIL
REPORT PRESENTED BY: Matthew Finch, Director - Customers and Sharon Parkinson Business Manager ICT
Executive Summary
Following a request raised by Members at the June meeting of Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee, at the October meeting of the Committee, Members were presented with a report on the ‘Paperless Council’ and whether it was feasible to move the Council, including Councillors, towards becoming a paperless organisation. A group of Councillors volunteered and a trial was established utilising various types of mobile devices to gather feedback on the experience of using them for committee papers and in Council meetings. This report outlines the trial that took place and a variety of options to take this forward.
Recommendation Members are asked to:
(a) consider the contents of the report; and
(b) subject to the decision on the 3 options, make recommendations to Cabinet on the feasibility of Members moving to a paperless communication system at an appropriate time.
1.0 Background
1.1 Local authorities are faced with a continual challenge to do more with less. This challenge is more pressing given reductions in public sector funding following the Comprehensive Spending Review 2010. This resulted in the formula grant for Newark and Sherwood District Council being reduced by 28.8% or £2.97-million over the two year period 2011/12 and 2012/13. Taken together with the Council tax freeze, this has resulted in a reduction in the Council’s annual budget of more than £3-million.
1.2 Part of the Council’s response to these increasing financial pressures was its Smart Focus programme, which was created after an external assessment from KPMG of areas and ways the Council could save money. Although going ‘Paperless’ was not identified as a specific project in its own right, the assessment did identify several project areas where the Council could become more efficient and slicker and systems and processes were an integral part to unlocking the saving.
1.3 As part of the Corporate Print Project, it was identified that the cost of providing paper reports to all Members, taking into account the average number of meetings and the average number of sheets, that the annual spend would be around £20k – figures for 2012/13 bear this out and show costs of £18,674 for printing and £2,812 for postage.
2.0 The Council’s Response
2.1 As previously reported to Members as part of the report to Committee in October, the Council has been working on several key areas to achieve efficiencies, including:
Corporate Print Project which encompasses the provision of Multi-Function Devices, Design and Hybrid Mail
Purchase to Pay
Electronic Expenses submission Online sickness reporting
The production and issue of Transport reminders by email Advances in Direct Debits within Leisure
New website to aid channel shift
There are also other key areas identified for future developments including: Annual/Flexi leave electronic authorisation
Electronic Council Tax Billing Electronic payslips
Electronic Document and Records Management System 3.0 Trial Details
It was decided to use 4 different devices as part of the trial to give a range of appliances and operating system experiences to receive and send emails and to use during committee meetings. The devices selected were the existing Council Toshiba Laptop, an iPad, a Samsung Galaxy Note Tablet and a Dell Notebook. Following the report to Services Committee in October, 6 Members volunteered to be part of the Trial – Celia Brooks, Christine Rose, Timothy Wendels, Declan Logue, Yvonne Woodhead & John Bradbury. 4.0 Member Feedback
Device Advantages Disadvantages
Laptop* Good connection to the
internet
Full Microsoft suite of products
Heavy & cumbersome Very slow to boot up
Potential problem with battery life
iPad Excellent battery life
Easy to connect to internet Quick download
Excellent display Straightforward to use
No Microsoft Office suite Docking station may be required for extended periods of use
Ability to connect to corporate network
Samsung Galaxy Note Reasonable battery life Easy to view & use
Easy to connect to Wi-Fi and internet
Easy to access emails Split screen functionality
Dell Notebook Good connection to the internet
Full Microsoft suite of products
Small screen
Question around the usefulness of the tablet style functionally of the revolving screen
Battery life
Members, on the whole, found that the receiving of committee papers by email and using the devices in meetings was an advantage to them – there is a need to address how exempt items can be circulated. Members were able to set up folders on the devices and file previous papers which can be referred to easily.
It was generally felt it was significantly better than having a report of 70 + pages to search through especially if using a device which had access to the Microsoft Office suite.
*The existing corporate Toshiba laptop was used in the trial, we are now rolling out the new estate of Dell E6330 laptops which addresses the problems around weight, speed of boot up and battery life
5.0 Technical Considerations
For the devices to have the ability to access the Council environment, they would need to have one of the following operating systems on them:
Andriod Operating system Apple IOS operating system Windows Operating
6.0 Options
From the trial it is felt that three possible options have emerged for the Council, however, it does need to be recognised that access to internet coverage is not consistent in a large, rural district such as Newark and Sherwood (This situation should change with the introduction of the 4G networks and improved access through the Rural Broadband plan). Therefore, it may be that any solution would need to take into account the need to continue to provide paper reports and agendas to a small number of members who cannot currently get internet access at their home.
Option 1
Members could recommend that no further action is pursued towards a Paperless Council, paper copies of committee papers continue to be issued to all Members, costs remain the same & no savings are achieved.
Option 2
Members can decide individually whether they want to use a new device and receive their papers electronically or remain with the traditional paper reports.
New devices could be acquired by individual members (as set out in Option 3 and supported by a technology allowance) or be supplied by the Council with additional costs for the capital purchase of devices incurred by the Council. Under this option, savings associated with reducing the paper communication would not lower significantly and the Council would need to find resources to fund the purchase of equipment or to fund technology allowances.
Option 3
A member’s technology allowance could be introduced on the basis that every member will purchase their own device which could be used for council and personal business. A suitable range of devices could be developed by the Council although the choice of which device to buy would remain with the member. Clearly this would give each member the option to buy an expensive device if that was their preference but the allowance would be geared to the cost of an appropriate device. For example, a Samsung Galaxy Tablet can be purchased for £249; a small laptop can be purchased for £350-£400 and a Microsoft Surface Tablet retails at £399.
An annual technology allowance of £300 would therefore be expected to cover the one-off purchase cost of a device and a proportion of the cost of a home internet connection. The worked example, below, shows how the costs of purchasing a device and accessing the internet would be covered.
Cost of purchasing Acer Aspire Laptop £379
Cost of home broadband connection @ £17 per month over 48 months £816
Total Cost over four years £1,195
Total value of technology allowance over 4 years = 4 x £300 £1,200 Under this option, changes will need to be made to the Council’s website to allow for a password protected extranet so that members would be able to access Agendas and reports that include confidential items which are not available on the public website. Consideration would also need to be given to circumstances where an electronic version of a document would not be sufficient to allow proper consideration eg. where large detailed plans form part of a report. Nevertheless, it should be possible to save a large proportion of the current £20,000 annual spend on printing and postage of reports and agendas. The Council’s ICT team would be able to offer members initial support and advice around setting up and using a range of devices. Hardware and software faults, repair and insurance requirements would be for each member to determine with their supplier.
Conclusions
Option 1 represents the status quo and would not achieve savings or improve the speed of communications. Option 2 would encourage a greater take-up of technology and although marginal savings may be possible in the longer term, additional costs would be incurred in the short term. However, Option 3 offers the only route to achieving significant savings because it would require all members to move to a default position of electronic communications. A commitment from all members to use email as a key form of
communication would produce further savings in communications and notifications and reduce the use of officer time in printing items to post or contacting members to inform them of simple notifications. For example, all of the administration associated with the work of the Palace Theatre Commissioning Group has been done electronically.
7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
That this report has provided Members with information on the steps the Council is taking towards becoming a more ‘paperless’ Council. Members are asked to:
(a) consider the contents of the report;
(b) consider the outcome of the trial and the options presented and if felt appropriate, make recommendations to Cabinet on the feasibility of members moving to a paperless communication system.
Background Papers Nil
For further information please contact Sharon Parkinson on 5404 or Matthew Finch on 5716. Matthew Finch
