Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Paul Clarke was appointed as Chairman of the Task and Finish Group.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no announcements.

The following terms of reference were approved by the Group:

1.    Identify the needs of Councillors from technology, for example reading papers, writing letters and emails, maintaining diaries, taking notes, analysing figures, and match these to technology solutions

2.    To note any risks with the current technology system and how to reduce or eliminate them i.e. keeping constituents’ personal data, in accordance with the new General Data Protection Regulations

3.    To recommend to the Overview and Scrutiny the technology needs of Councillors allowing them to carry out their duties for the next Council term (May 2019 to May 2023) to enable them to work efficiently

The Task and Finish Group discussed some of the common problems when using their technology to carry out council business. Coupled with this were the changes to data protection rules.

Members agreed that the first step of the review would be to identify from all Councillors what equipment they are using, what they use it for and the tools they need to enable them to carry out their council duties efficiently.

This information would be gathered using a questionnaire which would be issued to all Councillors with the following questions, as agreed by the Group:

1.    What equipment do you use for Council business? i.e. I-Pad, other tablet, laptop, home PC etc.

2.    What do you use the equipment for? Please list – i.e. Word, Excel spreadsheets, Google Earth, Google Maps, Outlook email, Modern.Gov

3.    How successful is it? i.e. what can’t  you do? Please provide examples

4.    Do you use any additional programmes, if so please provide details? i.e. applications, software

5.    How do you store data? i.e. addresses, email attachments etc.

The Group agreed that the second phase of the review would concentrate on data storing and the new rules which were being introduced as part of the General Data Protection Regulations.

The final version of the questionnaire would be sent to the Group for approval before being issued to all Councillors. They would be given two weeks to respond. The information received in the responses would be collated and analysed by the Chairman and the officers and at the next meeting the Group would consider the results.

It was agreed by the Group that the review should be completed within six months.

The next meeting would be held on Tuesday 26^th June 2018 at 4.00pm and at this meeting Member’s would consider the feedback to the Councillor questionnaire on the use of IT.