Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance

Cabinet considered the report of the Transformation Manager and the above Cabinet Member, which presented a Digital Strategy for adoption.  The strategy summarised the direction the Council was taking with regard to offering a greater range of digital services, and to improve services for residents and businesses.  It was acknowledged that the direction was ‘digital by choice’ so that services were available to those who were not technology savvy or who did not have access to the technology.

A discussion ensued regarding the current Council website not being fit for purpose, and progress being made on the project to replace it.  Another Member asked what was being done to help introduce high speed communications to hard to reach communities, and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance advised that they were working extremely hard regarding this.  It was also suggested that further consideration could be given to specific technology for those with disabilities, which the Cabinet Member agreed to consider. 

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance gave an update on progress being made with the Council’s website and the implementation phase, which included recruiting a temporary member of staff, to ensure that the new website was ready by November 2018.  Details of the enhancements were given and the Transformation Programme Manager was thanked for her work on this project.

The Chief Executive confirmed that the strategy was ‘digital by choice’; that Strategic Management Team had agreed to allocate additional temporary resource to the project; and it was important for it to be right before the new website was launched.

Resolved:

(1) That the Digital Strategy be adopted.