Agenda item

To provide the Committee with an awareness and understanding of the IT systems used by the Housing Service, and to provide information regarding past challenges, future plans and aspirations for the Service regarding IT.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee considers the information provided, and agrees any observations or matters to be followed up by the Committee.

Annalisa Howson introduced the agenda report that explained the range of IT systems used in Housing, and outlined IT development plans within the Housing Service.

The Committee had raised some concerns at their meeting in July during the discussion of the Waverley Scrutiny Group’s report on void re-lets, regarding the effectiveness of IT systems, and in particular the interfaces between key systems including those of the council’s contractors.

The Housing Service managed a huge amount of data of different types, relating to the properties the council owned, the tenants and leaseholders, and the interactions and transactions between the council and tenants, leaseholders and Housing applicants. To do this, Housing had a number of specialist IT systems which were used in conjunction with various Waverley corporate systems.

The Committee was reassured that there was an effective interface between Waverley’s Orchard system and Mears’ MCM as a way of sharing information on responsive repairs and voids works. However, it did rely on care being taken with data input. The Committee was also pleased to learn that there was a Housing IT development work plan that was reviewed regularly and ensured that all development requests were assessed and prioritised against the objectives of reducing manual handling of data, maximising the use of Orchard as the central IT system for Housing, and improving tenant satisfaction.

Cllr Frost expressed concern about the length of time it was taking to implement the interface between Orchard and Agresso. This had been promised for a long time and needed to be prioritised to streamline processes and enable more efficient working. Peter Vickers, Head of Finance, advised that the interface was part of a wider upgrade of Agresso and was now in testing; it would go live in the next month or so.

The Committee noted that the Digital Platform would be the next IT development priority. This was a corporate project that would improve the range of online, self-service functions for those residents who preferred to interact with the Council remotely. Housing was piloting the digital platform, which in the first phase would allow tenants to view their rent account balance and details. In the long term it was planned for residents to access other council services via the digital platform.

Cllr Le Gal asked how the Housing Service was preparing for the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations in 2018, which would require organisations to have clear policies and procedures, supported by IT systems, to ensure the security of personal data.

Damian Roberts, Strategic Director of Frontline Services agreed that this was a major issue for the whole Council, not just Housing, and therefore a corporate GDPR Project Group had been established, led by Graeme Clark, Strategic Director for Finance & Resources. Whilst a lot of work was required to ensure that Waverley was ready for GDPR, Waverley was part of the Public Services Network, the government’s high-performance network, and had implemented various measures to achieve PSN accreditation. Data-sharing with other government agencies was covered by specific data-sharing protocols. The most familiar example of data-sharing was Housing Benefits data with the Department of Work and Pensions.

The Committee was reassured that IT development in Housing was being actively managed and planned in order to maintain a culture of continuous improvement. However, there were some residual concerns whether the needs of Housing were prioritised and adequately resourced by the corporate IT team, and the Committee asked for the IT Work Programme to be circulated to them, so they could assess if this was a matter that should be escalated.