Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director, People Services.

The Committee considered a report which set out the issues that arose following the implementation of the new Youth Offending Case management system.  It considered the impact of the system implementation on the Youth Offending Team (YOT) practice and performance and recorded lessons learned for those involved in the project.

Members asked the following questions and officers responded accordingly:

·                     It was clear from the officer report that the new software had been implemented too quickly and that the overall process of replacing the Case Management System should have been initiated much sooner.  What assurance could be given that in the future, any IT upgrades and replacements would be managed in a timely and effective manner with sufficient contingency built in? 

·                     A number of other IT systems in use in the Council were reaching or had reached ‘end of life’ and were giving rise to performance issues.   How could the overall process of replacing these be improved on a council wide level?

·                     The Youth Offending Information System (YOIS) had first been identified for replacement in 2012 – had this initial upgrade adhered to set timescales or had it been delayed?  Were current timescales for implementation being met?

·                     Did the Youth Offending Team (YOT) continue to experience problems and delays with “Connectivity” (the software which provides a secure connection with the YJB and other YOTs)?

·                     Why were there problems with Connectivity?  Was this an internal or external issue and what was being done to resolve it?

·                     How long had the gap in performance reporting been?

·                     What action had been taken following guidance from Corporate IT that contracts with vendors should tie up so that there was clearer identification of implementation responsibilities?

·                     How long would it take for the new Case Management System to be fully functional?

·                     How had difficulties with the implementation of the new software impacted on staff morale and their ability to carry out their responsibilities?

·                     Would it be advisable for the implementation process to be overseen by an external body?

Delays in implementation following the initial inspection and the decision to implement a new system in 2012 had been caused by a number of factors, namely:

·                     co-ordinating the project with other important work in the YOT;

·                     the fact that the date of implementation was close to the date of the change in IT provider;

·                     ambitious timescales and the need to allow more time for testing and improvement prior to going live.

This situation had been continuously monitored at monthly Board meetings, and an action plan was put in place to resolve the significant issues that remained.  The action plan was completed at May 2016.  In the meanwhile, the YOT team continued to work closely with Corporate IT and the new IT supplier to monitor the situation.

Joint working with the new IT supplier, Sopra Steria, had led to improvements, however, the outdated IT infrastructure continued to cause problems with the system.  Most of the issues experienced by the YOT team had now been resolved, and it was anticipated that there would be significant further improvements by the end of 2016 once the Citrix and browser upgrades, which were planned for October/November  2016, had been implemented.

The initial implementation plan had been put in place following the inspection in 2012, however, the continuing implementation of the post 2012 inspection improvement plan when the Board decided that no system change should be carried out until the team’s performance against key indicators improved significantly, had also led to delays.

Capita One had advised that Connectivity problems were not unique to Harrow and that connectivity would improve with each new release of the system.  Information from YJB suggests that around a third of YOT teams around the UK were experiencing similar issues.  Connectivity had been down again recently and continued to be prone to error messages and downtime.  There were contingency plans in place to deal with this.  Connectivity problems had been reported to the Youth Justice Board.

Staff morale and their ability to carry out their responsibilities had been impacted by the system issues, as had managers’ ability to effectively manage and support their staff.  However, this was a matter of collective responsibility by the People Directorate, IT and Business Intelligence, not simply the YOT.

The new system went live in September 2015 and the first reliable information had been available in January 2016.  Managers had been obliged to work manually to achieve timescales relating to performance reporting.

Following a recommendation from the Corporate IT team, an end-to-end review of the system had been undertaken.  This had led to some improvements in system stability and a reduction in access problems, however, the system continued to be slow. 

The new national ‘Assetplus’ workflow which was due to be introduced from October onwards would be accompanied by significant changes to the set of operational indicators.  Any future upgrades would be planned jointly with Corporate IT and Sopra Steria.  The importance of receiving appropriate advice and guidance from Corporate IT in identifying problems and finding collective resolutions would be vital to the success of any such project in the future.

The Chair asked the officers presenting the report to keep the relevant Performance and Policy Lead Members apprised of any updates.  He also requested that a report of IT Governance across all Council departments should be presented to a future meeting of the Committee.  This was agreed unanimously by the Committee.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.