Decision details

The Chair welcomed Lisa Kitto, Director of Corporate Services, to the meeting to present an update report on Core Systems.

Systems were an integral part of LCC's business. Not only did systems support the way services carried out their day to day business, they also provided an opportunity to carry out tasks more efficiently and effectively and engage with customers and clients in a different way and in a way that suited their needs better. All of this brought challenges for LCC but if LCC got it right the opportunities were significant. This opportunity was being embraced by many other councils as LCC downsized and looked to reduce costs there was a real opportunity to consider what a Lancashire of the future would look like with ICT as an enabler.

Over recent years the County Council had invested significantly in its core systems and a future pipeline was being developed. The report set out the current position in relation to core ICT systems and the opportunities for the future.

Questions and comments by the Committee in relation to the report were as follows:

·  The Committee were pleased that LCC was working towards a more consolidated format.

·  Regarding iSupplier with the e-Invoicing system it was noted that this functionality had not been exploited enough. As the new system had started more suppliers were engaging with LCC electronically.

·  There were still issues around paying suppliers on time. This had been reported to the Audit and Governance Committee. A project group had been set up to look into these issues.

·  Regarding Liquid Logic and Children's Services the Committee was informed that a detailed report had gone to the Audit and Governance Committee in September 2016 that set out the work done as part of project accuracy. A health check had been done with Liquid Logic asking them what LCC had in its system that was different to other authorities. A number of actions were picked up on and were changed.

·  There were issues around staffing hierarchy. As staff changed and moved on there was no process in place to keep the system up to date. A strong process was now in place.

·  The processes that social workers were adopting was looked at. There were different working practices in different offices. Learning and Development was brought in to make sure consistent ways of working were in place. Social workers were trained to learn what the system was about.

·  The follow up Ofsted report did not find any issues regarding the system or the data which was accessed.  This was now being replicated in terms of Liquid Logic Adults.

·  Good feedback had been received regarding the core system of MinkZ. The MinkZ system was being used in services such as transport and social care.

·  Regarding Customer Access and the Genesys core system, the Committee was informed that this was a two phase project and phase 2 was now starting. Specific areas of the new functionality were being worked on and one service would be picked to work with. This was to get evidence that it worked. Once evidence had been obtained it would be rolled out in LCC. Once it was successfully rolled out there would be an implementation roadmap that would pull in other services.

·  Concerns were raised about bed blocking in hospitals. Members enquired how much priority was being placed on electronic discharges. Electronic hospital discharges were reliant on a piece of software called El Press which was an NHS tool. LCC was reliant on the NHS to get this product to a level where it can be used for hospital discharges. Electronic discharges was the logical way to go and LCC was reliant on the NHS to develop the software to make this succeed. The concerns around bed blocking would be fed back to the Digital Health Board. The Committee requested a report back in two months on the bed blocking issues.

·  It was beneficial that LCC was working in partnership with the NHS but involvement with the DWP was very limited. LCC's focus was mainly around health at the moment.

·  In terms of Genesys and agile working the Committee stated that the experience of Members working at home needed to be improved as they had limited access. Work was being done with Democratic Services to improve this.

Resolved:

1.  The Scrutiny Committee noted the report.

2.  The Scrutiny Committee requested an update report on electronic hospital discharge issues for its March meeting.