Report of the ICT Client Section Head

The Panel received a report from ICT Client Section Head providing an update on the ICT contract.  At the conclusion, the Chair asked if there were any questions.

Councillor Collett said that, on speaking to officers, their frustration was apparent and that this was not a way of working.  She was concerned that there had been little progress by Christmas of the previous year and that the current situation adversely affected residents; such as in relation to housing and benefits.  She considered that matters had gone too far and a strong message should be sent that this was not acceptable.  Capita should make stronger commitments and stick to them.

The Capita Managing Director thanked Councillor Collett for her comments and said they were disappointed things had not improved by the end of the year; although some progress had been made.  He confirmed that Capita were committed to improve matters; they were aware of what was going on.  They had conducted much work with Revenues and Benefits and new staff were now in place.  He appreciated that there was much work to do.  He commented that it was an aging ICT estate and that the Modernising ICT programme would revolutionise the architecture.  He concluded by saying that Capita was investing heavily and well above income.

The Capita Programme Director explained that staff were working very hard and that she was confident that they would meet the contract.  She had started work on the project in December and was working closely with the Capita Recovery Project Manager.  She reassured Members that Capita wanted to make it work and said that feedback was very important.  They were now using people resources in a more effective manner.

Councillor Counter made reference to the assurances and said that she understood that Capita may have more grip.  She asked what the differences would be.  The Capita Programme Director explained that there were many things to be done.  They now had a better understanding of the impact on the end user.  They had made assurances to the ICT Client Section Head and would deliver in the next two weeks.  She commented that Capita staff wanted to provide an effective service.

The Chair asked whether anything tangible had improved.  The Capita Recovery Project Manager said that looking at the client call record; there was a backlog of calls of 42 outstanding over 90 days and 60 at 10 days.  This was now down to nine in three days.

Councillor Martins commented that he had little confidence at present.  Capita had over promised and under delivered.  He said that after 18 months with no progress he would not keep Capita on the contract and would at least expect penalties. He added that the current situation had had an impact on the whole of Watford and asked what the timescale for improvements was.  The Capita Programme Director explained that there were commitments to the end of February and that there was a schedule of work to recover the account to stability.  She was working with the ICT Client Section Head as to exact dates.  The Capita Recovery Project Manager explained that matters would be much improved by the end of April by utilising the new resources.

The Director of Finance explained that a formal letter had been sent to Capita explaining that the Council was unhappy; this being part of the legal process.  However, she reassured Members that relationships remained sound at all levels and that there was a will to work together.  With regard to penalties; she explained that the Council would not apply these at this point but reserved the option to do so.  These could be applied retrospectively in the future.  She concluded that the Council had not paid for the additional work thus far but had simply paid for the core contract.  However, payment for additional Modernise IT services was likely in the future.

Councillor Dhindsa explained that his Council laptop was ineffective and that implications for Council staff due to the poor ICT service were severe.  He said that if this level of performance had been received in the private sector the company would have been sacked.  He commented that Capita staff did not seem to know if their employment contract would be continued.  He added that the Council should have exacted penalties; and there was continual pressure on constituents and Council staff.  He said that he regretted that he had to make such comments.

The Capita Managing Director explained that time had been lost in the early period of the contract; he apologised for this.  He said that recovery would not be a short term fix and that Capita had made a commitment to invest a six figure sum if the Council gave sufficient time.  They had had open and frank discussions and had built a positive relationship with the Council.  He agreed that there had been issues around the temporary staff but they were currently employing better full time personnel and using these resources to deliver.  He confirmed that Capita had shown a level of commitment and that they were still on a journey to success.  He said positive results would come in the end and asked Members to have faith in his organisation.  He outlined a range of issues that would be improved.    

The Chair asked if there were any facts and figures for employees on long and short term contracts.  The Capita Managing Director explained that some employees were on three month contacts but that contracts were now tailored to need.  They no longer had a rolling few week style contacts; these were now more resource to demand led.

The Chair asked if the Panel could be supplied with the figures on one week contracts.  The Capita Programme Director said that she was surprised some employees had said they did not know about their contract period.  She explained that people were hired to deliver a piece of work; from within Capita and externally.  She explained that she had a resource profile and would share this with the ICT Client Section Head if allowed to do so. 

ACTION – ICT Client Section Head

The ICT Client Section Head explained that there had been personnel instability initially and confirmed that there were no longer one week rolling contracts.

Councillor Dhindsa asked what monitoring was in place and why improvements were taking so long.  He also asked when penalties would be invoked.  The Director of Finance explained that a lot of monitoring was taking place; including key performance indicators, service thresholds etc. within the Council.  She outlined that the recovery programme was governed under weekly meetings and the holding of fortnightly board meetings.  She reassured Members that proper monitoring was taking place and that the Council was aware of the issues and was working with the contractor.  She explained about the penalty payment holidays that were common practice in such circumstances.  She said that if the Council just withdrew from the contract it would then be in a difficult position as it would have to decide what it wished to do with the service and it would still have the same issues that it currently had; it was usually best to try and work with the contractor at this stage to resolve any issues.  Termination of the contract should be a last resort.  She commented that it should also be remembered that the Council had not invested sufficiently in ICT in the past.  She concluded by saying that Capita now had a deadline of the end of the month when the Council would review and decide whether to continue working with them.

Councillor Dhindsa commented that the Council was now two years in to a five year contract but still with no penalties; he felt that some penalty should be invoked.  The Director of Finance explained that there could potentially be retrospective penalties and that the Council had reserved the right to apply these in the future.

Councillor Hastrick explained that improvements had been suggested at the October meeting of the Panel and that there was still little progress.  She asked why matters had taken so long when the issue was known to be a massive problem.  The Capita Managing Director explained that much work had been carried out since October; but this would not be apparent until the outcomes were seen in practice.  Much work had been carried out with Revenues and Benefits; getting new employees in place had taken time.  Extra resources had been brought in and progress had been made.  He explained that personnel had been brought in gradually since October and not just in the last two weeks.  He said that there was a lot of complexity to the project; pieces were glued together that needed unpicking within a roadmap structure.  He explained that the problems with the virus event had taken a number of weeks to resolve.  He said that in the next couple of months Members would see differences and that Capita was committed and would invest in excess of the contract.

Councillor Williams commented that he felt that Capita was just saying the same things to Members at the meeting.  He was shocked that in 40 days there were 49 outstanding calls; this was not acceptable.  He did not see that Capita had made any improvements.  He asked what hardware infrastructure was needed; such as servers, printers and workstations.  He did not consider that Capita was outlining the true picture.  He felt that, in the private sector, the contract would have been torn up.  He asked for more detail.  The ICT Client Section Head explained that Councillor Williams was talking about two separate things.  Firstly, the modernising IT core infrastructure; this had not been spoken about thus far at the meeting.  Discussion had been around recovery of the contractual core service where Capita was now applying additional resources at no cost to the Councils.  She explained that much work was being conducted on the modernising programme although this was behind schedule.  However, there was a need to stabilise the core infrastructure in the first instance and she had confidence in the Capita Programme Director.  She said that there was a new active directory and exchange design already in progress.  She clarified that the Capita Managing Director had simply been talking about the core infrastructure.  She undertook to provide more detail of the core recovery programme to the Panel.

ACTION – ICT Client Section Head

Councillor Hastrick commented that there now seemed inherent knowledge of the problems and that she would like to see a plan or scheme so that the Panel could monitor progress.  She did not consider that the Panel was in the know about this.  She said it would be helpful to know about the software and hardware requirements for example.  She added that a table of events would assist and would provide knowledge to Councillors.  The Director of Finance said that they had this and would provide it.  The ICT Client Section Head commented that communications was a key outcome and confirmed that they had the information Councillor Hastrick requested.  The Chair asked when this information would be available; the ICT Client Section Head confirmed that this would be accessible in the next couple of weeks and that Capita must show improvement by the end of February.

ACTION – ICT Client Section Head

Councillor Counter asked the ICT Client Section Head whether she felt more confident that Capita would now deliver.  The ICT Client Section Head replied that the issues had proved extremely challenging for her personally.  However, with the new management in place and the productive talks that had been held, her confidence had grown.  

Councillor Williams asked whether there were any SLA agreements in existence.  The Director of Finance explained that these were the same as the key performance indicators that were already in place.

Councillor Watkin then summarised by saying much came down to people knowing what they were doing and that a sense of trust was then developed.  He said that Capita’s Managing Director must be embarrassed about the situation.  He considered that the ICT Client Section Head had done an extraordinary job.  There was now the potential for a positive relationship with Capita that did not exist previously.  He was more confident that things were changing.  The process had cost Capita a lot of money and they were now appreciating the issues; cancelling the contract would be highly problematical.  He concluded by saying that confidence was needed that Capita would improve.