Business Improvement Team

PROJECT BRIEFING NOTE

Project Name

/ FOI (Freedom of Information)and DPA (Data Protection Act)
Report To / Andrea Glanville
Reporting Officers / Stuart Flanagan and Chris Jones / Contact No: / 225 5503
Project Sponsor / Andrea Glanville
Date / 6th January 2009

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1.Background

Requests for information to LCC under the Freedom of Information (FOI) and Data Protection Act (DPA) are received in writing by letter or email. The Acts stipulatethat local authorities must comply in 20 calendar days for FOI requests and 40 days for DPA requests. The penalties for failure to comply, or to breach can range from a monetory fine of up to £5,000 or the individual officer concerned is charged with vicarious liability which can lead to court appearances and if charged a jail term imposed.
Currently the process for dealing with such requests is paper-intensivedespite availability ofthe Non Stop Gov (NSG) ICT System. The NSG system was introduced to log all corporate complaints inlate 2007. The system consists of 5 modules and is used to log requests for Have Your Say, Antisocial Behaviour, Information Requests, Childrens Act and Statutory Complaints for Adults.
The system is due to be modified by the supplier, Tagish to accommodate the new LCC structure of Business Units. Tagishhas an established history of managing UK local and central government contracts including other Merseyside local authorities that together are involved in the NSG User Group. The User Group reviews system functionality, highlights user issues and identifies improvements for the benefit of the wider user network. Any modifications/upgrades that are proposed by the User Group can usually be implemented at a shared cost, or if a legal requirement can be built into any upgrade of the system build.
In July 2008 the responsibility for ensuring compliance with FOI and DPA requests/enquiries within LCC transferred from the Chief Executive’s Office to an Information Manager in Legal and Financial Services.
The Information Manager in Legal Services that has responsibility for FOI and DPA requests has identified a number of possible contributing factors to this failure in performance levels:
a) The ICT NSG system functionality is not being fully utilised by the team currently within Legal Services responsible for dealing with FOI/DPA requests. This causes a number of problems and results in poor management information, for example, where overdue cases have no audit trail.
b) There is no case management process used at present to monitor and review outstanding cases.
c) Staff are not updating every case on the ICT system and are working outside the system. This is down to lack of training and system knowledge
There have been several previous reviews undertaken with regards to FOI and DPA processes and procedures; however none have specifically looked at the ICT system functionality.
  1. Objectives

Review the functionality of the NSG system compared with key requirements identified by the Information Manager.
Make recommendations regarding use of the NSG system that will address the issues identified in (a) – (c) above leading to improved performance.
  1. Scope

In Scope - NSG ICT System functionality against the key requirements specified by the Information Manager
Out of Scope – All otherFOI and DPA processes & proceduresthat are under review elsewhere
  1. ICT System: Key Requirements

In order to implement an effective and efficient process for dealing with FOI and DPA requests, the Information Manager has identified the following key requirements for the ICT system:
  • Link to payments system
  • Audit trail for individual cases
  • Management reporting
  • Reconfiguration of document lists by date
  • Date changing facility
  • Set and administrate various permission levels
  • Document housekeeping
  • Generic letter templates
  • Email alerts
  • Appeal documentation
  • Breakdown of Team/Business Unit responsibility on all outstanding queries
  • Library site to contain domain information

  1. Business Benefits

NSG ICT System fully utilised with regards to FOI and DPA process and
increased intelligence with regards to performance monitoring.
  1. Time Scales

Project briefing noteto be completed by 16th January 2009

7. Findings

Following review of the functionality of the NSG ICT system, the key requirements specified by the Information Manager fall into one of three categories:
  1. Functionality already available
  1. Changes to functionality currently available but not utilised to beraised atthe next TagishUserGroup (being held January 2009) at which no costs will be administered
  1. Functionality not currently available and would require generation of a Business Enquiry with associated cost implications
The findings for each of the key requirements is as follows:
Functionality Already Available
Audit trail / An audit trail exists on the current system module but to utilise this fully all case information should be recorded, scanned and uploaded. It is only when users go outside the system, for example sending information by Outlook, that the audit trail is lost. To ensure that all information is captured on NSG, a guidance note stating roles and responsibilites should be produced for system users and Champions and accompanied with appropriate training for all officers who deal with FOI and DP cases.
Reports / Various reports are available and can be set as favourites for ease of use. Various types of reports can be produced and a new hierarchy for reporting will provide intelligence required – if the Information Manager advises what report type is required by breaking down the team/complaint type/officer etc (see breakdown of team/service section below)
Permission level / These are controlled by the system administrator. Permissions can be set at various levels and officer access can be restricted e.g. to prevent viewing of attached information etc.
Email alerts / This facility is available but in order to use it, cases must be assigned to an individual user rather than a generic mailbox as currently occurs. It should be noted that it is good practice to pro-actively use the Enterprise Dashboard on a regular basis rather than to wait for email alerts.The Enterprise Dashboard is the facility that allows you to view all cases and responsible officers-Refer to case management section below.
Appeals / Stage 2 appeals are already available for both FOI and DPA within this module of NSG
Breakdown by team/service/portfolio responsibility for all outstanding cases / Currently, cases are recorded only at (former) Portfolio level. On the 1st March 2009 a scheduled plan of work will begin to update the system to reflect the new Business Unit structure. Once the update is completed, the Information Manager can determine how best to configure information to provide a breakdown byBusiness Unit/Team/Type of request etc. Any categories can be requested and broken down by several strands.
Date changing facility / The date changing facility exists insofar as the clock can be stopped when further information is required from the customer and for this purpose only. No other changes to the due dates are allowed in accordance with the legislative requirements for these cases.
Document housekeeping / Facility exists whereby the documentation can be saved directly to the system
Generic letter templates* / Standard letters are currently available however some housework is required with regards to the letters held here. Tagish has previously offered to build editable letters that could be used to include/exclude exemptions via a list of tick boxes. A cost may be incurred if this is to be included.
Library site to contain domain information / A topic list can be created for new cases which could potentially eliminate duplication and enable quick access to previously supplied information. This can be used retrospectively with old cases, however, would need to have a resource applied to go through existing cases.
*(Possible additional cost if require Tagishto build editable letters)
Functionality not currently available – to be raised atUser Group
Document list order / Documents are listed alphabetically and the system does not have the functionality to change this to date order, although a workable solution has been adopted by the Have Your Say Team.
Functionality not currently available – Business Enquiry Required
Link to payments / NSG does provide an online integrated payment facility but this was not purchased by LCC as part of the package.
A more detailed explanation of each of the key requirements is at Appendix A
It can be seen from the above, that of the 12 key system requirements specified by the Information Manager, 10 (83%) are already available to LCC but are not currently used. One requirement can be addressed at the next User Group and only one requirement (Link to Payments) would require submission of a Business Enquiry with financial implications.
It is clear that the Information Manager and all users including champions would benefit from further training on the ICT NSGSystem to ensure that its functionality is fully utilised. The System Administrator would carry out the ‘system awareness’ sessions at no cost to the authority.A likely consequence of more comprehensive training maybe that current FOI and DPA processes and procedures are rationalised to become more effective.
In addition to the NSG functionality identified above, a Case Management Facilityis also available but not currently used within LCC. The facility comprises of an on-screen ‘Dashboard’ (see Appendix B) that highlights:
  • All open cases by officer and request type
  • All overdue tasks by officer and request type
  • All overdue cases by officer and request type
Use of the dashboard facility would provide an overview of all open cases and more robust monitoringto ensure timescales are achieved.

8. Recommendations

  • Information Manager and ICT NSG System Administrator to agree an implementation plan to introduce full functionality of the system as currently available – January 2009.
  • ICT NSG System Administrator to raise ‘document list order’ as an issue at the nextUser Group and report back to the Information Manager – January 2009.
  • Adopt and promote use of the “Dashboard” facility to monitor open cases and ensure compliance withstatutory duties – as soon as possible, awareness sessions to be carried out by the System Administrator.
  • Training on key features of the NSG systemshould be provided to all staff (including Champions) involved in the FOI and DPA processes. Training could be carried out in-house by the System Administrator and would be scheduled for half a day. This would need to be agreed by the System Administrator and Information Manager as soon as possible
  • All document templates to be reviewed and updated by the Information Manager before Tagish User Group Session in January 09.
  • Establish a system hierarchy for the production of management reports, taking into account the new Business Units/Teams – by 31st March 2009 on all NSG modules, but for purpose of this brief as soon as possible.
  • Review current processes for FOI and DPA to ensure that;
  • The ICT NSG System is fully utilised for all FOI and DPA requeststo prevent information being kept outside the system, this creating a credible audit trail
  • Wherever possible all documentation is held electronically
  • Protocols are agreed for all users on how and where information is held on the system – by Information Manager by January 2009

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Appendix A

Specified Key Requirement / NSG Functionality status / Comments
Link to payment gateway, creating a sequential payment ref. number that could be recreated in NSG / Functionality not currently available – Business Enquiry Required / NSG is currently not linked to our payment gateway although an integrated On line payment facility is available. A Business Enquiry would be required to progress this request with probable cost implications. There are no figures available as to the number of fee-paying requests madeduring 2008 asa decision was made not to record this information. It is therefore not possible to assess the likely impact of such a facility and potential benefits to customers
Audit trail capabilities / Currently Available / An audit trail exists on the current system module but to utilise this fully all case information should be recorded, scanned and uploaded. It is only when users go outside the system, for example sending information by Outlook – that the audit trail is lost. To ensure that the audit trail is captured, a guidance note on processes to be followed should be produced for key staff and accompanied with appropriate training for officers who deal with FOI and DP cases who are not set up on the system.
Reports / Currently Available / Various reports are available and can be set as favourites for ease of use. New hierarchy for reporting will provide intelligence required (see breakdown of team/service section below)
Document Listing / Not available – User Group January 2009 / Currently documents list alphabetically and the system does nothave the functionality to change this to show date order. A best practice adopted in the HYS module is to start the name of the document with the date, for example, 10.12.2008 Response letter to Mr Smith. The Customer Feedback Manager and other complaints officers are attending a conference in January run by the supplier, Tageishwhere they will raise this as an issue.
Date changing facility / Currently Available / This function already exists to the system module, when further information is required from the customer, the clock can be stopped but for this purpose only. No other changes to the due dates are allowed in line with the legislative requirements for these cases.
System permission levels / Currently Available / These are controlled by the system administrator. Permissions can be set at various levels and officer access can be restricted e.g. to prevent viewing of attached information etc.
Housekeeping of relevant documents / Currently Available / Facility exists whereby the documentation can be saved directly to the system
Letter templates / Currently Available / Standard letters are currently available however some housework is required with regards to the letters held here. Tageish programmer Michael Hill offered on a previous visit to LCC to build editable letters that could be used to include/exclude exemptions via a list of tick boxes. A cost may be incurred if this is to be included.
Email alert on due dates / Currently Available / This facility is currently available but the system needs to be used correctly to ensure this occurs – to receive these, cases need to be allocated to a user rather than a generic mailbox.
It is good practice to pro-actively use the Enterprise Dashboard on a daily basis rather than to wait for email alerts.
Appeals / Currently Available / Stage 2 appeals are already available via the FOI module of NSG
Breakdown of team/Service/Business Unit/Type of complaint on outstanding case files / Currently Available / Currently, cases are recorded at (former) Portfolio level. There is a facility to record the nature of the request after it has been received, however, this is based on the HYS module and should be reviewed for FOI and DP cases. On the 1stMarch 2009 a scheduled plan of work will begin to update the system to reflect the new Business Unit structure and the process owner can decide how they require breakdown from Business Unit/Team/Type of request etc - any categories can be requested and broken down by several strands
Public domain information / Currently Available / This facility already exists in the system. A topic list can be created for new cases which could potentially cut out duplication and enable quick access to previously supplied information; This can be used retrospectively with old cases, however, would need to have a resource applied to go through existing cases.

Appendix B

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