Agenda Item No______16______
UPDATE REPORT REVENUES AND BENEFITS PARTNERSHIP
Summary:
This report provides the Committee with an update on
the Revenues & Benefits Partnership between North
Norfolk District Council (NNDC) and the Borough
Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk (BCKLWN).
Conclusions:
The report identifies the key areas of work that the
Partnership will be focused on over the next six months.
Recommendations:
That members accept this report
Cabinet Member(s)
Ward(s) affected
Cllr W Northam
All
Contact Officer, telephone number and email:
Louise Wolsey 01263516081 Louise.wolsey@north-norfolk.gov.uk
1.
Introduction
1.1
A verbal update was presented to members of Scrutiny Committee on 24 July
2012. A position statement was given explaining the work that had taken
place, risks to the project and what had been put in place to mitigate the risks.
1.2
NNDC went live with the OPENRevenues system at the end of May and
BCKLWN went live on 1 August 2012.
2.
Progress Report
2.1
OPENRevenues Implementation Update – With both sites live the original
intention was to implement a merged database by the beginning of October.
For a number of reasons, including resolving conversion issues, stabilising
NNDC system performance, dealing with the processing backlog, staff morale
and a need to prepare for legislative changes, the Partnership Committee
agreed to reschedule the merge until after the end of year work i.e. April/May
2013.
2.2
Conversion Update – A significant amount of work is still being undertaken by
both councils to correct data conversion differences. The majority of these
have now been identified and outstanding problems are with the supplier to
resolve.
2.3
ICT hosting for the Partnership - There are performance issues with the new
revenues and benefits system for staff based at NNDC. These have been ongoing and subject to regular communications between NNDC and BCKLWN.
While there has been some improvement in the situation, the system still
lacks an acceptable level of stability and reliability. This has impacted on
NNDC staff confidence in the system and is detrimental to staff morale. At
Kings Lynn staff have suffered from no performance slowdowns and the
system has been performing well and running in a stable manner. The
Steering Group considered two options as to how to provide NNDC with the
stability and reliability that is necessary to ensure the services are best placed
to deal with an increased workload and future legislative changes, and at the
same time provide the staff with the confidence they need in the system
performance to face these challenges. The two options were ‘fat client’
technology or transfer North Norfolk’s data back to Cromer.
2.4
Using Citrix had proved to be unreliable; therefore it was decided to
investigate ‘fat client’ technology i.e. using the PC to process information
accessed from Kings Lynn over the fast 1GB link. This would involve setting
up a secure ‘trust’ relationship between the two networks. Despite good
progress being made, a reliable solution could not be demonstrated by the
agreed deadline (which was extended by a week) and Civica expressed
doubts as to whether a stable system could be established in a short
timescale.
2.5
Therefore it was agreed in accordance with the Steering Group
recommendation that the North Norfolk data would be brought back to
Cromer. The cost can be contained within the Partnership project budget. The
Partnership Board of 26 November 2013 endorsed this decision.
2.6
The North Norfolk IT team developed a project plan with colleagues at
BCKLWN and the Revenues and Benefits team to install the data in Cromer
and upgrade North Norfolk’s revenues and benefits PCs with fat clients and
installing Windows 7 which offers additional functionality.
2.7
The data was transferred back to Cromer in week commencing 3 December
2012. PCs have been installed, reconciliation and functionality testing
successfully completed. IT have completed a number of key tasks – returning
over 2 million documents to our network, configuring software to ensure all
documentation interfaces, user files are working, setting up batch queues and
maintenance procedures etc. Whilst there are still a large number of jobs to
completed, IT are committed to complete the migration within the tight
deadline.
2.8
The intention is that the live conversion will take place 12/13 January,
minimising the amount of down time across the service area.
2.9
This decision has come as a disappointment to the Partnership, but does not
undermine both Authorities continuing to work jointly so as to realise shared
benefits and efficiencies across both Councils.
3.
Performance
3.1.
Performance, as was anticipated, has been impacted in both benefits and
revenues by the data conversion. This has been further impacted by the lack
of stability and reliability of the system’s performance at Cromer. The need to
test functionality and reconciliation processes across the last few weeks, prior
to the live conversion, has also impacted on performance. Against this
background benefits processing continues to improve, with a reduction in
outstanding cases, and revenues collection is being maintained.
Improved reliability, stability and enhanced functionality of the system
following data transfer should assist the service area’s ability to continue to
make improvements in service performance
Appendix E Service Performance Benefits
Appendix F Service Performance Revenues
3.2.
Performance in revenues and benefits will be impacted by the changes to
council tax benefit, the council tax technical reforms and further welfare reform
changes to housing and other welfare benefits. These changes will require
staff training, changes to documentation, software and publicity.
Vacancies in the Council Tax section at NNDC have been filled. Temporary
staff, with knowledge of the legislation and the computer software, have been
employed in revenues and benefits to assist with outstanding work and to help
with the preparation of the coming changes.
4.
Conclusion
4.1.
While the reliability of the system had improved over the last few months it
was still necessary to make further improvements. It is proposed that North
Norfolk’s Data will be transferred into a live environment 12/13 January.
4.2
Performance in revenues and benefits has been improving as the teams have
become increasingly familiar with the new software, vacancies have been
filled and experienced temporary staff recruited.
4.3
The revenues and benefits service faces considerable change across the next
few months; continued development of the new software, changes to council
tax benefit, council tax technical reforms, retention of business rates and a
number of significant housing benefit reforms.
5
Implications and Risks to the Partnership
5.1.
These are reviewed regularly at Project Team meetings, Steering Group
Meetings and the Partnership Committee. Action is taken to mitigate the risks
which have been identified as high.
• IT infrastructure capacity is insufficient or fails.
This has been the risk that has given most cause for concern. The problems
experienced at North Norfolk (2.3) have contributed to the service not being
able to finish correcting the Benefits conversion errors and process its
outstanding work, leading to a dip in performance. The IT system
performance has improved recently although some problems do occur.
Resources such as agency staff and overtime are being used to improve the
situation. Currently this is being accommodated within the project budget. The
decision to transfer the data back to North Norfolk will significantly mitigate
this risk.
6
•
Lack of capacity meaning that the implementation project is delayed,
costs increased and the project loses credibility. The Steering Group
believes that by delaying the implementation of the data merge they are seen
to be responsive to the current situation and that this will enable the project to
maintain its credibility. The increase in project costs due to this decision can
be contained within the existing project budget. Linked to this is the risk of
unrealistic timescales leading to a rushed implementation and a more
expensive service. Delaying the merge will make this less likely to occur.
•
A reduction in quality of services during transition, leading to a loss of
confidence in the Partnership. The system problems experienced by NNDC
have affected the staff view of the Partnership. Recent changes have
improved the situation and monitoring will be necessary to ensure on going
improvements continue to provide a stable system work environment.
•
Staff morale. NNDC staff morale has dropped, partly due to the system
problems experienced and also to do with moving to an integrated back office
and workflow system. Regular communication and updates for staff are being
maintained and additional training and support has been provided to those
who need it. As a result morale has been improving. Staff have remained
committed to the project and are doing additional hours and overtime to
reduce processing times across the service.
•
The implementation of Council Tax support and other legislative
changes. The introduction of new Council Tax support and other legislative
changes has meant that resources at both authorities are being stretched,
placing significant demands on the two Revenues and Benefits Managers and
their management teams. This has knock-on implications as far as our
capacity to reduce the backlog of workload related to the system
implementation is concerned.
Sustainability
No impact
7
Equality and Diversity
Delays in processing housing and council tax benefits could adversely impact
on those reliant on these benefits.
8
Section 17 Crime and Disorder considerations
No impact