PART I
(OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)
ITEM NO.
REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (ADMINISTRATION
TO LEAD MEMBER BRIEFING MEETING ON
28TH APRIL, 2003
TITLE :
SOLAR
RECOMMENDATIONS :
THAT the policies available for tagging be re-examined in conjunction with the "categories"
for Decision Notices to ensure that tagging is consistent and meaningful. It may also be
necessary to have a "no relevant policy" box. Once this issue has been resolved :
Committee Services officers will need to be instructed / reminded of the process for
tagging, which is straightforward and easily learned.

Directorates can be informed / reminded of the agreed tag policies so that they can
indicate these within their reports.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS :
(available for public inspection)
Previous reports on SOLAR.
ASSESSMENT OF RISK :
High
SOURCES OF FUNDING :
IT Budget
LEGAL ADVICE OBTAINED :
FINANCIAL ADVICE OBTAINED :
CONTACT OFFICER :
Graham Chinn (793 3003)
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S) :
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES :
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All Wards
Communications and Public Relations
Modernising Local Government
E-Government
DETAILS :
A progress report on SOLAR was submitted to the Lead Members' Briefing Meeting on 24th
March, 2003, and it was requested that an Action Plan be prepared for a future meeting. I
have met with Keith Clare, David Hunter and Anthony Todd to discuss the various
outstanding issues and this report presents an update on the situation. The contents of an
Action Plan are partially dependent upon the discussions which will take place on this report,
but I hope to bring a draft Action Plan to the meeting. The paragraphs below cover the
various areas which have been discussed in relation to SOLAR.
SOLAR ON THE INTERNET
Following the meeting between IT and G-MAPPS, the necessary technical details have been
largely sorted out and SOLAR could be rolled out on the Internet in the near future. The
remaining issue to be sorted out is the protection of “part 2” reports which contain exempt or
confidential information.
DECISION MAKING MODULE, INCLUDING CALL-IN
The decision making module is now ready to go on SOLAR. The electronic call-in facility will
be available on line, including instructions on how to use it, notification to Committee
Services and a note of the number of members requesting call-in to indicate whether call-in
has been activated.
The status of decision notices will also be displayed with status numbers 1 – 3 being
available to view by all on the Internet and status numbers 0 – 3 being available to members
and officers only. The status numbers indicate:0
1
2
3
-
off line. Decision in preparation/not yet published etc.
within the period of 5 working days after publication i.e. potentially subject to call-in
request to call-in received/undergoing call-in procedure
decision in force.
There is currently no hyperlink between decision notices and their associated reports, but IT
are investigating ways of providing such a link. The possibility of decision notices forming
the front sheets of reports has been suggested as a way forward, but this would involve
further development of the system and it would be appropriate to prioritise two other areas
first:
 encourage/insist on all reports being submitted on the correct outlook form
(currently 60-70% of reports are correct in this respect)

Committee Services Officers to service all lead member briefings, which would
itself help to ensure the use of correct outlook forms (currently this service is not
provided to Environmental Services – request being actioned, Community and
Social Services and Personnel and Performance)
It is suggested that decision notices should go on SOLAR in parallel with their appearance
on the Internet for a period of weeks to ensure that any problems are ironed out before
SOLAR is their only location. As and when decision notices are posted on SOLAR, IT will
examine the possibility of members being notified automatically as new decisions are
included, rather than continuing with the present arrangements whereby members are
E-mailed with this information.
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TAGGING
Tagging refers specifically to the “wards to which report relates” and “key council policies”
sections on the standard report form. Tagging is dependent upon:

Directorates identifying the wards in their report, which would enable this to be
tagged by Committee Services.
Directorates identifying policies which would translate into the list of potential
policy tags.
There is a problem in relation to policies, in that Directorates can identify specific policies
from among the dozens which exist, but in most cases these do not translate directly into the
policies available for tagging (there are 30 of these, representing a variety of
policies/themes). To illustrate the problem, a recent report of the Lead Member for
Education to Cabinet listed the following key council policies:






Community Plan
6 pledges
Salford Early Years Development and Child Care Plan
Sure Start Plan
Education Development Plan
Economic Development Plan
The policies available for tagging are shown in Appendix 1 attached. A further problem
occurs where the correct outlook form is not used and the sections relating to wards/policies
are not included or not completed.
A recommendation to take account of these issues is included on the front sheet of this
report.
CATEGORISATION AND SEARCH FACILITY
Categorisation is applied to Decision Notices by Committee Services and indicates a
Directorate or service area, as opposed to the "policy" identified by tagging. This is in itself a
useful index to reports, e.g. the "highways" category should be a more easily recognisable
link than the alternative "regeneration" or "transport strategy" policy tags.
IT are developing a search facility based on words / phrases in the titles of reports and this
will provide a further link to reports (and Decision Notices) in future.
As mentioned under the heading "Tagging" above, the whole of the indexing / search area
needs to be reassessed to make it more user-friendly and of maximum potential use.
PLANNING APPLICATION DECISIONS
Agendas and reports for meetings of the Planning and Transportation Regulatory Panel are
included on SOLAR at present. A potential area for development in the future would be to
include decisions on these applications within SOLAR.
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NOTICE BOARD
The notice board on SOLAR is not being regularly updated in respect of all areas. It is
suggested that the Members' Services Unit could exercise a general responsibility for
ensuring that updated information is provided by appropriate Directorates.
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