The Inter-Authority Partnership Unit (I-APU)
of Kent County Council (KCC), created to improve performance
between local authorities, has enlisted the services of Cobweb
Solutions. Cobweb Solutions manages the communications system for
the I-APUs pilot Local Government Franchising (LGF) partnership
between KCC and Swindon Borough Council (SBC).
The implementation of Cobweb’s Hosted Windows SharePoint
Services, a team working and collaboration tool enables the KCC and
SBC to share best management practice and collaborate on
confidential documents over the Internet. It is also used for time
recording and provides a central place to post all programme
documentation.
LGF, funded by the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister and Local Government Association, is the KCC’s own
commissioning and delivery agent. It facilitates service delivery
partnerships between different local authorities, to replicate best
management practice, through temporary transfers of people and
long-term transfers of ways of working.
The first partnership between KCC and SBC
was initiated to radically improve the performance of Swindon’s
social services department over a two to three year period. The
programme went live on 1st October 2004 and Swindon social
services’ first ever Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI)
‘star’ was announced publicly on 1st December 2005. This continues
to be an ongoing project for which KCC provides continued support
and guidance to 600 staff in Swindon’s Social Services
department.
The I-APU is a small unit with four members
of staff, located in County Hall in Maidstone, Kent that actively
support the partnership between KCC and SBC.
The Challenge
Senior officers at KCC and SBC, situated in
different parts of the country, required a means to easily and
efficiently share confidential information, collaborate on
proposals and documents and liase on a daily basis. Although some
officers were willing to travel to attend meetings, this was not a
solution for day-to-day liaison.
As this was an entirely new initiative
Maureen Smith, business delivery manager of the I-APU decided from
the offset that she required a management tool that would ensure
the success of this relationship.
Maureen Smith comments, “I felt in order for
the first LGF partnership to run to the best of its ability, I
needed a means for senior officers in Kent and Swindon to share
documents in a variety of formats easily and efficiently, whether
in the office or at home. I began researching how this could be
done. As a very small department we did not want to implement the
technology in-house as the high cost implications were very clear,
so enlisting the help of a hosted provider seemed the best route
for us.”
The Solution
A total of 50 people in Kent and Swindon are
now utilising Cobweb’s Hosted Windows SharePoint Services, which
was brought in to specifically cater to the needs of the flagship
LGF partnership. The SharePoint site provides the IAP-U, KCC and
SBC the flexibility to store, share and retrieve reports and
proposals and the means to prepare summary reports for steering
group meetings.
Due to the confidential nature of the
information being shared on the KCC and SBC section of the IAP-U
SharePoint website, security was a key requirement. Senior officers
and other key parties in the LGF partnership have been supplied
with a login and password, ensuring the confidential information on
the site remains secure.
The programme is broken down into work
streams and whilst all have access to the general programme
documentation, where necessary it is also possible for personnel to
have additional access permissions and editing capabilities, which
Cobweb tightly monitors on their behalf.
Other security features within the Cobweb
Hosted Windows SharePoint Services solution includes a
comprehensive antivirus protection, daily data backups and secure
access via SSL that removes the need for expensive and difficult to
manage VPNs.
Predictability of cost through Cobweb’s
pay-as-you-go per user per month pricing system also allows for the
IAP-U to keep costs down in response to the changing numbers of
people that might require access to the SharePoint site.
Michael Frisby, business development
director at Cobweb Solutions comments, “The way in which the IAP-U
is facilitating the KCC and SBC partnership demonstrates how
important SharePoint is as a management tool. It enables councils
in different locations to share best practice and knowledge and to
work together more effectively without the need for regular
physical meetings which can be very time consuming and with travel
costs, very expensive.”
The IAP-U must keep a tight reign on the
time being spent on the LGF partnership by both Kent and Swindon
personnel. The SharePoint site acts as a useful resource for time
recording. In addition, timesheets can be easily accessed and
printed for steering group meetings.
Maureen Smith adds, “The SharePoint website
has assisted the IAP-U enormously with the delivery, procurement
and support of its first LGF partnership. It has enabled Kent to
share its best practice management knowledge with Swindon, and I am
extremely pleased with the outstanding results they have achieved
so far.
“I fully intend to use Cobweb’s Hosted
Windows SharePoint Services for future partnerships as we’ve been
able to totally rely on Cobweb for technical support. We plan to
develop this programme so that other high performing councils that
have particular strengths can share expertise with other local
authorities, whether that is in social services or a council that
has executed a successful cultural programme.”