To consider the briefing note.

Nikki Craig outlined the briefing note, a suggestion had been made through the resident scrutiny suggestion topic process to develop an RBWM app. Over the summer, the transformation had been restructured to three different areas, community, adult social care and digital. The digital transformation team had determined that if work continued on the website to ensure that it was fully optimised to work on mobile devices, that would give the council the same results as a separate app. It was also worth noting the small size of the team and the resources that the team had available. The work on the website was connected to the customer journey project to ensure that all of these areas were joined up.

Councillor Price said that she was aware of some residents who would not use sections of the website where a password was needed. She asked why some areas of the website, for example the RBWM Together section, needed users to have a password to allow access.

Nikki Craig explained that the RBWM Together website was a separate entity to the main RBWM website. The main reason why users needed a password for this website was so that officers could ensure that one person was giving the information and that it could be tracked back. Nikki Craig said that she was happy to provide a further written response to Councillor Price.

ACTION – Nikki Craig to provide a further written response on the RBWM Together website, if appropriate.

Councillor Price felt that users should only be around three clicks away from what they were trying to find, this was not the case currently.

Nikki Craig responded by confirming that this was the aim, for users to be able to easily access what they were looking for on the website. Drupal was a public owned asset but RBWM could learn from other authorities and share their developments.

Councillor Price said that there was some customer journey information on the website that was out of date. She asked how easy it was for officers to update the information on the website.

Nikki Craig said that there was one person on the front end of the website who was responsible for publishing, but each service had individuals who were able to check content and send pages for approval. The final person was needed to ensure accessibility compliance.

Councillor Knowles said that through his own experience, he knew how difficult it could be when documentation and data was involved. A number of websites had a mobile friendly interface which then linked into the main website if further information was required.

Nikki Craig confirmed that the website was being reviewed to ensure that it performed as expected.

Councillor Davies was pleased to see that this was a priority for the council. Considering the report it tool, she found the maps to be a particular issue as it was based on roads and users were unable to report an issue in a park, for example, using the map tool.

Nikki Craig said that the report tool was developed in house to allow potholes to be reported to the council, which was why the map tool was fixed to the highway.

Councillor Davies said that a number of residents were positive about the ‘fix my street’ scheme, she asked if it also worked well on the receiving end from officers.

Andrew Durrant said that there were a number of different links and connections to operators and contractors, the team were working to improve the tool which would help officers locate problems.

Councillor Sharpe said that the security risk needed to be considered, including the potential for data leaks and ensuring that only the right people received personal information. Ease of use was important in ensuring that the customer journey was successful.

The Chairman said that the customer journey for the vast majority of residents was fairly small. The open information on the website could be more user friendly, the way that residents interacted with online services was important.

Councillor Sharpe said that the government website had customer journeys for things like car tax which were fairly simple, this was what RBWM should aim for.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel noted the report.

As the time had reached 9.30pm, the Panel needed to hold a vote on whether to continue the meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel voted to continue the meeting.