Remote council meetings: Devon County Council

The solution

Perhaps like a lot of people, I was a little suspicious of the new suite of Office 365 apps when they were first introduced at Devon County Council and wasn’t really sure how they would enhance or improve the way that I work. However, as a team we began using Microsoft Teams to save and share documents and useful information, and record notes and actions from team meetings, which worked really well. We then began thinking about ways that we could use Teams on scrutiny task group reviews to share information and collaborate with Councillors, rather than sending everything by email. 

Then the current COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown happened, and everything changed! The biggest challenge for us was how we would continue to run the meetings necessary for councillors to make key decisions and provide scrutiny challenge. In particular the lockdown directive coincided with the publication of the Ofsted report which found Children’s Services in Devon to be ‘inadequate’. Councillors and the Chief Officer for Children’s Services were very clear that despite the Committee being unable to meet in a physical, formal way, it was important that Scrutiny Councillors had the opportunity question senior officers and the Cabinet Member on the inadequate rating and findings, in a transparent and public way. An online virtual meeting was needed.

Our fantastic colleagues in the IT Change Team provided me with tremendous support in using Teams to make this happen, including training for councillors, support during the meeting itself and assistance after the meeting to get the video recording published online. Considering that this was the first time that many of the councillors in the meeting had used Teams or been involved in a virtual meeting, it was a real success and feedback from everyone involved was extremely positive.

This success enabled us to make similar arrangements for our Cabinet meeting which took place on 8 April 2020, where members of the local press were also able to join the meeting. We will be using Teams for all future meetings of Cabinet while we are in a lockdown situation and are hoping to hold some of our other committee meetings in this way too, allowing the important democratic decision-making process to continue through these challenging times.

I am aware that many colleagues in other local authorities are without this this level of digital infrastructure and are struggling to hold virtual meetings, relying on free apps with less security and functionality.  I am very grateful to Devon County Council for choosing to invest in this technology when they did, and I am sure that my colleagues and councillors will continue to benefit from the different ways of working made possible by Office 365, long after we return to ‘normal’.

How the approach is being sustained 

The council has embraced this new way of work and have recognised the legacy such protocols could have on the organisation after COVID-19. It is focusing on ensuring this is business as usual where everything is in place technology-wise and everyone has a full understanding of protocol. It is important to keep the wheels of democracy turning and utilising virtual meetings is a crucial way to do this. As an example, the system is also being used more widely in scrutiny work, for example sharing documents in relation to a review on 5G technology and work is also underway in preparation for hearing School Admission Appeals in this way, tweaking the approaches to ensure parents are able to fully participate in the process. 

Lessons learned

Ensure the clerk is in control of housekeeping and general etiquette of the meeting – as lessons have been learnt around ensuring everyone has a clear understanding of how these meetings are organised and monitored. 

It is crucial to also make sure you have resource on the meeting to help balance and support the clerk and members. 

Contact

Karen Strahan Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager

[email protected]