South Staffordshire Council is using MS teams to hold remote meetings.
What is it/why/who etc?
The One Council approach to service delivery has been demonstrated in the focused approach to delivering our business through remote access during the public health crisis. Building on an already excellent corporate relationship with the IT team the services have been able to match an understanding of the IT capability and functionality with the service area business needs.
On 21 April South Staffordshire Council delivered a Planning Committee with 21 members, a number of key officers and a number of public speakers who were all engaged in the committee business. The event was streamed live and was viewed by those who would ordinarily have been able to view to the event in the Council Offices.
This capability has also meant that we are now working with partners to host a programme of events for our local businesses to ensure that we can keep in touch with them, to ensure that they can access the support they need, that we can be as responsive as possible to their needs and that our businesses can connect with not only the Council but each other. This digital method of connecting people has given us a platform to sustain our relationships with business and forge new ones.
How is it being sustained?
Testing, testing, testing, trial and error and many sessions of officer and member training sessions utilising ‘dry run sessions’ running up to the main first event to ensure the first session went as smooth as possible. These training sessions allowed procedure notes to be prepared to cover each stage of the committee process. This meant that as many issues as possible were identified, isolated and resolved. The use of digital technology to communicate has become second nature, with daily Corporate Leadership meetings being held through teams along with engagement with members both in an informal and formal capacity. This has meant that the step to holding meetings in the public forum has been a natural progression. The Council have now held a number of public meetings and we are constantly refining our approach.
Lessons learned
Take the time to test and accept that it will not go right the first time of testing. Ensure that there are the experts on hand in the meeting and behind the scenes if things don’t go to plan and have a easily executable back up plan that is compliant with the regulations ( e.g. agreement from a public speaker that an officer can read a public speaking script if the member of public loses connection).
Contacts
Annette Roberts – Corporate Director Planning & Infrastructure
Andy Hoare – Assistant Director Business Transformation