Report from Wales Audit Office identifies gap between ICT and digital strategies at the local authority
Wales Audit Office has told a local authority that it needs to better align and document its ICT and digital strategies in its efforts to achieve cost savings and service improvements.
Its corporate assessment report on Vale of Glamorgan Council says that, while the authority recognises the importance of strategies for the two fields, there is little read-across between them, with the ICT draft not referring to any of the high level objectives in the vision for digital.
It says an ICT service plan is in place, which is good for day-to-day management, and that senior staff have a good awareness of risks such as local government reorganisation and advances in technology. But these are not adequately set out in the council’s strategic draft documents, which leaves space for future shortcomings.
On a more positive note, it says there are moves to develop a corporate vision for ICT that could inform both strategies.
In addition, the working relationship between ICT staff, the council leadership and elected members is good, and that the council is already building document control into its key ICT document to support periodic reviews.
The comments are part of a generally upbeat report on the council, which the auditor says “has a clear vision of what it wants to achieve and is making positive changes which should ensure it is well placed to continue securing improvement”.
Auditor General for Wales Huw Vaughan Thomas said: “It is very positive to see a local authority receive such a good report and see that they have committed to looking at developing key services, such as ICT, to deliver more efficient services. I encourage the authority to continue this high standard as they deliver their proposed changes to key services.”
Image: Penarth Pier in the Vale of Glamorgan by John Dalling, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
