16 February 2011 - Change Board
MANAGEMENT BOARD
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 16 FEBRUARY 2011
CONFERENCE ROOM 1, CROWN OFFICE
Present:
(Chair) Catherine Dyer Crown Agent
Peter Collings Deputy Chief Executive
John Dunn Deputy Crown Agent
Janice Irvine Director of Human Resources
Morag McLaughlin Area Fiscal, Lothian and Borders
Lesley Thomson Area Fiscal, Glasgow
In attendance: Shona Barrie Divisional PF, Glasgow
Ashley Constance SDD
Linda Herbert Director of IT
Graham Kerr ABM, Argyll & Clyde
John Logue Area Fiscal, Tayside (by VC)
Michelle Macleod Head of Policy
Kevin McArthur Secretary
Tracy Ramsay Secretary
Sue Sandeman Staff Information Manager
John Tannahill Head of Strategy & Planning, SDD
Geri Watt Director of Strategy & Delivery
Apologies : Robert Gordon Non-Exec Director
Welcome
1. Catherine Dyer welcomed everyone to the first Change Board.
2. Apologies were received from Robert Gordon, Non-Executive Director.
Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising
3. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved with minor amendments at paragraph 6E. There were no Action points from the previous minutes.
Change Board Highlight Report
4. Geri Watt introduced the Change Board Highlight Report. She reminded the meeting that MB decided to sit as a Change Board to ensure that, in the current financial climate, all Criminal Justice Partners Change Projects and other changes within COPFS are appropriately prioritised, resourced, monitored, implemented and that all possible benefits are realised. Geri indicated that, as well as current, ongoing initiatives, a summary of new proposals for projects will be brought to future Change Boards by SDD as they arise.
5. Catherine welcomed John Logue (by Video Conference) and Shona Barrie to the meeting. The following presentations were given:
(1) Summary Justice Model
John Logue gave an update on the Summary Justice Model project. This Project is linked very closely with another project (Getting People to Court). John confirmed that this is a Scottish Government (SG) project in which COPFS is leading and which reports to the Making Justice Work Group of SG and the Summary Justice Reform Board and falls to John Logue’s portfolio area in COPFS. John gave MB an overview of the scope and benefits of the project. MB noted that workstreams aimed at reducing the number of unnecessary adjournments in summary courts overlaps to an extent with the project Shona Barrie leads.
(2) Getting People to Court
This project is being led by ACPOS. Shona Barrie provided an overview of the current progress of the project. Shona also updated MB on the progress of the 3 Workstreams: Getting the Accused to Court, Getting Witnesses to Court and Getting Police to Court and gave MB background on the scope and progress of these groups.
(3) Video Conferencing in Court
Catherine welcomed John Tannahill to the meeting. John gave an update on the Video Conferencing in Court project which is a SG project, which hopes to emulate a successful pilot in London where a case can be processed from start to finish whilst the accused remains in custody at the police station. This project has the potential for large savings on cost within the criminal justice system as a whole and time of transporting of accused to and from court avoiding delays in consultation with defence agents, improved security, local release i.e appropriate for the accused and more controlled running order in custody courts. It was noted that there were no immediate benefits to COPFS, however, the meeting noted that this facility could be used to reduce the number of additional custody courts required on public holidays.
(4) Full Electronic Case Record
Catherine welcomed Graham Kerr to the meeting. Graham gave an update on the COPFS Full Electronic Case Records project. The pilot deals with scanning all hard copy correspondence, emails, written notes, minute sheets and case papers into the electronic case record which can then be accessed anywhere by COPFS staff to work on or answer correspondence and telephone queries. The pilot has been running in Paisley over the past year and the aim is to roll out to all COPFS offices. There are no costs involved at present but further IT storage capacity and staff process training costs are being examined. It was agreed that the full business case for national roll out should come back to the next Change Board. Action: Secretariat/Graham Kerr
(5) Secure Website Disclosure
Peter Collings gave an update on the COPFS Secure Website Disclosure project. The objective is to provide an audit trail for all disclosure and allow certainty for defence, Crown and Court as to the status of disclosure in each case. There are also staff time savings for COPFS and agents will no longer require to attend COPFS offices to uplift disclosure materials. The initial roll out is scheduled to be complete by the end of April and has had positive feedback from the Defence Agents and Sheriffs in all locations covered so far. It was agreed that this project should report back to the next Change Board for further update. Action: Secretariat/Peter Collings
(6) Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI)
Linda Herbert gave an update of the current progress of the VDI project. This project makes use of technology which is different from the traditional access to COPFS IT programmes by desk top PC and is aimed at significantly increasing the speed of FOS on screen so far as individual users are concerned. She identified the benefits of introducing VDI, and confirmed significant improvements in FOS performance had been achieved in pilots in 4 offices so far.
Communications Strategy
6. Sue Sandeman updated Management Board on the internal Communications Strategy. Sue advised the meeting that consideration was being given to our overall strategy including the communication requirements of the Change Programme. Sue advised that there is a communication plan template that should be completed every time a new project is started. Sue suggested that the current Change Road Map could be placed on PF Eye and that after each Change Board there could be a synopsis of what the latest update is from each project. She proposed a special edition of Update in March to focus on change projects.
Estates Shared Service
7. Peter Collings introduced paper MB(11)10 which sought MB’s agreement to further work being done with Scottish Courts on the governance of some shared service and sought MB approval to opening discussions with Trade Unions regarding staffing implications. MB agreed that Peter should take this forward with the Trade Unions and report back to MB after these discussions had taken place. Action: Peter Collings
AOB
8. Lesley Thomson suggested that in all future Management Board meetings it should be agreed by MB what particular points of information is required to be disseminated to the Federations by herself, John Dunn and Morag McLaughlin at their regular business meetings.
9. Peter Collings asked MB to submit a note of any particular projects they wished to be considered for the next Change Board to him. Action: Management Board
MB Secretariat
23 February 2011
SUMMARY OF ACTION POINTS ARISING FROM MEETING
ON 16 FEBRUARY 2011
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Member
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Action Points
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Status
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Secretariat/ Graham Kerr
5(4).
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Catherine welcomed Graham Kerr to the meeting. Graham gave an update on the COPFS Full Electronic Case Records project. The pilot deals with scanning all hard copy correspondence, emails, written notes, minute sheets and case papers into the electronic case record which can then be accessed anywhere by COPFS staff to work on or answer correspondence and telephone queries. The pilot has been running in Paisley over the past year and the aim is to roll out to all COPFS offices. There are no costs involved at present but further IT storage capacity and staff process training costs are being examined. It was agreed that the full business case for national roll out should come back to the next Change Board
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Secretariat /
Peter Collings
5(5).
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Peter Collings gave an update on the COPFS Secure Website Disclosure project. The objective is to provide an audit trail for all disclosure and allow certainty for defence, Crown and Court as to the status of disclosure in each case. There are also staff time savings for COPFS and agents will no longer require to attend COPFS offices to uplift disclosure materials. The initial roll out is scheduled to be complete by the end of April and has had positive feedback from the Defence Agents and Sheriffs in all locations covered so far. It was agreed that this project should report back to the next Change Board for further update.
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Peter Collings
7.
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Peter Collings introduced paper MB(11)10 which sought MB’s agreement to further work being done with Scottish Courts on the governance of some shared service and sought MB approval to opening discussions with Trade Unions regarding staffing implications. MB agreed that Peter should take this forward with the Trade Unions and report back to MB after these discussions had taken place.
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Management Board
9.
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Peter Collings asked MB to submit a note of any particular projects they wished to be considered for the next Change Board to him.
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