Agenda item

The Chairman referred to the issue of further IT training for Members which had been discussed at previous meetings and had invited the Service Manager (SM) ICT to the meeting.  The SM ICT gave a brief presentation to Members about proposals to set some structured courses for Members to attend.   He gave a brief background to the issue.

·                    Members had had their laptops now for about 18 – 24 months.

·                    They had access to broadband at varying levels.

·                    Programmes on their laptops included word, excel, e-mail, intranet and internet access and Modern.gov

He was very keen for Members to feedback to him with any problems they were having or how improvements to the service could be made.  He appreciated that there were varying degrees of IT experience amongst the Members and he wanted them to be able to maximise the systems they had and use their machines with confidence.  One of the Members present referred to the wireless connection and why currently Councillors had to go into a “double” system to get connected.  The SM ICT said that this issue was currently being addressed and work was being done to make it simpler for Members and Officers alike to go straight into the network.  He was proposing to put four two hour session on for Members covering the following:

·                    Session 1 - Refresh on the SKDC IT access including:

·        Use of smartcard

·        Main points of laptop

·        What cable goes where

·        How to log on and off

·        How to access email

·        How to access intranet, modern.gov

·                    Session 2 - Getting round Windows

·        What is Windows?

·        Start bar

·        Finding programs

·        Finding Files

·        Main Windows software, calculator, calendars etc

·                    Session 3 - Introduction to Word and Excel

·        Creating documents

·        Basic file tasks

·        Formatting documents

·        Tables

·        Page layouts

·        Spreadsheets

·                    Session 4 - The Internet

·        What is the internet and terms used

·        Accessing the internet

·        Searching e.g. google

·        Main government sites

·        Our corporate website

·        www.southkesteven.gov.uk

·        Functionality

·        Customer experience

As the topics were discussed Members asked questions about various aspects including:

-          the need to use smartcards within their machines (this was for security in case the laptop was misplaced/stolen

-          Use of formulae in excel, key aspect showing Members how to “self surf “ the systems to find help

Members felt that there was a need to have training but expressed concern that there was only a six month period until the elections and was it cost effective to put training on for Members that perhaps come May would not be standing.

From looking at the proposed content of the sessions Members felt that both sessions 1 and 4 could be put on at the same time and also 2 and 3 to help mitigate the need for long sessions.  It was suggested that a questionnaire should be sent out by both post and electronically to all Members asking what their training needs were and the results of this discussed at the next meeting of the Group to see how the training can be further progressed.  It was suggested that if a group of Members had the same specific problems then a small training session could be arranged.  Further comments were made about the use of council laptops by Members, if they were only specifically for council work, some Members found this too restrictive and preferred to use their own computer.  A question was asked about having access to the intranet being installed on home computers was this a possibility?  The SM ICT indicated that it was something he would look into.

Recommendation

That the SM ICT sends out a questionnaire to all Members both electronically and by post to find out Members IT training requirements and the results reported to the January meeting of the PDG.

?Action Note:  The SM ICT to look at the Intranet being put on Councillor’s home computers.