Report of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and the City Centre, and the Portfolio Holder of Housing, Planning and Heritage
Minutes:
This report was approved in writing by the Chief Executive prior to the meeting as required by the Council’s Constitution for all capital expenditure.
Pete Mitchell, Head of Regulation, introduced the report on tendering for a replacement for Civica’s Authority Public Protection (APP ‘Flare’) system which has been in operation within Nottingham City Council (NCC) since 2006. Civica UK Ltd, Flare’s supplier announced the system will become unsupported from September
2022 and NCC’s supply contract ends at the same time. NCC cannot adequately or efficiently respond to its statutory requirements without having a digital solution in place and so it is recommended that a replacement is tendered.
The replacement system will be more efficient and suitable for mobile working, as well as being more compatible with other Council IT systems.
Resolved to
(1)
delegate authority to the Strategic Director of
Community Protection to enter into a 5year (+2year option) contract
through an approved Crown Commercial Services framework with the
supplier offering best value;
(2) approve the expenditure detailed in the exempt appendix to the report.
Reasons for recommendations:
·
To ensure that the Council can adequately continue to deliver its
statutory functions in relation to Community Protection from
September 2022.
·
To comply with Financial Regulations relating to testing the market
to demonstrate best value for money is being obtained.
·
To ensure business continuity for Community Protection and
Nottingham City Council with a new supplier contract in place
before the existing contact and solution expires.
·
To provide adequate time and resources to replace the existing
solution in a seamless and cost effectively way. Note: The
replacement solution will require an estimated 18 months to
install, set up, configure, and migrate to the new
system.
·
To maintain colleague engagement, focus and buy-in to the project.
The project started in October 2019 by defining problems,
opportunities and requirements. A considerable engagement exercise
has considered all market options and has clear
recommendations.
·
To reduce the organisational and community risk of not being able
to operate adequate, effective and efficient services as a result
of any period of time having to use an unsupported
solution.
· To pro-actively plan and build services for a post crisis organisation considering changes to regulations and legislation as a result of external treats, Covid-19 and Brexit, and internal treats, budget pressures and changing city environment.
Other options considered in making recommendations:
·
Do Nothing. Allow APP Flare to fall out of support, but continue
usage. This is not recommended:
o This would put NCC at a very high risk; if the system failed, or Central Government changed the legislative framework, NCC would be on its own to resolve this.
o NCC would still have to pay Civica for the intellectual property right to use the unsupported software.
o
The system would become increasingly insecure as it would not be
kept up to date with any technical security changes or updates in
the computer server or network environment. Citizen, Business and
NCC data would therefore be at an increasing risk, especially of
data protection breaches, which can result in significant financial
penalties under the UK Data Protection Act 2018.
·
Develop then implement an in-house solution:
o This was rejected as IT Services do not have the requisite resources or time to develop, then maintain such a system.
o The cost and effort to develop such as solution would out-strip the cost of a product built for market, which is already available and in use within the sector.
Supporting documents: