Providing elected members with the right skills, training and development is at the heart of a new development by Scottish local government, the Members’ Portal.
The Members’ Portal will provide elected members with a flexible, simple, easy-to-use and mobile solution to manage their caseloads whether at home, in the office or at their surgery. It is being developed by a partnership made up of the Improvement Service, Belfast-based solutions provider, Lagan and Scottish local government, under Argyll & Bute Council’s lead.
Incorporating online maps, the Portal will come with the additional benefit of allowing elected members to identify trends in the types and locations of cases brought to the attention of members.
Two factors – one strategic, one tactical - have combined to influence the Portal’s origins and to shape development.
Firstly, the Portal’s origins stem from a demand identified by Scottish councils themselves; this in part emerged from the shift in the governance of Scotland that emerged after the May 2007 local elections that resulted in the signing of the Concordat between central and local government and the introduction of Single Outcome Agreements.
The second factor is the emergence of a large body of Scottish councils (18 out of 32) standardising on a common technology platform, Lagan’s caseload management solution. This has led to a call from Scottish local government for the Lagan solution to be developed further and put to good effect in the management of elected members’ caseloads.
Critically, a strong appetite has emerged for councils to work collaboratively to ensure that this new requirement is taken forward and coordinated at a national level and, in the new financial context facing the pubic sector, implemented in a cost effective manner.
At a workshop in The Lighthouse, Glasgow on 22nd February 2010, representatives from seven Scottish councils joined the Improvement Service and Lagan to set out in more detail the specific requirements the Members’ Portal must incorporate if it is to meet effectively the needs of elected members and the officers who provide their support on a daily basis.
At the workshop, representatives from Lagan took the opportunity to provide a comprehensive overview of the Portal’s capabilities and potential, to showcase a prototype of the Portal and, in a facilitated Q&A session, to respond to questions and concerns raised by delegates.
In what was a well received event that benefited from substantive delegates’ input, the workshop closed with wide agreement from the seven councils to continue working collaboratively with the Improvement Service and Lagan to take forward and conclude the Portal’s development and user testing prior to a wider launch by mid-2010.
Article by: Martin Brown
Further information
For more information, contact Martin Brown or Hilary Horton.
