Agenda and minutes

To confirm the appointment of the Chair for the meeting.

In accordance with Section 10 of the Joint Committee Terms of Reference the Chair should rotate between the appointed members from each Council at each meeting. As this meeting is being hosted by the London Borough of Brent the practice is for the Chair of the meeting to be appointed from the membership of that authority.

It was RESOLVED that in accordance with Section 10 of the Joint Committee’s Terms of Reference, Councillor Mili Patel (London Borough of Brent) be appointed as Chair for the duration of the meeting.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Barrie Hargrove (London Borough of Southwark).

No other apologies were received at the meeting.

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

There were no declarations of interest declared by Members at the meeting.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 18 March 2025 as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the previous meeting of the Joint Committee of the London Boroughs of Brent, Lewisham and Southwark held on Tuesday 18 March 2025 be approved as a correct record.

No deputations or requests to speak were received at the meeting.

This report provides an update on the performance of the Shared ICT Service.

Fabio Negro (Managing Director Shared Technology Services) introduced the report to the Joint Committee providing an update on key performance areas in relation to the Shared Technology Service (STS).  Fabio Negro welcomed Mobeen Zafar, Head of Operations STS who member were advised had replaced Kevin Ginn following his retirement.

Members noted the summary of key performance management indicators for the service across all three Council’s, which had been included within the report and in terms of detailed service performance, the Joint Committee was advised of the following:

·            In this reporting period (March 2025 to May 2025), SLA performance for priority 3 (P3) operational incident issues had improved by around 5% with priority 4 (P4) operational request calls SLA having largely been maintained within the Service Level Agreement (SLAs).  Although, not covered in the reporting period covered within the update members were advised about the occurrence of recent priority 1 (P1) incidents in June 2025, on which further detail would be provided at the next meeting.

·            STS had achieved the second lowest number of open issues and requests for staff since its inception, despite having the largest user base on record.

·            The introduction of a new Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey to replace the previous Net Promotor Score (NPS) based system. Positive feedback had been received in regard to sharing good communications and improving how P1 indents were handled, however the team were not receiving enough responses and were encouraging more responses in order to gain a more accurate picture.

·            The team had reprocured the Telephony Service Desk with tighter service levels.  The new contract had commenced on the 1^st of April 2025 on which performance would be subject to ongoing and assessment.

·            In this reporting period (March to May 2025), SLA performance for P3 operational incident issues had remained the same and P4 operational request calls SLA had been maintained at the same level compared with the previous reporting period.  This had come with a reduction in open calls and these together showed good progress in overall operational performance.

·            The work undertaken with the onsite teams in each Council to improve the customer experience and response times.

·            Development work had been completed for Hornbill with a free text box added for better user experience.

·            The progress in relation to audit delivery with the final report now issued on the Southwark Financial Reporting Review and a rating of “Moderate” for Design Opinion and “Moderate” for Design Effectiveness. This included one recommendation relating to STS to provide minutes and actions from monthly review meetings. In addition, the final report from the Brent IT Project Management Review had also been issued with a rating of “Moderate Assurance”.

·            Microsoft was due to end support for Windows 10 in October 2025 with the associated project part of the STS transition strategy to ensure all systems and operations continued without interruptions or security risks linked to unsupported software and hardware.  For Brent, deployment of new Windows 11 laptops was underway, and STS had so far completed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Members are asked to note the remaining dates for the Joint Committee during the 2025 – 26 Municipal Year as follows:

·            Tuesday 25 November 2025 at 6pm – Southwark to host online

·            Tuesday 17 March 2026 at 6pm – Lewisham to host online

Members NOTED the remaining dates for the Joint Committee during the 2025 – 26 Municipal Year as follows:

·            Tuesday 25 November 2025 at 6pm – Southwark to host online

·            Tuesday 17 March 2026 at 6pm – Lewisham to host online

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director Democratic & Corporate Governance (Brent Council) or their representative in advance of the meeting.

None identified.

To consider the exclusion of the press and public from the remainder of the meeting as the remaining report to be considered contains the following category of exempt information as specified in Paragraph 3, Part 1 Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, namely:

“Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)"

At this stage in proceedings the Chair advised that she intended to move into closed session for the remainder of the meeting in order to consider a separate report for the Joint Committee providing updates on the Cyber Security status, threats, and mitigations in relation to the Shared Technology Services (STS).

Given the commercially sensitive nature of the details contained within the update, the Joint Committee were advised that the report would need to be considered in closed session which would require the Joint Committee to pass a formal resolution excluding the press and public for consideration of the item.

It was therefore AGREED that that under Section 100A (4) of the Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for consideration of the following item on the grounds that it would involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person, including the authority holding that information) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended).

The online livestream was ended at this point in the meeting

Fabio Negro (Managing Director - Shared Technology Services) then introduced the update report in relation to Cyber Security status, threats, and mitigations for the Shared Technology Service (STS).  In considering the report Members noted the update provided in relation to the onboarding of the provider to deliver a 24x7 Security Operations Centre monitoring of all user endpoint devices and work with the STS Cyber Security team to mitigate any threat along with further development of Cyber Security controls, including firewalls and third party suppliers; work in relation to cyber security with LOTI and security enhancements being delivered through the Laptop Refresh Programme along with ongoing work being undertaken with Emergency Planning teams across all 3 Councils to share ideas and risks.

The Chair thanked Fabio Negro for his update with additional clarification provided for Members in relation to issues raised on cyber security ratings and risks related to Third Party suppliers; nature of work being undertaken with Emergency Planning teams and approach towards asset management across the three member boroughs life cycle of IT equipment and legacy accounts.

As no further matters were raised, the Joint Committee completed their consideration of the update report. The Chair thanked Fabio Negro for the details provided and it was RESOLVED to note the update and actions being taken as detailed in the report alongside the following actions identified at the meeting:

(1)       Update to be provided for the next meeting on progress in delivery of the STS Cyber Security Strategy update.

(2)       Further details to be provided on the range and frequency of emergency planning activity as part of future updates.

(3)       Data to be provided as part of future updates on the number of active vulnerabilities identified across the service including mitigations.