Decision Maker: Cabinet

Outcome: For Determination

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: April 1, 2025

Purpose: On 5th March 2024, Cabinet had agreed the Council to:   -  initiate a procurement process to select a single IT partner to deliver the split of shared technology and migration to modern cloud platforms and services, and also manage certain areas of the Newham IT service following the split from oneSource IT in a hybrid model. -  Setting up an IT split programme team.   The estimated overall costs of this work were £20.6m over a 5-year period.   However, since the original plan was agreed upon, the Council has reviewed this position with a sharper focus on the need to make savings and an agreed, clear plan for transformation. It has been recognised that existing LBN onesource IT staff play a crucial role in delivering this transformation, and retaining and developing these staff skillsets and capabilities will enable this change to be successful.   A key change from the previous decision is moving from a single IT partner delivering both the split and modernisation activities, to a multi-partner approach. The scope of the hybrid model has also been iterated, with many more of the services being council led, and only a few selected services being supplier delivered.   In summary, the report will seek the following associated decisions to proceed with several procurement processes to award contracts relating to the technical split and disaggregation. The total sum of these will be in excess of £1m     The change in the scope of the hybrid model with further current oneSource IT functions returning to the borough as part of the split.

Content: Decision   For the reasons set out in the report and its appendices Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree to:   i)  Note that the ongoing management of the Newham IT hybrid model has been iterated to best fit the Council’s priorities and agreed transformation agenda. This will see more existing IT services return back to the borough, however, specific services such as cyber security arrangements will still remain with an outsourced provider;   ii)  Agree a revised procurement approach involving individual procurements listed in the table contained in paragraph 6.4 of this report with its associated costs for the various elements of the split of shared technology and delivery of the agreed Newham technology roadmap;   iii)  Delegate the award and entering contracts to support the delivery of the agreed Newham technology roadmap, to the Corporate Director of Resources in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Resources and the Newham Council representatives on the OneSource Joint Committee;   iv)  Note that the overall costs of the delivery for the Newham technology roadmap will remain within the existing budget allocated previously agreed for the ICT split programme; and   v)  Note that the programme to deliver a Newham sovereign IT service will be delivered by the previously agreed timescale of December 2025.   Alternatives Considered   a)  Do Nothing – continuing with the single Managed Services Partner (MSP) procurement to deliver the technical split, required modernisation and ongoing IT support services, with the hybrid approach where business focused capabilities such as application support are delivered in-house. This approach was considered as no longer being aligned with the updated corporate priorities around savings and transformation following a separate review and business case Future Newham DDaT Services Feb 2025. It was also highly unlikely to be able to deliver within required timescales of a Newham sovereign service by December 2025 as per the agreement with LB Havering.