Agenda item

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Resources seeking to update Members on progress to date on the digital inclusivity motion passed at Council in November 2023.

7.1      Councillor Wilson introduced the report which updated Members on progress made to date on the digital inclusivity motion passed at Council in November 2023. He summarised the context of the report which was set out in paragraph 3.

7.2      Councillor Wilson advised that the Council had entered an exploratory partnership with the DAISI (Digital Accessibility, Inclusion, Support and Innovation) project run by the GRCC (Gloucestershire Rural Community Council). He noted that work was underway to review the Council’s website and that the Council was exploring a project with DAISI on supporting digital skills and inclusion in the future.

7.3      Councillor Wilson informed Members that a campaign had recently been run on social media highlighting the social tariffs available for mobile and broadband. He noted that a link to this support had been provided on the Cost of Living section of the Council’s website, and further advised that the Council had written to residents in receipt of Universal Credit by email and had sent letters to residents without email addresses on record to highlight the social tariff support. Members were also advised that the Council had invested in automated scanning tools to review the website content and highlight where accessibility changes were needed. It was noted that following various upgrades, the scanning tools indicated that the website was now achieving 99% compliance compared to 68% before the tools were in place.

7.4      Referring to 14.1 in the report, Councillor Hyman asked whether risk would be alleviated provided that the Council complied with the Accessibility Regulations. The Head of Transformation and Commissioning confirmed this was the case. He explained that primary legislation was passed in 2018 which stipulated that all websites published after 2018 needed to be compliant with accessibility standards. He further advised that random spot checks were undertaken on websites to ensure compliance and that the Council aimed to be proactive in this respect.

7.5      Councillor Radley noted that she was pleased to see the progress outlined in the report and asked whether any user testing had been undertaken on the website. The Head of Transformation and Commissioning explained that DAISI had access to community groups which would form part of the testing.

7.6      Councillor Walker asked whether the Council was signposting the social tariff support to residents going through the process of applying for Universal Credit. Councillor Wilson confirmed that the Council had signposted the support to residents already on the system, however he confirmed that he would take up this idea with DAISI. 

7.7      Councillor S. Chambers asked whether any work was being undertaken to improve accessibility around the online Planning Portal. The Head of Transformation and Commissioning noted that the online portal was a service purchased by the Council as part of the overall the Planning software and therefore short-term improvements to the service could be limited. He confirmed that the Council was looking into how language on the facility could be made more accessible.

7.8      Councillor James asked for further information on the accessibility regulations. The Head of Transformation explained that the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards were the standard measure of accessibility, and looked at issues such as font size and contrast ratios between colours. He further explained that the automated scanning tools ran checks against that WCAG standards, and reported back on performance. The Head of Transformation noted that it was hoped that the Council’s work with DAISI would provide an insight into real user experience.

7.9      In response to comments from Councillor Conder regarding the Council’s online reporting forms, the Head of Transformation and Commissioning stated that Members were welcome to contact him with feedback on the online reporting forms and details of areas they felt needed simplifying.

7.10    In response to a query from the Chair regarding the Here to Help reporting facility, the Head of Transformation and Commissioning explained that there were two forms which residents could use to contact the Council. He noted that the ‘Report It’ facility could be used to report location-based issues, and ‘Contact Us’ could be used to contact the Council about any matter. He noted that the Council had made a change to the reply facility for Contact Us, and that Officers would monitor the impact of this change before implementing it into the Report It facility.

7.11    In response to comments from Councillor Castle regarding Here to Help and reference numbers, the Head of Transformation and Commissioning advised that Members were welcome to email him if they had specific issues.

7.12    Councillor Castle queried whether Councillors could be given priority when reporting issues on behalf of residents. The Head of Transformation and Commissioning explained that Officers responded to Members within 5 working days when referrals came from a Councillor email address.

7.13    The Chair asked if the Cabinet Member could provide an update report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in 6-months’ time, to which Councillor Wilson agreed.

7.14    Councillor S. Chambers asked whether information could be provided in Councillors’ signature blocks on emails regarding response times. Councillor Wilson and the Head of Transformation and Commissioning agreed that they could look into this request.

          RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee NOTE the report.