A presentation will be given at the meeting.
Minutes:
Sarah-Jane Rushton gave a presentation on the Bury Directory, the new on-line one-stop information point for advice, support, activities and services in Bury. The meeting was informed that the community directory had been established as a result of a new statutory duty from The Care Act and Children and Families Act which states that councils must provide easy access to information for local residents. In terms of the Bury Directory, this had been established from a social care and community perspective. The following key features of the Directory were presented:-
· Market themed icons which would allow access to information, services, activities and support for either adults or children and families.
· Search option for services’ offered for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
· Information and advice to help adults live independently within the community and support for people when they need it the most.
· Links to Bury Council’s website.
· The ability to personalise contacts and information lists.
· Postcode search facility to access health services
· Map and distance calculator facility
· Basic information about services including contact details
· Review of services function including star ratings and comments page
· Text language translation facility
· What’s on guide
· Provider update function and community groups pages
It was also explained that further functions will also be available shortly namely a product catalogue for aids and equipment and a Social Care Personal Assistants (PAs) finder.
The Chair invited questions/comments from the audience:-
· Councillor Hussain asked who controlled the directory.
Sarah explained that the registered user would be expected to maintain their own contents but this would also be monitored by staff within the Council. Nothing could be published to the site until it had been authorised by a member of staff.
· Councillor Hussain also asked who was providing the translation service to allow the different languages to be accessed. Councillor Hussain asked that this facility be monitored as it could be inaccurate and cause confusion.
Sarah reported that the translation facility was provided by Google.
· Mr Schwarz referred to the fact that Bury Council already had a website and asked why this facility hadn't been incorporated into that.
It was explained that the Bury Directory was separate from the Council’s website and brought together information from a wider number of services and providers. There would be access to the directory from the Council website and vice versa.
· Councillor Gartside asked whether commercial sponsorship of the site would be considered to help fund the running costs.
Sarah stated that this was something that could be considered for the future.
· Councillor Gunther asked how secure the site was and referred to spam e-mails.
Sarah explained that the site was purely a directory of services and would not contain a mailing list to enable e-mails to be sent other than those generated by a member of staff to registered providers.
Sarah also ensured that the directory is as secure as it needs to be for this type of software and included password protection and required authorisations.
· Councillor Carter asked whether private businesses would be able to register their details and if so would they be charged for the advertising.
Sarah stated that any business could register on the directory. The governance framework is currently being developed.
· Mr Fletcher from Ramsbottom Business group asked how many staff members were working on the directory and the Bury Council website.
There were no full time staff solely dedicated to these resources however, 7 members of staff across two departments have been involved in the development, set up and communication for the Bury Directory. Once the directory is established, providers and organisations will be responsible for updating their own information which will require low resource input from council staff.
There are 7 members of staff involved in the maintenance and future development of the Bury Council website; but this is only part of their wider roles for the council.
· A member of the public referred to the Personal Assistant facility that had been mentioned and asked how this would work.
Sarah explained that this was early in the planning stages and required more discussion however, all PAs who submitted their CVs would be DBS checked before their information was uploaded. Interested partners such as The Bury Gems service within Communities and Wellbeing would be involved in the planning and delivery of the PA finder to ensure it is safe for customers.
It was agreed:
That Sarah be thanked for her presentation.