Interview: Hertfordshire County Council head of technology Dave Mansfield

Dave Mansfield is one of around 30 county council IT leaders in the country, and like many of his counterparts his main challenge is to find a way to cut costs while also meeting the technology needs of the local authority and its residents, and responding to changes imposed by central government.

Mansfield has been working as Hertfordshire County Council’s technical infrastructure manager for 16 months, but has worked for the authority in various guises for almost 19 years. For just over half of that time Mansfield was an employee of IT services provider ITNet, which under its current name of Serco continues to work with the council on many technology projects.

Apprenticeships

The rather anachronistic-sounding concept of apprenticeships has undergone a bit of a revival recently, with the coalition government looking to set up new schemes across the UK economy. Mansfield is the product of an apprenticeship scheme himself, and approves of them wholeheartedly.

“They are a brilliant grounding for people to get to see stuff at the sharp end,” he says. “The kids go to night school and get qualifications but are learning practical things along the way.”

He believes that apprenticeships are particularly useful when looking to train staff in more technical areas. However, he concedes that when trying to fill management positions or roles covering multiple areas, he would look for a graduate with a good degree as they would “more likely have a knowledge and understanding of the language of business, statistics and analysis”.

Outsourcing

As mentioned, Hertsfordshire has outsourced services to Serco for decades, with the contract reevaluated every two years. The deal is worth £25m a year and was last renewed in April. Under the contract, Serco is responsible for the day-to-day running of the council’s server infrastructure, helpdesk and maintenance, operating systems, office software and change control processes.

Serco also runs a social care system and a SAP finance system for the council.

The services company also plays a major role in any new technology initiative at the council. Under the outsourcing arrangement, Mansfield and his team will decide on the projects that need to be undertaken, tender for and buy the necessary technology, and then leave the project management to Serco.

There are many benefits to outsourcing to one contractor, according to Mansfield, not least the fact that it simplifies management of the IT estate: “The contract makes it much easier for us to steer our IT environment,” he says. “For example, the government often imposes new rules, around standards or spending, and things change regularly; a contract like this makes it easier for us to be agile in our response. Otherwise it can be hard to corral the different elements of the IT estate, there can be too many points of management.”