CIOs of Westminster, Hammersmith, and Kensington 'likely to move into head of service roles' at Tri-Borough organisation

Tri-Borough IT head Ed Garcez tells Computing that current borough CIOs will remain in a more focused capacity but with a much wider user base

The CIOs of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea Councils are likely to take up roles in one of the six 'head of service' roles being created as part of the Tri-borough partnership, according to the CIO of the overall function, Ed Garcez.

The partnership, which began after the three authorities signed an IT shared services deal back in December 2013, has undergone several tweaks since it was first introduced. And, in January, Hammersmith and Fulham Council recommended changes to the operating model, including the implementation of a shared ICT services function. It said this was necessary because of the "disconnect between the three sovereign ICT functions".

The document said that several posts would be 'deleted' with effect from 1 April 2015, including the CIO role at Westminster Council, which is currently being filled by interim CIO Ben Gower, and the role of director for procurement and ICT strategy at London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, currently occupied by Jackie Hudson. Other roles to be 'deleted' include the head of information systems division at Kensington Council, head of business technology at Hammersmith and head of IS strategy at Westminster.

But Garcez told Computing that the three senior IT chiefs at the councils would remain at the Tri-borough, and move into one of the six head of service roles that have been created.

The new roles are: head of business partnering, head of digital services, head of information management, head of operations, head of ICT portfolio management, and head of strategy and enterprise architecture.

"Currently, [the three IT chiefs at the councils] have responsibility for IT for a single council. The new roles are all about delivering services across three councils, and in some cases even more widely - so doing shared services with some other boroughs as well particularly around mobile device management and cloud based infrastructure," said Garcez.

"So each of those officers I anticipate, will pick up a role which is more focused than their current role, so they'll have responsibility in a refined area, but they will work along a much wider userbase and wider user organisations," he added.

When Computing asked whether this was a decision taken by both the council and the senior IT staff, Garcez said: "Completely, it's not simply about something we could impose on them and that's not my style, this is something we've done together.

"They've been working on the strategy since 2012 and the ambition of those CIOs is to come together and deliver better services - it is an evolution that they've signed up to, and in it's in the IT strategy they agreed to in 2012. It's their journey they set out on and they believe is right for the three councils".