Product Overview

Historically, councils have developed labour-intensive methods of controlling the issues, agendas, minutes and publication of their committee meetings. These have generally worked to the satisfaction of all concerned. The arrival of electronic communications and non-paper document storage has put pressure on this, although it could be dealt with, but at a penalty in terms of labour effort and time delays.

The Local Government Act 2000 changes this by imposing a time limit on publishing agendas and minutes. It also sets the expectation of adding complexity to the meeting structure by introducing scrutiny committees and decision call-in.

Given these changes to existing structure and the new demands imposed, it is unlikely that simply bolting new procedures or systems on to the existing infrastructure will make it capable of coping at the required level of service. Importantly, the entire system of committee meeting management must be considered afresh and computer-based methods introduced.

modern.gov provides an integrated solution to all aspects of the new decision making process.

modern.gov also provides functionality to meet all Priority Outcomes relevant to Democratic Services.

modern.gov automates modern government decision-making processes by:

• Automatically assisting with the creation of forward plans, agendas and minutes
• Incorporating easy publishing to the web at the touch of a button
• Creating electronic document packs as PDF files, including running page numbering, headers, restricted notices and watermarks. Making it easy for distribution to your print shop
• Electronically supporting committee and delegated decision-making
• Providing a draft review and sign-off mechanism
• Automating report format conversion, typically to Adobe PDF
• Automating decision publication and web call-in
• Allowing web-based information submission
• Enabling extensive Free-text and keyword-based searching via web on all content including scanned material
• Ensuring a joined up view of each topic of debate, connecting plan items, agenda items, minutes and decisions
• Comprehensive and selective publishing security, allowing all common types of meeting information to be published with confidence
• Providing a comprehensive database of members details, holding contact information, surgery times, committee memberships, declaration information and membership of external bodies, as well as tracking meeting attendance
• Making available a comprehensive on-line help facility and easy-to-read-and-follow user manuals
• Supplying a management reports module providing many data reports defined by your requirements
• Enabling viewing of documents from any web browser
• Providing a working-draft export feature to enable off-system working

• Public-facing 'subscribe to updates' facility enables members of the public to register and self-manage what types of published material they would like be notified about.

• Supplementary agendas feature - producing further document packs of a meetings agenda, to include late documents for circulation is now available. Officers can also choose which documents or information circulars are to be sent out to specific individuals on an automatic basis
• Deadline reminders feature - the system will automatically remind you via email, which deadlines are approaching for any documents. The deadlines will follow the schedule that has been implemented or be based on statutory requirements
• Member absence feature - an email is automatically generated and sent to democratic services manager to advise them that a member has not attended for a specified time period
• Parish councils details - full parish details are now held in the modern.gov database
• Declarations of interests at meetings - members declaration of interest is now held in a searchable database and can be accessed at any time
• Generic documentation publishing - the ability to publish statutory and other background documents with ease
• Colour-coded decision tracking - enabling easier tracking of documents
• Outlook calendar integration - meeting dates and links appear in attendees Outlook calendar automatically
• Committee statistics - much data is now available relating to the specific committee and includes publishing within timeframes statistics
• Wizard assistance - If you need the wizard, you will be helped every step of the way while using the system.
• Automatically generated table of deadlines published on website 
•  Subscribe to Updates - You will be able to subscribe to a list of issues which you are interested in. At any time when information is published on those topics, an email is automatically generated and sent to you with a link to the information. Have a look at how it works at AllerdaleDC and LBNewham website
• Actions tracking reports are available to enable the user to know the exact stage an approved decision is from physical completion
• Outside Bodies management allowing for smoother integration with council democracy 
•  New user types include MP, MEP, Regional Representatives and Mayor; these users are made available to assist with the new emerging ways of transparent e-democracy
• E-Consultation function allows multi-page questionnaire to be created very quickly via a web browser.  These can then be associated with topics under discussion, (e.g. linked to Forward Plan items) allowing the public to express their views on the matter.  All items submitted by the public are held in the modern.gov database, so that they can be reviewed and analysed
• Members' self-manage personal websites - All members can now have their own personal website for no extra cost to the council. The web sites are very simple to create and update and will greatly improve Members visibility to the general public. Blogs and Online Discussions also available
• Enhanced Interdepartmental Security - Different council departments can use modern.gov to manage committees and meetings, however Democratic Services can ultimately have total security over these committees if required
• Register of Interest Database - A comprehensive database is now available offering many facets to ease management of this important data. A web-based submission form is available to enable ease of completion and full histories of submissions are held.
• Political Balance Calculator - modern.gov can automatically calculate the political balance and update the required pages, if any changes have been made to the Members database
• Dual format web documents - both PDF and HTML links are available automatically for all documents published automatically
• Importing accessible information from modern.gov into PDA's using vCard & vCalendar links ensures simplicity and support for new working methods
• Members self-substitution - Members can, independently of democratic services officers, substitute a reserve Member to attend meetings on their behalf. modern.gov will automatically update this information and notify all parties 
• Election Results Database displays results data for local council, national, European and parish elections. Results are displayed in both tabular and graphical formats
• Reports Workflow Database feature will allow you to better manage the creation, review and sign-off, of officer reports
• Officer Decisions allows officers in other departments to record and publish decisions without any effort from Democratic Services. This feature integrates both Forward Planning and Implementation Action Tracking
• Automated easy management of Paper Copies, Tracking and Distribution. No more manual counting of paper copies required!
• Room and Location Database with Room Booking
• Online Support & Tracking Management system - to submit support request and track status of that request. A database of completed support requests is searchable to enable the user to find an answer to a query
• Webcast Integration, linking the visual with the comprehensive data held in modern.gov
• Welsh Language Support, dual websites for modern.gov are avaiilable
• Integrated IPSV support, helping in making life just a little bit easier
• ePetitions, allowing for quick feedback communication with the public
• EDRMS Integration