East Renfrewshire Council plans to cut almost £1million from its IT bill by 2024.

Local authority chiefs are also hoping to remove barriers to digital technology for children and older people as part of an updated asset management strategy.

This year, almost £2.9m will be spent on refreshing systems in education and social work services and on overhauling CCTV, security and WiFi.

It is expected that the amount of cash will increase to almost £3m in 2020/21 before dropping to just short of £2m in six years.

A report by the council’s deputy chief executive Caroline Innes said: "In the current financial climate, we must improve the performance of our investment in physical assets over their available life. Our focus will now be on how digital technology can improve outcomes for our customers, particularly in big spend areas such as education and social care where the impact of these technologies is only just becoming apparent.

“Our schools need to be at the forefront of digital technology, where best practice teaching will be supported by the best practice in digital learning technology.”

In the report, it is revealed that the council’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department currently manages 15,969 digital assets, with 650 of those set to be replaced as part of a rolling refreshment programme.

There are 8,300 desktop computers and 4,510 laptops, with the cost to replace those thought to be around £4.8m.

In council-owned buildings there are 2,895 telephone handsets, with 2,593 mobile phones used by staff.

The estimated bill for replacing these totals £762,717.

And the cost of replacing the council’s network equipment, business applications, servers and temperature regulation equipment is more than £5.5m.

Ms Innes continued: “East Renfrewshire Council’s vision for ICT asset management is to modernise the way we work as a council by becoming more agile but also providing our customers with more accessible technology that meets their needs and demands. We need to take advantage of new developments in digital health technology to support our ageing population.”