Reimagining communities and places: a journey through data, technologies and service design

A warm welcome will greet you at the Socitm registration desk where you can sign in and receive your delegate pass. You’re then free to start networking as well as helping yourself to refreshments – including breakfast pastries.

Huw McKee, Head of IT and Digital Transformation, Conwy Council

Huw will make us all welcome, run through the practical housekeeping, set the scene, share his thoughts and introduce our first keynote speaker.

Dr. Peter Dewhurst, Chair, Business Peak District

Until recently, Dr. Dewhurst was the University of Derby’s Director of Strategic Projects, with a remit to engage closely with the public, private and third sector in supporting the development and implementation of place making strategies for Derby and Derbyshire. Peter’s work in championing place making initiatives continues through his roles as Chair of Business Peak District and the Peak District Partnership.

Charlene Manning, Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services
Robert Ling, Director of Transformation, North Yorkshire County Council
Julian Patmore, Head of Operational Services, Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council

Join us for an engaging fireside chat featuring Amazon Web Services, North Yorkshire Council and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Councils. They will be discussing ways in which local authorities are transforming services through use of data and digital technology.

Steve Wilson, Commercial Director , Commercial Services Group

Steve Wilson will share how this innovative model has created over 100 new, local jobs, prioritised over 8,000 local residents into employment, engaged with care leavers and the third sector all while delivering over £3m back to the public purse, for reinvestment in local communities and frontline services.

Commercial Services Group (wholly owned by Kent County Council) will talk about their experience of how collaboration and transformation can deliver significant community wealth building across the country. Working with partner councils Hampshire, Luton, Surrey, Dudley and Dorset to create stand alone joint venture companies, to insource contingent agency and interim staffing requirements into council owned companies.

It’s time to gather our thoughts from the morning sessions over refreshments and snacks. This is an opportunity to connect with fellow colleagues both from the public and private sector.

Sandy Tung, Technology and Innovation Policy Lead, Greater London Authority
Tom Barltrop, Co-founder and CEO, SuperFi
Bela Prasad, Co-founder, MatchingMind
Will Thompson, Co-founder, Plinth
George Unsworth, Director, Mortar Works
Askia Warne, Founder and Director, CAD-HR

The Challenge LDN team works with communities to identify their biggest challenges. Then they invite innovators to come together to co-design solutions. The Mayor of London and his team at City Hall aim to support as many innovation projects as possible. We’ve brought together the Greater London Authority and 5 winning innovators from the Poverty Prevention Challenge. Each will receive up to £50,000 to scale up their prototypes to support Londoners at risk of falling into financial hardship. Hear from each innovator about their start-up company and how they are helping the community and people in it.

We know how important these sections of a conference are. It’s time to make new connections, say hello to colleagues across the sector you’ve not seen for some time and reflect on the morning’s programme over lunch. Keep the conversation going and enjoy further food for thought.

Huw McKee, Head of IT and Digital Transformation, Conwy Council

Join Huw as he recaps on the morning session

Gregg Hardie, Head of Public Sector, Sailpoint Technologies
Jake Maskell, Senior Sales Engineer, Sailpoint Technologies
Richard Morris, Sales Lead: Law Enforcement / Local Government,Sailpoint Technologies

Robust identity security isn’t just about reducing risk, it’s a key to unlocking efficient service transformation in local authorities. By ensuring the right people have access to the right data at the right time, identity solutions streamline processes and enable employees. Secure, centralised identity management allows for seamless application access, automation of human-driven procedures and vastly reduced wait times. Moreover, strong identity security safeguards sensitive information, building trust and encouraging wider adoption of digital services. This, in turn, frees up resources for local authorities to focus on innovation and personalised citizen experiences, ultimately transforming how communities interact with local authorities.

October’s Empowering Women cohort will present their research and projects.
Their programme concludes with this final challenge which for some will be their first time presenting, let alone standing up in front of a room of conference delegates.
The group has been split into two smaller teams so they can more easily collaborate, apply the theory and produce solutions.
Please be a supportive audience to these talented (and nervous) graduates.

Andy Clark, Cloud Architect and Agile Lead, UK Public Sector at Oracle

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, local authorities in the UK face unique challenges in delivering efficient and citizen-centric services. The integration of cutting-edge technologies, particularly cloud infrastructure solutions, plays a pivotal role in reshaping the way public services are designed and delivered. This keynote explores how Cloud Technology along with a holistic service design approach can help to meet the specific needs of local authorities in the UK

Huw McKee, Head of IT and Digital Transformation, Conwy Council
Nadira Hussain, CEO, Socitm

SuperFi

SuperFi empowers organisations to help their vulnerable customers stay on top of their monthly bills and out of problem debt.
Our mission is to provide personalised, preventative debt support to the 20m UK adults who are currently struggling to pay their monthly bills.
By partnering with public and private sector organisations, SuperFi is making personalised, preventative debt support available to the millions of Londoners struggling to pay their bills.
Our aim is to improve customer outcomes, whilst also reducing the arrears and costs incurred by our partner organisations through improving the financial resilience of their customers.

Tom Barltrop, Co-founder and CEO,

MatchingMind

MatchingMind is a social enterprise that partners with community-led organisations to improve wellbeing of young
adults who are unable or unwilling to access mainstream support. We use smart matching technology to connect our users with the best mental health support for their needs, and we train volunteers as ‘growth buddies’ creating networks of peer support.
MatchingMind Our mission is to make mental health and personal growth accessible for everyone, especially for those who are underserved
or isolated. We believe that everyone deserves to live a fulfilling and meaningful life, regardless of their age,background, or circumstances. We aim to empower our users to discover their strengths, passions, and opportunities, and to support them in their journey of self-improvement and social inclusion. We are partnering with the Mayor of London, and aim to work with three Councils in London to provide our service to 1,000 young adults in the city. Through our platform, young adults can get personalised support for their wellbeing and emotional health.

Bela Prasad, Co-founder, MatchingMind

Plinth

Plinth is the community impact platform helping councils and communities work together to support more people.
Our mission is to connect commissioners, funders, delivery organisations and individuals to support more people to get the help they are entitled to – closing the gap of £19bn in unclaimed benefits each year. We work in partnership with councils and voluntary sectors, giving community groups tools to easily and quickly measure and validate their impact. Plinth also uses organisational data to identify, highlight and
create a social safety net for individuals who are not getting the support they need.

Will Thompson, Co-founder, Plinth

Motar Works

Mortar is a framework for delivering the next generation of intelligent tools and products.
Mortar Works We are on a mission to Build Better Services; making services more accessible and inclusive. So no-one is left
behind. Our triage and referral tools identify and prioritise households and families at risk of losing their home, increasing the capacity of service providers to deliver the right support where it is needed the most.

George Unsworth, Director, Mortar Works

CAD-HR

We are development and human rights focused charitable organisation based in Southeast London. We provide free legal services to migrant communities and free admin and management services to small businesses and voluntary organisations within the communities we support.
CAD-HR Our mission is to remove all barriers preventing migrant communities to be socially and economically active, inclusive,
and prosperous ensuring that every migrant has a fair chance of succeeding in realising their dreams. We take a holistic and preventive approach to health and wellbeing promotion by addressing most of the factors that are responsible for the unequal health and wellbeing outcomes of the communities we support. We want to see a significant reduction in the number of people needing health and wellbeing support from the economic and social support mechanisms that we are putting in place through this project. We also want to see an economically and socially active, inclusive, thriving, prosperous, and cohesive community emerging as a result of this project.

Askia Warne, Founder and Director, CAD-HR