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Newsletter: AI guidelines for elected colleagues

Authors and contributors: Alexandra Murphy
Focus on a pair of hands using a laptop. Over this is an illustration of a robot saying 'Hiiiii How can I help you?'

New in your resource hub: Guidelines for elected members on the use of AI

It’s been developed by Norfolk County Council (based on the original from ALGIM and LOLA) and generalised for everyone. They are for elected officials, but the content is relevant for all of us AI users.

Happy 1st birthday to the Procurement Act 2023 that went live on 24 February in 2025. How’s it been for you? Still getting to grips with it?

Members’ feedback has been heavily focused on the social value element of procurement – making it a more of a relationship than a simple transaction.

With that in mind, have you read the most recent report? Log in to read: Maximising social value in procurement: Measurement and evaluation for buyers

There’s more procurement-related content in the resource hub, so have a look around. And if there’s something that you’d like and it’s not there, tell us. 

Keep getting everything you can from your membership. You’re the most vital part of this community.

In your membership: content and people

Browse your members-only resource hub.

Share what’s working for you
If you were at an in-person event, that thing you’ve been working on (or have already done) might have been exactly what the person next to you needed to fix a problem or project they’re working on. The next best virtual alternative is sharing that thing in a case study or blog post.

Your experiences and perspectives matter, so please share them with members.

In your membership: Courses

Bring your favourite course in-house
Which course have enjoyed the most? With slight adjustment, could it meet the requirements of your whole team or organisation?

We can personalise training for you and deliver it in house.

Please just ask about it and how much it might cost on hello@socitm.net

Registering for training
Read your guide to using training points. Log in for the current number of available points. Don’t have enough or you’ve run out? Let us know.
Things happen. If you can’t make the date of your training course let us know ASAP and we’ll get you onto the next suitable one available. And your training points will transfer with you.
Please note: non-attendance without letting us know will mean training points getting deducted from your organisation’s annual total.

Browse the 2026 calendar
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In your membership: events

Lunchtime webinars this week (13:00 to 14:00)

Wednesday 4 March | When everything’s connected: Managing incidents across complex council IT estates
Infrastructure and architecture teams are managing increasingly fragile IT estates. Legacy on-premise systems run alongside cloud services and shared service models, creating dependencies that few fully understand. You need better ways to see what’s connected, assess impact quickly, and prevent the same incidents from recurring. Explore how better asset and dependency visibility transforms incident management.

Friday 6 March | Reverse mentoring: a fresh perspective on learning
Find out what it is and how it really works, from someone who’s doing it: Julian Patmore (Service Director for Digital and Customer Access) from Peterborough City Council. Hear how this approach enhances inclusion, innovation, and cultural agility in organisations like yours.
Browse the calendar


President’s Conference 2026

Socitm at 40: From legacy to leadership
Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 June | London SW6 1UD
Book your place for bold thinking, practical insights and the space to reflect.

Chief Executive Nadira Hussain invites you to join her in London for our annual conference – this year marking Socitm’s 40th anniversary. It’s the biggest event in our calendar and a real opportunity to step back, reconnect, and focus on what matters next.

Partners’ events and updates

March

April

New research partnership to improve accent inclusivity in public sector AI

ICS.AI has commissioned a landmark study with the University of Sheffield to strengthen how public sector AI understands UK accents and dialects.

The collaboration applies over 5 decades of sociolinguistic research to the evaluation of conversational AI used in real service environments.

With 52% of UK residents concerned that AI may struggle to understand how they speak, the research focuses on moving beyond aggregate accuracy metrics towards “interpretive robustness” – ensuring systems reliably recover intent across diverse speech patterns.

The findings will inform practical evaluation frameworks and future platform development, supporting more inclusive, transparent and citizen-centric AI in public services

Read more about the study

Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far! Just one more thing…

A few of the things I’ve been looking at (and sharing with colleagues) this week:

  1. GDS Local is exploring providing a platform to help you map you enterprise architecture. If this is relevant to you, please fill in their Enterprise Architecture Platform Survey (by 5pm on Friday 6 March).
  2. ICYMI A new digital and cyber playbook to support local government during reorganisation
  3. It’s from last year, but here’s Bracknell Forest’s AI Strategy
  4. Ireland’s updated digital ad AI strategy: Digital Ireland – Connecting our People, Securing our Future.
  5. And while we’re looking at what Ireland’s doing, take a look at Dublin City Council’s Generative AI Staff Guidelines.

Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend when it arrives.

Best wishes,

Alex.

Conference attendees chatting during President's Conference 2023

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