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Newsletter: CEO of the Year Nadira Hussain

Nadira Hussain

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Your events, training and resources

We had excellent news at the weekend. As we all prepare to go to Birmingham next week for President’s Conference, it’s lovely to have an award-winning CEO joining us. Nadira Hussain is CEO of the Year – winning at the first British Asian Women’s Awards 2024!

We already know Nadira is great, but it’s news we are very proud to shout about.

You can get a real sense of what this is all for in her blog posts Bringing your culture to work and Two years as Socitm’s Chief Executive and thirty years working in local government.

It’s an extra reason to join us next week.

Two bits of important training news:

1. Free training with Microsoft is back in June

Change Agent Manager offers an overview of the key skills needed to be an effective change agent – with a strong emphasis on the ability to lead change. Register now so you can take part on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 June.

Plus, browse Microsoft’s Digital Skills Training Hours
Sharpen and develop your digital skills via live instructor-led virtual training hours throughout June. Learn about Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot Studios, Forms, OneNote, Planner, Power Apps, Power Automate and more

2. Register for Top Talent training

Learn how you can better lead teams in this challenging VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world during two days on 24 and 25 June.

Socitm’s Learning Programme Manager Aidan Matthews will take you through the key essentials of how to:

Embrace visionary leadership
Cultivate understanding and empathy
Foster collaboration and teamwork
Cultivate adaptability and resilience
Embrace technology and innovation

Get in touch with Dominka for all the details.

Take care. I hope you’re able to have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Alex.

Illustration of a woman reading an oversized book, entitled, 'Local gov's big book of ideas'.

In Your Resource Hub

Collection: Practical placemaking

Drawing on Socitm’s wider policy, research and leadership resources, this collection offers local public service organisations a range of thought leadership, trend analysis and practical insights that can help in digital placemaking and service transformation.

Browse the collection

Impact cases

Browse the art of the possible in our growing selection of impact cases.
Is there something you think we should include? Please share it with us.

Discover impact cases

Socitm Says: Recruitment and retention
Listen to Matt Lewis (SRS Wales’ Chief Operating Officer) and Sam Hall (Director of Primary, Community Care and Mental Health Digital Services at Digital Health and Care Wales) talk about the challenges they face and tackle with staff recruitment and retention in local government technology services.

Browse all episodes of Socitm Says

You will need a user account on socitm.net to access member-only resources. Let us know if need any support.

Leadership Academy Alumni 2023

Training

There are 3 more Empowering Women courses this year. Find the one nearest to you and register.

Watch Institute Director Sam Smith talk about the personal and professional impact of Empowering Women training.

How was your course? Tell us about it 🙂

Virtual workshops

In-person programmes

Training places are included in your organisational membership – subject to availability and membership level. If you have any questions or would like further information, please email the training team.

Browse all training

People make places. President's Conference 12-13 June 2024.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to feel inspired, connected, and equipped to deal with whatever the future holds. There’s a terrific range of presenters but the people you sit next to during the day and at the evening gala dinner will be just as helpful.

Register now
A group of men and one woman dressed in walking gear. They are all standing in a car park with the bottom of a hill in the background behind two minibuses.

The Public Sector Challenge

Local government is always up for a challenge, but the last few years have been more challenging than most. Annually we are asking the public sector to come together by taking on a challenge and by doing so raise money for Cancer Research UK.

This year we’re tackling the Yorkshire Three Peaks – a 24-mile assent in 12 hours on Friday 6 September.

Join over 500 participants from across the public sector (including Socitm).

Donate to the challenge

National conference Sheffield 2024

Events

Member-only meetings

Meet people for catching-up, problem sharing (and solving) and great networking.

Free webinars and meetings hosted by Socitm

Free webinars and events hosted by partners and others

Missed a webinar? Past recordings are available to watch in the resource hub.

Webinars are open to anyone in the public sector, membership is not necessary, so please do share them with your network.

Come and say hello

  • Wednesday 19 June Penna’s AI Roundtable with The MJ and Socitm [hybrid]
    Panellists include Nadira Hussain and President Mark Lumley
  • Thursday 20 June: LCG Net Zero 2024 [Birmingham]
    VP Yogita Popat (Director of Culture and Sustainability at the London Borough of Barnet) is on the 14:00 panel Mapping carbon footprint and discovering data-bank building tools
  • Tuesday 24 September: DigiGov Expo [London]
    Join Nadira Hussain, President Mark Lumley and Sam Smith
    • Nadira is chairing the Citizen Experience stream. In which, at 15:25, Mark (Director of ICT and Digital at London Borough of Hounslow) is a panellist on Data-Driven Collaboration: Transforming governance through strategic partnerships and enhanced data sharing
    • Sam is a panellist in the GovICT stream at 15:10 for Driving Transformation through an Effective Strategy: The pillars needed to achieve success
Browse all events

Procurement Act 2023

Free learning and development

The LGA is the nominated single point of contact for the Cabinet Office learning and development programme relating to the new Procurement Act which comes into force in October this year.

Training is made up of three parts:

  1. Knowledge Drops
    Dedicated learning resources and videos for contracting authorities and for suppliers, including specific videos for SME and VCSE suppliers outlining the salient points in the Act.
  2. Ten public sector e-learning modules accessible only through the Government Commercial College.
    You and your colleagues are encouraged to sign up to the GCC and complete these modules. They also contain links to additional resources that can help your council in preparing for implementation of the new Act.
  3. Deep Dives are designed to reinforce learning covered in the above e-learning modules. They are led and facilitated by subject matter experts. At least one nominated person in each council (usually the Procurement Manager) will undertake the additional deep dive training and act as a ‘superuser’ for their colleagues.

Detailed information can be found in the learning and development brochure.

Queries relating to any of this can be sent procurement@local.gov.uk

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

Found this on LinkedIn. It’s not specific to local public services, but does offer a useful foundation is a technology (technologies?) that will impact all of us.

Career Essentials in Generative AI by Microsoft and LinkedIn

Generative AI expert Pinar Seyhan Demirdag covers the basics of generative AI, with topics including what it is, how it works, how to create your own content, different types of models, future predictions, and ethical implications.