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Your events, training and resources

This week Socitm became a charity

Becoming a charity cements our purpose as a force for public good through transformation and innovation. It’s the heart of our local government mission.

Next week the schedule of opportunities for you to network, share best practice, and learn how to make the best of yourself and your technology continues.

The new developments from the long-awaited charitable status will be shared in the run up to this year’s President’s Conference. Curious now? If you’re unable to join us in Sheffield next Wednesday, pop in to the next Members’ Connection Hour to talk with us about it. Plus hear more about last week’s joint announcement with Impera Analytics about the Utility Data Aggregator.

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I hope you can have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Alex.

Your Resource Hub

Resources and reading for designing services

To inspire and interest you, our research team have collected some of their favourite resources and gathered them in a blog post: Service design and transformation: a policy focus

You might have missed…

Leadership in turbulent times
9 simple rules for complex change – start anywhere, follow it everywhere
The rules are based Jon McGinty’s (Managing Director, Gloucester City Council) presentation for last year’s AWS Executive Education Programme in Digital Transformation for UK Local Government.

Website accessibility

Log in to check your Silktide Score and to complete your Digital Accessibility Maturity Assessment.

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

Reimagining communities and places

09.30 to 16.30 on Wednesday 28 February in Sheffield

A journey through data, technologies and service design

The event will bring together delegates and presenters from a mix of backgrounds and experiences. Everyone is united in their commitment to people-centred service design and transformation.

Your chair and other guests include:

  • Huw McKee, Head of IT and Digital Transformation for Conwy Council and Socitm President from 2022 to 23 is your chair for this in-person conference day
  • Chosen by CEO Nadira Hussain: start-ups from the Challenge London Poverty Prevention programme
  • Oracle will be taking an agile approach to service design with cloud technology and AI
  • Dr. Peter Dewhurst will share his place making strategies for Derby and Derbyshire
  • Robert Ling (Director of Transformation, North Yorkshire County Council) and Julian Patmore (Head of Operational Services for Cambridgeshire County and Peterborough City Councils) will both talk about how they’re using data and digital technology to transform services
  • Discover more about community wealth building from Steve Wilson (from Kent County Council’s Commercial Services Group)
    CSG 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.
  • See how robust identity security can free up your resources to focus on innovation and personalised citizen experiences

National conference days are member-only events.

Becoming one of London’s most sustainable boroughs

Barnet’s latest Climate Scorecard rating shows what can be achieved in 18 months
Writes [Socitm VP] Yogita Popat, Assistant Director for Sustainability for Barnet Council

Our journey to becoming one of London’s most sustainable boroughs has been a remarkable feat for all involved. Only 18 months ago we were ranked 0 in the Climate Emergency UK’s Scorecard, and now we are among the country’s top 18% of local authorities for our progress towards becoming a net zero council by 2030 and borough by 2042.

Training

February’s virtual and in-person courses

  • Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 February: Top Talent | London | 4 points | CPD-certified
  • Thursday 29 February: Change Agent Reflector [2 of 6 weekly modules] | Teams | 0 points

March’s in-person and virtual courses

April’s CPD-certified virtual workshops

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.

Events

Member-only meetings

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

Free webinars (from Socitm and our partners)

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 28 February: HETT North 2024 (Manchester)
    Join Institute Director Sam Smith for a fireside chat with Mark Nicholas from NHS England: what does the future of digital look like in social care?
  • Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 May: DigiGov Expo (London)
    Join Nadira Hussain, Mark Lumley and Sam Smith on Wednesday

President’s Conference

Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 June in Birmingham

There will be two Socitm presidents in Birmingham, each with a particular policy focus. Whatever that policy is, it’s worth reminding ourselves that at the heart are people. Us and our communities..

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

A quick podcast listen for you this week. And a (welcome) return for More or Less to the bottom of the newsletter 🙂

The digital ‘robots’ unlocking medical data
Big medical datasets pose a serious problem. Thousands of patients’ health records are an enormous risk to personal privacy. But they also contain an enormous opportunity – they could show us how to provide better treatments or more effective health policies.

Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash