Missed Monday’s publication of the President’s Conference agenda? Browse it now to find bold thinking, practical insights, and space to reflect on the role of leadership in a changing public sector. And then secure your place.
Keep getting everything you can from your membership. You’re the most vital part of this community.
In your membership: content and people
- Watch:
- Listen: to President Kurt Frary on Norfolk: Digital foundations and AI in a mixed rural county
- Join: a lunchtime webinar next week
- Wednesday 18 February | Autonomous IT: secure, compliant and cost-effective
- Friday 20 February | AI is friend-shaped. Guard rails for your brain (not the machine)
- Are you: AI-curious or AI-native?
- Did you know? Canon has partnered with the public sector for decades?
- Book: your next online core skills course
- Tuesday 17 February | 09:30 to 12:30 | Introduction to Emotional Intelligence
- Get: yourself onto a leadership course starting in March and ending during President’s Conference. It’s a course and a delegate’s pass in one go.
- Top Talent | Starting on Tue-3 and Wed-4-Mar | London
6 points | Non-members cost: £2,074 - Empowering Women | Starting on Tue-17 and Wed-18-Mar | London
6 points | Non-members cost: £2,074
- Top Talent | Starting on Tue-3 and Wed-4-Mar | London
- Did you miss this?
- Answer: Your 10 key cyber security questions
- Book your place: for President’s Conference 2026
- Share what works for you: Your experiences and perspectives matter, and by sharing them you’ll help spark conversations and inspire others.
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
Registration is open for 2026 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.
In your membership: events
Next week
| Wednesday 18 February | Autonomous IT: secure, compliant and cost-effective Hear how automation and autonomy can strengthen your resilience; how risk-based patching reduces cyber exposure (without disrupting critical services). Get practical steps to evidence compliance and procurement readiness. Friday 20 February | AI is friend-shaped. Guard rails for your brain (not the machine) AI isn’t sentient. But it’s designed to communicate like something you trust. And your brain responds accordingly. Using real examples of common AI failure modes, look at when AI is genuinely helping you think, and when it’s just making you feel confident without being correct. |
Members-only meeting
- Friday 6 March | Reverse mentoring: a fresh perspective on learning
Meet Julian Patmore (Peterborough) and hear about the role reverse mentoring can play in learning and development at all organisational levels.
More lunchtime webinars from 13:00 to 14:00
- Wednesday 25 February | From AI trial to council-wide confidence. How Renfrewshire transformed their customer services
- Friday 27 February | Transform your services without the transformation headache
- Friday 6 March | Reverse mentoring: a fresh perspective on learning
- Friday 13 March | The top 10 patch management mistakes. How to achieve patching that just works
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.
2026 is the time to take the lessons, relationships, and progress of the past 4 decades and use them to improve what works now. And more significantly, build resilience and adaptability for the future. Whatever it holds for us.
Partners’ events and updates
February
- Thursday 19 February | 09:30 to 13:30 | Workshop: AI in the workplace [Cardiff]
- Tuesday 24 February
- 09:00 to 16:30 | Cyber Security 2026 [Glasgow]
- 09:30 to 13:30 | Workshop: AI in the workplace [Cardiff]
- Wednesday 25 February | 08:30 to 16:30 | Showcase London 2026
- Thursday 26 February | 16:00 to 17:00 | Document Accessibility in 2026
March
- Tuesday 3 March
- 09:00 to 16:00 | CyberNI Conference 2026 [Belfast]
- 09:30 to 16:00 | ISfL Annual Conference 2026 [London]
- Thursday 5 March
- 09:00 to 16:30 | LGC Summit: LGR Special [London]
- 09:30 to 13:30 | Workshop: AI in the workplace [Cardiff]
- SOLD OUT Tuesday 17 March | 09:00 to 16:00 | Think Women in Digital Government [London]
- Wednesday 18 March | 10:00 to 16:15 | Public Sector Data & AI Summit 2026 [Edinburgh]
- Thursday 26 March | 16:00 to 17:00 | Accessibility is going in the wrong direction where I work. What can I do?
April
- Tuesday 28 to Wednesday 29 April | 08:00 to 17:45 | LGPN North [Manchester]
Chaired by VP Alison Lincoln (Blackpool)
Did you know that Canon UK has partnered with the public sector for decades?
These partnerships have driven measurable improvements across local authorities throughout the UK. Explore all the available routes to market for procuring Canon hardware, software and services.
Driving better CX at scale: Somerset’s single front door for their unitary organisation
With more of you preparing to merge into unitary authorities, Kerv’s latest CX roundtable had an exceptionally timely focus.
Earlier this month, Somerset’s Gareth Denslow, Service Manager for Customer Access, shared the background and challenges of bringing together 5 separate authorities, each with their own disparate contact centres, into 1 central cohesive point of contact.
National AI Survey: From AI-Curious to AI-Native?
ICS.AI’s new survey (of 2,000 UK employees) reveals strong support for AI in the workplace – alongside clear expectations that humans remain accountable for decisions.
While many organisations are experimenting, only 1 in 10 can be described as truly AI-native. A third of employees say they do not feel prepared at all, highlighting a significant readiness gap as AI moves into higher-impact roles.
The findings reinforce the need for organisation-wide operating models, clear governance and human-in-the-loop design to scale AI confidently and responsibly.
Join ICS and Renfrewshire Council on Wednesday 25 February to hear about their journey from AI-curious to (award-winning) AI-natives.
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:
- Technology in government: Understanding technical architecture across local government by Phil Rumens
- Transforming public services: why people, partnerships, and tackling technical debt matter most by Timothy Spiers at Cambridgeshire
- PowerPoint slides: Get started with M365 Copilot App [mostly for the licensed version]
- From LGAi.uk: AI in Local Government: State of the Sector 2026 report
- Keep in touch with the Local AI team at MHCLG
Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend when it arrives.
Best wishes,
Alex.
