Welcome to your 2025 to 2026 President’s Team. Your vice-presidents for this year are Tony Colson (Director of IT at the British Psychological Society) and Alison Lincoln (ICT Senior Manager of Projects and Customers with Blackpool Council). Looking forward to another great year with you all.
Not in Birmingham last week for President’s Conference? Read the summary.
Keep getting everything you can from your membership
Your events, training and resources
A few things for you today
- UPDATED: Sample terms of reference for an AI Governance Board 📋
The document is based on a ToR used by Norfolk with input from Mark Brett, Martin Ferguson, Kurt Frary, Yasmine Hajji and the Digital Cities for Change team at the University of Cambridge. - From In Our View: Navigating local government is never plain sailing
- Get the data you need on us this year. Start using your 1 complimentary benchmarking module. What will you measure?
- Limited budget? Get your external training request approved more easily by applying member-only offers on technical training.
- Invitation from MHCLG Local Digital to join a virtual roundtable on Tuesday 24 June, 2 to 4pm. The roundtable will focus on navigating technical and operational challenges councils face during complex data migrations and service transformation.
Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend.
Best wishes,
Alex.
Your strategic DDaT support partner
Local government reorganisation – get help, not a hefty bill.
Ready to build smarter local public services?
Whether you’re at the start of your reform journey or managing complex transitions, you’ll create a lasting impact by working with Socitm as your independent DDaT partner.
In Your Membership: Resource Hub
AI@Socitm
- Tue-24-Jun | 10:00 to 11:00 | AI at Work: Smarter conversations, better outcomes
- Wed-2-Jul | 13:00 to 14:00 | The Unified AI Platform: From AI chaos to £5million guaranteed savings
- Wed-9-Jul | 13:00 to 14:00 | AI in the public sector: real-world applications for transformation
- Wed-16-Jul | 13:00 to 14:00 | 15 minutes saved, every hour: Reimagining public sector service desks with AI
What works?
Filter and find relevant case studies for what you’re doing or where you are. Is yours missing? Let us know and send it over.
Cyber@Socitm
Get and stay secure. Find and join your local WARP.
Sign up to the LGA’s Cyber Resilience Network. Bi-monthly meetings start from Wednesday 9 July at 10:00.
- Thu-26-Jun | 12:00 to 13:30 | Learning from cyber incidents
- Wed-2-Jul | 11:00 to 12:00 | AI adds new dimension to cyber challenge
You will need a user account on socitm.net to access member-only resources. Let us know if need any support.
In your membership: accessibility and inclusion
Check your website’s Silktide Accessibility Score
Log in to find your personalised monthly report and advice by clicking the ‘Check your website’s accessibility score’ tile.
How’s your Digital Accessibility Maturity?
The DAMA is a comprehensive self-assessment. Hassell lnclusion send your score plus a report with next steps for how to improve your current position.
Tue-17-Jun | 09:30 to 12:30 | Course: Equality, diversity and inclusion | 1 point
Thu-19-Jun | 16:00 to 17:00 | Accessibility in marketing: the opportunities and 3 key challenges
In your membership: Courses
Leadership
Empowering Women
- London | Mon-15 to Tues-16-Sep and Tue-25-Nov | 3 points
- Huntingdon | Thu-18 to Fri-19-Sep and Thu-20-Oct | 3 points
Place-based Leadership
- Birmingham | Mon-27 and Tue-28-Oct | 4 points
Top Talent
- Glasgow | Wed-25 to Thu-26-Jun and Thu-28 to Fri-29 Aug | 4 points
- Cardiff |Tues-9 to Wed-10-Sep and Mon-13 to Tue-14-Oct | 4 points
Core skills
- Tue-17-Jun | 09:30 to 12:30 | Equality, Diversity and Inclusion | 1 point
- Fri-4 and Wed-16-Jul | 09:30 to 12:30 | Managing and motivating hybrid teams | 1 point
- Tues-8 and 22-Jul | 09:30 to 12:30 | How to be an effective coach | 1 point
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.
Better data improves everything
For 2025 only: complimentary use of 1 benchmarking module
Choose from: cost, delivery, performance or user skills.
Never benchmarked before? Know what you’d doing and want to get going?
Let Matthew Fraser know and he’ll support you as much or as little as you need.
Find out about what you can do and how: Benchmarking Services Help Centre.
In your membership: events
Weekly webinars take a break for President’s Conference and return in July.
- Thu-19-Jun | 09:00 to 15:00 | Socitm in Northern Ireland in Belfast
- Wed-9-Jul | 13:00 to 14:00 | AI in the public sector: Real-world applications for transformation
- Wed-16-Jul
- 09:30 to 11:00 | Empowering suppliers through LGR
- 13:00 to 14:00 | 15mins saved, every hour: reimagining public sector service desks with AI
- Fri-29-Aug | 09:00 to 15:00 | Socitm in Scotland in Glasgow
- Tue-14-Oct | 09:00 to 16:00 | Socitm in Wales in Cardiff
Missed one? Recordings of Socitm webinars are available in the Resource hub.
Events hosted by partners
- Tue-17-Jun | 15:00 to 16:00 | Extending ransomware resilience to your virtual environment
- Wed-18-Jun | 11:00 to 12:00 | Beneath the surface, the DDaT implications of reorganisation with Norfolk and North Yorkshire
- Thu-19-Jun | 15:00 to 17:00 | From Hops to Bots: A tasting journey through beer and generative AI
- Fri-20-Jun | 11:00 to 12:00 | Why are organisations still on Windows 10?
- Tue-24-Jun | 10:00 to 11:00 | AI at Work: Smarter conversations, better outcomes
- Wed-25 to Fri-27-Jun | 11:00-12:30 | Smart places and smart communities
- Thu-26-Jun | 09:00 to 17:00 | CIVILAB Conference 2025: Connected Communities [Derby]
VP Yogita Popat [Barnet Council] is the keynote speaker. - Thu-26-Jun | 09:15 to 16:30 | LGC Digital Futures [London]
LSE chair Rehana Ramesh is a panellist on Future funding of digital transformation - Tue-1-Jul 08:30 to 16:30 | Reimagine Digital [London]
VP (and incoming President) Kurt Frary is a speaker with Institute Director Sam Smith - Wed-2-Jul | 10:00 to 12:00 | Microsoft Innovation and Collaboration Forum
- Wed-16-Jul | 17:00 to 19:00 | Dolenni Digidol: Demystifying AI for public service leaders [Cardiff]
Membership extras
Place Insight: membership add on
Place Insight blends data into a single, simple-to-use platform. 56 datasets give you a multi-layered view of social progress where you are.
Your members-only offer
Gain cost-effective access to Place Insight as an add-on to your membership.
To find out more contact Head of operations Poppy Brummell.
WeChange.AI
You’ve only got a member-only rate for WeChange.AI till 30 June.
Lots of us don’t use software to its full potential. WeChange offers tailored strategies to get the most out of services we use daily.Read more about it and join them on Friday 23 May with any and all questions.
Get more out of your training budget
Our academy is focused on core and leadership skills. But you and your team need to supplement that with more technical and process-specific learning.
Looking at doing this with the ITML Institute, Leadership Through Data, or QA? Use your membership to make your money go further.
Get your external training request approved more easily by applying member-only offers on technical training for:
- AWS, data, M365 apps
- Configuring and managing your M365 environment
- IT management and leadership
- Geospatial leadership
Get Liberty Spark with 30% off
Unlock smarter process improvement with a special members-only offer.
Members can now access Liberty Spark, Netcall’s powerful process mapping and improvement tool, with an exclusive 30% discount.
Plus, the first 10 councils to sign up will receive a 12-week process improvement training and mentoring programme to kick-start your transformation (at no additional cost).
Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far! Just one more thing…
Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far! Just one more thing…
If you’re in or lead a team, you might find this interesting:
Cracking the Engagement Puzzle: Understanding human motivation
Thursday 10 July | 14:00 to 14:45