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Newsletter: Be part of the local government community from your desk

Sheffield supertram at the Cathedral stop.

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Your events, training and resources

You were missed in Sheffield this week. There will be a written summary of the day available very soon. I’ll share it here in the newsletter and in your regional Teams channel. We hope to see you in Birmingham for President’s Conference in June.

If you did join us in Sheffield, thank you. Check your email for a copy of the feedback form. We do read all of them and use them to shape events. Let us know what works so we keep doing it.

It was the final Socitm chaired event for Immediate Past President Huw McKee (from Conwy County Borough Council). The event and Huw were (of course) excellent. President’s Conference in June will be Huw’s final event as part of the President’s Team. He will be missed in that team, but we are fortunate that Huw remains part of the Socitm community.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus

Special thanks go to the Poverty Prevention Challenge start-ups for joining the innovation panel. So fascinating and so passionately presented.

  • CAD-HR: advancing human rights by providing free legal and employability support to migrant communities
  • MatchingMind: using AI to match people with their right health partners anywhere in the world
  • Mortar: combining new technology with user-led design to create solutions to real-world problems
  • Plinth: a Community Impact Platform that connects data from different organisations to help community programmes deliver and understand impact
  • SuperFi: enables bill providers to help their customers to stay on top of their bills and out of problem debt

I know that it’s not simple to travel to take part in events and training within your region – let alone to other parts of the UK. Keep an eye on the webinar schedule (which are mostly weekly) as there’s a variety of topics covered there. And in the events list below I include online events from partners and things that I spot that I hope will be relevant and useful.

Members based in the East are meeting online on the afternoon of Wednesday 6 March. On their agenda is a session about the ethical adoption of AI. Tony Ellis (Service Director of ICT) from Buckinghamshire Council will be talking about his Copilot 365 group. Wherever you are, you are welcome to join for some or all of this meeting. Our Socitm community stretches across county and country borders.

ICYMI Some interesting news this week from Derby City Council: ICS.AI Announces £7 Million Generative AI Transformation Project with Derby City Council

In the light of which, you might want to revisit this webinar from last year:
AI in action: Derby City Council’s success with phone-based AI, leading to £200,000 budget savings in under three months

I hope you can have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Alex.

Your Resource Hub

Resources and reading for designing services

The infographic summary of 2024’s Digital Trends is now available in Dutch 😄
Thank you so much to our colleagues at V-ICT-OR for doing this.
Get a top level starting point and easy reference guide for our Digital Trends in the infographic version.

You might have missed…

Watch: How to improve process efficiency with HSO Government Accelerator
For ease of viewing, the recording is divided into easy to navigate chapters, with subtitles and transcript available via the video player toolbar.

Website accessibility

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

Browse the Resource Hub

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

Building skills for an AI-enabled public sector

The public sector faces high demand, tight budgets, and digital challenges. AI can help revolutionise services and increase productivity, but it requires skilling.

Learning is essential for making the best use of AI. This means giving people the time to get acquainted with the technology and to try it out as it evolves.

This encouragement must come from the top, meaning leaders must be the first ones to drive change.
AI can also support this learning culture. It can help leaders identify their skill gaps and provide the relevant training to bridge them. With AI and a culture of continuous learning, the public sector can expect a future of increased productivity and enhanced service delivery.

Microsoft’s guide, Building skills for an AI-enabled public sector, aims to help leaders across local and regional government to understand AI’s potential and build the sector’s AI skills to benefit employees and citizens.

The path towards AI looks different for every organisation, which is they have created an AI learning companion that includes persona-based suggestions, so you can get up to speed on getting the most from AI.

Download the guide

Training

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.

Browse all training

Events

Member-only meetings

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

Free webinars and events 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 8 and Thursday 9 May: DigiGov Expo (London)
    Join Nadira Hussain, Mark Lumley and Sam Smith on Wednesday
Browse all events

President’s Conference

Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 June in Birmingham

Socitm Awards 2024
Details of our new and expanded Socitm Awards for 2024 will be available soon.
Awards celebrating local and regional government success are handed out to winners at the gala dinner on the evening of the first day of President’s Conference. This year that will be on Wednesday 12 June.
Log in to your account on socitm.net to see what is included in your organisation’s membership for the annual conference.

Register now

Low Code and AI for local government

Delve into the latest updates and use cases for Low Code App Dev with APEX and Artificial Intelligence in Local Government

Join Oracle in Manchester on Wednesday 6 March for this exciting half-day event which will explore how you can use App Dev to help with your digital transformation, citizen engagement, innovation, and employee collaboration. During the session you will delve into Oracle’s powerful low-code application development platform: APEX – uncovering use cases and the latest advancements.

You will also hear how Salford City Council are using it to drive efficiency and digital transformation.
Additionally, explore AI and some of the use cases designed to help with improved citizen experience and digital assistants.

This will be a great opportunity to share knowledge and hear from other local authorities who are innovating using APEX and AI.

Register

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

Another podcast for you, but not so short as last week’s (sorry):

You Are Not So Smart #274 Cascades
How cascades of rapid change routinely sweep across families, institutions, and nations.