Socitm 2025 is off your To Do list. Let’s pick it up in January. Thank you so much for all that you’ve done this year. We hope you can enjoy a break over the Christmas season.
What are your best bits of this year? Maybe they’re also some of ours. Check the Year in Review to find out.
Keep getting everything you can from your membership. You’re the most vital part of this community.
In your membership: content and people
- Read: Get set for a celebration in 2026
- Read: 2025 annual Socitm membership check-in survey: what we did (and what’s next)
- Watch: Navigating LGR: Challenges, opportunities and innovation
- Join your first webinar in 2026
Fri-9-Jan | 13:00 to 14:00 | The power of goal setting and making habits in 2026 - Book your first 2026 online course
Thurs-5 and 19-Feb | 09:30 to 12:30 | How to be an Effective Coach
2 points | Non-members’ cost: £774 - Use your members-only discount:
Mon-16 and Tue-17-Feb | 14:00 to 17:00 | M365 Purview eDiscovery Course
Cost to you: £1,125 | Non-members’ cost: £1,245 - Share what works for you: Your experiences and perspectives matter, and by sharing them you’ll help spark conversations and inspire others.
- Did you miss this? AI. Do you really need it? By President Kurt Frary
Browse your members-only resource hub.
What’s in your 2026 membership?
Log in to My Account for your organisation’s package details.
Don’t have any log in details? Create your account right now.
You’ve got everything you need to renew. Got a question or need more details? Email Director of Member Services dave.sanderson@socitm.net
Plus, member-only discounts for:
- Place Insight: your own social progress index [England-only]
- Courses (handpicked by Institute Director Sam Smith) with the IT Management and Leadership Institute, Leadership Through Data, and QA
- WeChange.AI‘s Framework for Change.
Keep getting all you can from membership: log into your account.
Scroll down and choose your interests to get less of the content you don’t want in emails (apart from this newsletter, sorry this is still the one to keep) 😉
Reviewing Benchmarking modules
What’s working/not working for you?
To keep our benchmarking modules relevant in our changing world, we’ve started our bi-annual review of questions and metrics.
Your assistance in this process would be invaluable.
Please get in touch on benchmarking@socitm.net if you’d be able to provide feedback. You’ll then get your copy of our proposed changes to review in your own time. Thank you so much.
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
Leadership
| Course | Location (venues TBC) | Dates | Members’ points | Non-members’ cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Talent | London | Tuesday 3 to Wednesday 4 March and Monday 9 to Tuesday 9 June More dates and locations | 6 | £2,074 |
| Empowering Women | London | Tuesday 17 to Wednesday 18 March and Wednesday 10 June More dates and locations | 6 | £2,074 |
| Place-based Leadership | London | Tuesday 21 to Wednesday 22 April More dates and locations | 6 | £2,074 |
Core skills (on Teams)
| Course | Dates | Time | Members’ points | Non-members’ cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How to be an Effective Coach | Thursdays 5 and 19 February Find other dates | 09:30 to 12:30 | 2 | £774 |
| Introduction to Emotional Intelligence | Tuesday 17 February Find other dates | 09:30 to 12:30 | 1 | £384 |
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.
2026 membership benefits packages will be updated on your account in early January 2026.
In your membership: events
Lunchtime webinars from 13:00 to 14:00
| Friday 9 January | The power of goal setting and making habits in 2026 Start your 2026 discovering why setting clear goals and building the right habits are essential for success. Come along for practical tips and proven strategies to help you set meaningful goals, create habits that stick, and break those that hold you back. Wednesday 21 January | Why should you care about Information Governance (IG) in a technology world? Discover (or reminder yourself) why IG remains essential for managing data complexity, ensuring compliance, and building trust. All while enabling digital transformation and AI readiness. |
Socitm at 40: From legacy to leadership
President’s Conference | Tue-9 and Wed-10-Jun | London SW6 1UD
Registration is open for next year’s annual conference. Get it into your calendar now. Review the past 40 years with us and carry on the search for what works best now and next for our local public services.
Wanted: your Socitm memories, milestones and photos for our 40th birthday.
Partners’ events and updates
- Wed-14-Jan | 13:00 to 15:00 | Dolenni Digidol North Wales: Digital inclusion as a leadership responsibility [Llandudno]
- Mon-26 to Fri-30-Jan | The Festival of AI in Practice [online but only open to local authorities in the West Midlands]
- Wed-28-Jan | 10:00 to 11:00 | Leveraging the Jisc agreement to reduce M365 storage costs
- Thu-29-Jan | 09:00 to 16:00 | AI in Government 2026 [Manchester]
- Tue-3-Feb | 10:00 to 16:30 | Public Sector Cyber Security Scotland 2026 [Edinburgh]
- Wed-4-Feb | 10:00 to 16:30 | Public Sector Cyber Security West 2026 [Glasgow]
- Thu-12-Feb | 09:00 to 16:30 | HETT Leaders’ Summit [Leeds]
- Tue-24-Feb | 09:00 to 16:30 | Cyber Security 2026 [Glasgow]
- Tue-3-Mar | 09:00 to 16:00 | CyberNI Conference 2026 [Belfast]
- Thu-5-Mar | 09:00 to 16:30 | LGC Summit: LGR Special [London]
- Tue-17-Mar | 09:00 to 16:00 | Think Women in Digital Government [London]
- Wed-18-Mar | 10:00 to 16:15 | Public Sector Data & AI Summit 2026 [Edinburgh]
How can local government harness data effectively without access to data tools?
In February, Socitm will be hosting a 2-hour roundtable with the LGA as part of their Better use of data programme. We want to bring together Directors/Heads of IT to discuss whether you authorise or provide access to advanced data processing tools (such as Python or R).
We’re seeking participation from a range of councils including those who:
- have authorised or provided access to these tools.
- are considering authorising or providing access.
- have chosen to not authorise or provide access.
The roundtable will give you the opportunity to share concerns, barriers and solutions to use of new data tools. This will inform guidance to be produced by the LGA to help ensure local authority data professionals have access to the data tools they need.
If you’d like to (or know someone else that should) take part in the roundtable get in touch with matthew.fraser@socitm.net.
2026 awards’ submission deadlines are approaching (or today!)
- Deadline: Friday 12 December for the LGC Awards – email Kieran.McDougall@emap.com if you need more time
- Deadline: Wednesday 31 December for the Digital Health Impact List 2026Socitm CEO Nadira Hussain is on the judging panel.
- Deadline: Friday 9 January for iese’s Public Sector Transformation Awards 2026
- Deadline: Friday 6 February for Digital Leaders’ #PSAIImpact Awards 2026
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:
- Building trust in the age of AI: a blueprint for public service innovation
- Hackathon highlights: Innovative prototypes tackling homelessness and rough sleeping
- From Newark and Sherwood: Taking Flight: How Microsoft Copilot Elevates Efficiency and Inclusion
- Tees Valley CA reports success for pilot of digital twin in managing traffic
Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend when it arrives.
Best wishes,
Alex.
