With your free member events, meetings, resources, and training
It’s just over two months till President’s Conference in Brighton. We’ll be beside the seaside with a warm welcome and stick of rock, as we host our biggest and best conference.
Register your place now.
Get ready for Accessibility Week 2023. Full details for the daily webinars starting on 15 May (with experts from Cantarus, Dania Software, Jisc, Microsoft and Silktide) coming soon!
Thank you for all the confirmations about the conference in Cardiff next week (Tuesday 25 April). If you are planning on coming and haven’t sent us a registration form, please do!
You are all welcome at President’s Conference! In Brighton, in June. Do log in to your My Account to double check your membership level. You might have accommodation included. If this still doesn’t make sense, just get in touch and we’ll sort it out.
President elect Mark Lumley is Petras podcast guest
The new series of their At The Edge podcast focusses on the Internet of Things and sensor technology in the places we live, work and play.
While you’re podcasting do try Socitm Says 😀
Expert researcher and author Jos Creese chats us about his annual Digital Trends reports.
COMING SOON: another episode in which we’ll share conversations with the people in your recent recruitment and retention report.
Listen to Mark on the PETRAS podcast.
Inspiration for your low code project
You need technology that frees you from the constraints of legacy applications.
You need technology saves you money, not costs more. And you need technology that enables you to make the best use of your own teams rather than have to pay for expensive external support.
During this week’s webinar, Netcall introduced Newcastle City Council, Cumberland, and Westmoreland and Furness Councils to set out the business case for investing in a low-code platform.
Watch the webinar
Free training
The Microsoft and Socitm Change Agent programme is returning in June.
It’s free for the majority of Microsoft Enterprise Agreement public sector customers.
“I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn on this course. However, I would 100% recommend it. It has to be one of the best courses I have been on. It’s been engaging and great to communicate with other councils, and has opened my eyes to what is possible. I have learnt so many new ways in which data can be utilised to improve the lives of our residents.”
There is no charge for this training. It’s a Microsoft and Socitm programme for the public sector. Your colleagues in councils that aren’t Socitm members can join this training. Do share the programme details with everyone!
NEW Research: recruitment and retention
Most organisations find it challenging to recruit and retain technology and digital specialists.
Your new report includes viewpoints from:
- Matt Lewis, COO of SRS Wales and a Socitm vice president
- London Borough of Hounslow
- Adam Elliott, Head of Resourcing, and Andy Campbell-Critchley, HR Director at Socitm Advisory
- Sam Hall, Director for Digital Health and Care Wales (former CDO for Welsh local government)
It concludes with a range of options for individual organisations and the sector on how to make recruitment and retention work better.
Log in to read the whole report. Register to make sure you’ve got a user account.
Training
This year, you register for training using points instead of places. Not sure how it works? Send any questions to Dominika Szulim-Wronek.
Your new Leadership Academy Advocate of the Month is Eleri Thomas – from the Isle of Anglesey County Council.
Share your training experience with other members – fill in the short Q&A.
Training over the next few months
Starting on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 April: Empowering Women 2 spaces now available!
Want to join the next Empowering Women cohort?! Two spaces are now available for the sessions starting in London on Thursday 27 April. This group’s final session will be in Brighton at Presidents’ Conference in June. A great opportunity to join the programme and the conference!
Interested? For all the details, email Dominika
Tuesday 2 May: Workshop: How to be an effective coach (second workshop on Monday 22 May)
Thursday 4 May: Workshop: Introduction to emotional intelligence
Monday 9 May: Workshop: Valuing diversity
Wednesday 7 June: Programme Change Agent (Manager) ( second day on Friday 16 June)
Monday 19 June: Programme Change Agent (5 days, finishing on Friday 23 June)
Once you’ve finished your training don’t forget to claim your CPD points.
CCoE sponsors Top Talent Programme 2023
Local authorities hold sensitive data, such as health records, and are responsible for critical infrastructure like power grids and transportation systems, making them prime targets for cyber-attacks. The Cyber Centre of Excellence aims to assist local authorities in staying as cyber secure as possible. The Top Talent London 2023 leadership program has been sponsored by the CCoE to address gaps in public sector cyber resilience.
Read more about this partnership.
Socitm Advisory
Soctim Advisory has recently launched a new range of ‘as a Service’ offerings.
This week we will look at…Enterprise Architecture as a Service
This service is designed to help organisations to deliver Enterprise Architecture at an affordable price. Enterprise Architecture as a Service is already being used by councils to:
- Address recruitment challenges and the risk of single points of failure – a more cost-effective option than ‘one off’ blueprints or full time resources.
- Identify cost savings – by bringing together and rationalising systems and moving to more modern, digital ways of working
- Ensure joined up service delivery for your customers and a better customer experience
- Mitigate risks associated with digital systems and data fragmentation.
Find out more: Digital strategy and transformation | Socitm Advisory or contact us at localgov@socitmadvisory.co.uk
Are you making full use of your membership?
As part of your membership you can receive between 2 and 12 hours of FREE consultancy advice per year. To make use of your inclusive consultancy hours, get in touch or log in to My Account.
Visit socitmadvisory.co.uk
Events from Socitm and partners
April
- Tuesday 25 April Conference Regeneration, sustainability and connectivity 2023 [Cardiff]
- Wednesday 26 April Webinar: Unleashing the power of IoT for real social care transformation
May
- Wednesday 3 May Webinar: How to use change consultancies for max results
- Thursday 4 May Conference AWS IT Disaster Recovery Day [London]
- Wednesday 10 May Webinar: Launching AI-powered phone self-service for residents
- Wed-10-Thu-11-May Conference: Connecting People and Places
Missed a webinar? Past recordings are available to watch in the resource hub. Also, make sure to check out our regional events. There’s a mix of online and in-person meetings, so please feel free to join any that are outside your area.
FEDIP Future Digital Leader Bursaries
Applications are now open to those in their early informatics careers.
The bursary covers a year’s membership to one of the FEDIP Professional Bodies, a place at the Digital Health Summer School and an invitation to a programme of events designed to support the next generation of health and care informatics professionals.
Applications are open until 10 May 2023.
DigiGov 2023 | 23 May | QEII Centre, London
Join the 10th annual DigiGov Conference. Hear from Socitm CEO, Nadira Hussain; CDIO at the Cabinet Office, Mike Hill; and Head of Digital and Transformation at Woking Borough Council, Adam Walther.
Register now and network with leading public sector tech professionals.
Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far! Just one more thing…
Enjoy this Atlas Obscura episode about the literal origin of the software bug ( ) 😀
Make sure you connect with us on LinkedIn and on Twitter to keep up-to-date with everything happening.
Photo by Grooveland Designs on Unsplash