Keep getting everything you can from your membership this year and next. You’re the most vital part of this community.
In your membership: content and people
- What did you tell us in the members’ survey?
- Read: AI. Do you really need it? By President Kurt Frary (Norfolk)
Skip to the bottom for more in this issue of Government Technology. - Your final online events
- Tue-9-Dec | 13:00 to 14:00 | Navigating LGR: your challenges and opportunities
- Thu-11-Dec | 13:00 to 14:00 | Accessibility in Power BI
- Use your members-only discount: Tue-9-Dec | 13:30 to 17:00 | Microsoft 365 Copilot for Information Managers
Cost to you: £580 | Non-members’ cost: £640 - 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 - 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? Volunteering for the mentoring programme on your mind for next year? Read: Mentoring in the public sector – it worked for me (by Blackburn’s Laura Crabtree and her mentor Carol Williams)
Browse your members-only resource hub.
You need a user account on socitm.net to access member-only resources. Let us know if need any support.
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) 😉
What’s in your 2026 membership?
2026 membership details were sent out in October. You’ve got everything you need to renew. Got a question or need more details? Email Director of Member Services dave.sanderson@socitm.net
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) 😉
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 (starting in February)
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 | Dates | Members’ points | Non-members’ cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Talent | Scotland [venue TBC] | Monday 23 to Tuesday 24 February and Thursday 28 to Friday 29 May | 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 | 09:30 to 12:30 | 2 | £774 |
| Introduction to Emotional Intelligence | Tuesday 17 February | 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
| Tuesday 9 December | Navigating LGR: Challenges, opportunities and innovation Explore the complex landscape of Local Authority mergers, with guest speaker Pam Duke – who brings first-hand experience from a transformative five-year restructuring initiative involving six district councils. Thursday 11 December | Accessibility in Power BI Visualisation tools such as Power BI are an invaluable tool in allowing decision makes to access the data within their organisation. But the very nature of these tools makes it difficult to make them fully accessible. Norfolk’s Evy Coe will explain their recent work in assessing how Power BI reports are affected by this challenge. |
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
- Mon-8-Dec | 13:30 to 14:00 | Evidence-led process automation with Cardiff Council
- Tue-9-Dec | 13:30 to 17:00 | Microsoft 365 Copilot for Information Managers
Cost to you: £580 | Non-members’ cost: £640 - Wed-10-Dec
- 11:00 to 12:00 | Proactive cyber defence with AI-driven threat intelligence
- 11:00 to 12:30 | C-TAG Virtual Workshop: Securing your email domain
- Fri-12-Dec | 10:00 to 11:00 | GDS Local – Sourcing the Stack
Government Technology
Some highlights from issue 17.4
- What role could AI play in reducing prison overcrowding?
- Why improving cyber resilience across the wider economy strengthens public sector security
- Reinventing the map to deliver trusted data in a turbulent world
There are some incredible photos for this one. - How Ordnance Survey supports the Met Office in forecasting space weather
- Data helping emergency services navigate more quickly
- Digital ECGs at Barts Health NHS Trust: a high impact win for NHS digitisation
- Training tomorrow’s digital leaders: why AI literacy matters for public services
- Digital poverty is leaving children behind
- Creating a charging eco-system
Browse the whole thing (or head straight to page 12)
In March 2026, the public sector community comes together for an online week of webinars and talks dedicated to advancing safe, effective and impactful AI.
The programme showcases AI in action, from early pilots to large-scale delivery, through a curated series of online talks led by practitioners, innovators and sector leaders.
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:
- Published yesterday, the Ada Lovelace Institute’s policy briefing Great (public) expectations shows the public expect AI to be governed with far more rigour than current policy delivers.
- Think Productive’s Year End Reset: A 10‑Minute Guide to Help You Make Space to Think
- AbilityNet is launching an Accessibility Leaders Peer Mentoring Group in February. Register your interest. Please note: it’s not clear if any cost is involved.
- This one landed in my inbox: it’s not public sector specific, but Microsoft have a slide deck about making the case for M365 Copilot. “Show stakeholders how Copilot can help drive innovation, productivity and growth in this customisable PowerPoint presentation.”
- Nominate yourself or a colleague (by 31 December) for the Digital Health Impact List 2026. Socitm CEO Nadira Hussain is on the judging panel.
Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend when it arrives.
Best wishes,
Alex.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
