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Newsletter: New year, same us

Authors and contributors: Alexandra Murphy
The words 'Happy New Year' are in white, left aligned on a black, rectangular shape. In the bottom right of the rectangle is the number 25 in an orange circle.

Keep getting everything you can from your membership

Your events, training and resources

Welcome to 2025. I hope it’s treating you well so far. Welcome also to your 2025 Socitm membership.

When you’re sat at your desk feeling stuck or exasperated or puzzled, Socitm is your nice virtual colleague. We have people and resources to make it a bit easier.

You’re the key part of this community. Telling us what you need and where we can help. Let’s get together and do it all again this year.

Our friend Tony Ellis

We start the year with some sad news. We all lost a dear member of our local public sector family at the end of December.

Nadira writes: RIP Tony Ellis. A legend, a true leader, a shining star and a gentleman. Devastated to hear this very sad news. Sending heartfelt condolences, hugs and love on behalf of the Socitm family to All.

If you would like to share your memories of Tony with his family, friends and colleagues, Buckinghamshire has set up an email address through which they can collect and share them all mycondolences@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

This week there’s a top 5 (in no special order) of hopefully relevant/useful/interesting things to get you started for 2025

  1. The event, from the list below, I’d most like to join is the CDPS webinar on Tuesday 21 January: Disability, language, and design with Content Design London
  2. Top 3 ways for organisations to think about using Gen AI
  3. Get your free Data Upload Design Kit. H/T TPX Impact
  4. Thanks to everyone who’s joining this month’s Public Sector Challenge, the London Bridges Walk on Saturday 18 January. We’ll be supporting the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK. If you can, please donate here. Thank you.
  5. The procurement focus continues this month in a webinar series on social value. With the Crown Commercial Service we’re looking into social value from your perspective, for your suppliers, and then we’ll all meet at the beginning of February to discuss it together as a complete procurement community.

Take care. I hope you can have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Alex.

Membership in 2025

You’re under intense pressure to do more with less. Your Socitm community is here to support and help you.

Connect: tap into our network of professionals to solve your wicked issues, find solutions and share best practice.
Learn: develop yourself and your team with CPD-certified training.
Explore: access practical resources to drive your decision making and avoid reinventing the wheel.

  1. Prices are frozen for 2025
  2. NEW Limits lifted: everything will be available to everyone in your organisation. We’re rolling this out now.
  3. NEW Resources: including more AI-focused and upcoming cyber content
  4. NEW Member-only rate for Impera’s Place Insight social progress index
    Read about: Creating a Data-Driven Future for Brent using the Social Progress Index
  5. NEW THIS WEEK Member-only rate for WeChange.AI
    The current introductory offer is valid till 31 March 2025. It is subject to change after this date.
    Many of us, and our organisations, struggle to use our software (such as M365) to its full potential. Andrew Boxall’s WeChange.AI’s service addresses this struggle by offering you tailored strategies to get the most out of services we use daily, and to maximise the value of current technology investments.
    Find out more on Friday 24 January: Unlock the potential of your technology
  6. NEW FOR 2025 ONLY Use 1 benchmarking module free-of-charge. Choose from: cost, delivery, performance or user skills.
Find your membership edge

Keep getting the best and most from your Socitm with your at-a-glance guide to membership.
Illustration of a woman reading an oversized book, entitled, 'Local gov's big book of ideas'.

In Your Resource Hub

NEW in AI@Socitm

Elevate your AI skillset at the Microsoft AI Tour in London on Wednesday 5 March.

From MIT Technology Review: The biggest AI flops of 2024

What will AI look like in 2025?
The Digital Leaders State of AI Report, by Prof Alan Brown, synthesises findings from 23 AI surveys published in 2024. It represents nearly 40,000 respondents, to identify trends, insights, and actionable priorities for digital leaders in 2025.

Event: Local Government AI Summit 2025 from 09:30 on Thursday 23 January
Join the second, annual national learning and information sharing event co-designed with local authorities.

You might have missed…

Watch Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Centre

How to make your citizens, colleagues and you happier

New Information Governance and Contact Centre solution from HSO makes it easy for citizens to engage with you, and you them. Developed with South Gloucestershire Council, it uses Microsoft Copilot AI to slash manual work.

“We’re excited to be the first council to collaborate with HSO on their Dynamics 365 Information Accelerator. A framework on which we will create a single view of citizens to deliver connected services.”
Andrew Jones, Design, Develop and Transition Manager, South Gloucestershire Council.

If you’re making do with spreadsheets or disconnected systems, arrange your free no obligation demo to see how you can better support citizens whilst slashing license costs.

For ease of viewing, the recordings are divided into easy to navigate chapters, with subtitles and transcript available via the video player toolbar.

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.

Listen to all episodes of Socitm Says Podcast. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Illustration showing a hacker on his laptop in a darkened room while people elsewhere work with data and security

Cyber security

Meeting the Identity Challenges of a Modern, Innovative Local Authority

Is your local authority prepared for the imminent adoption of CAF principles? The clock is ticking, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. As the deadline looms, it’s crucial to assess your readiness.

Download SailPoint’s white paper Identity Security for Local Government

You might also like:

Procurement in 2025

Are you ready for Monday 24 February?

If you had to miss the meeting about the Procurement Act you can catch up with the recording and the useful resources:

Watch Preparing for the Procurement Act 2023

Social value in your procurement

With the Crown Commercial Service we’re looking into social value from your perspective, for your suppliers, and then we’ll all meet at the beginning of February to discuss it together as a complete procurement community.

  1. 09:30 to 11:00 Wednesday 22 January Maximising Social Value for the Public Sector (for your suppliers)
  2. 09:30 to 11:00 Wednesday 29 January Increasing Social Value in Procurement Practice (for you)
  3. 09:30 to 11:00 Wednesday 5 February Social Value Procurement Solutions and Shared Experiences
Illustration of people standing next to huge, people-sized devices. The smartphone and screen both display simple HTML.

Accessibility and inclusion

Check your website’s Silktide Accessibility Score
If you’re competitive, see where you’re council ranks in the index for January. It’s not all about being #1. This month there’s another completely new entry and they’re straight in at #30: good job Warwickshire!

Follow Silktide’s YouTube series: What in the World is WCAG?. Their most recent video is 3.1 Readable.

Recent UKAuthority news: GDS: Accessibility monitoring of public sector websites and mobile apps from 2022 to 2024

Fill out your Digital Accessibility Maturity Assessment
Hassell lnclusion’s DAMA is a comprehensive self-assessment of your current level of digital accessibility maturity.

Next accessibility-themed webinars
Thursday 30 January | 16:00 to 17:00 | Trends in Digital Accessibility 2025
Friday 5 February | 13:00 to 14:00 | AI – What impact does it have on Digital Accessibility?

PAUSE
Creating fair and equitable organisations and services is everybody’s responsibility. Take time to reflect and review on your approach and identify where there may be gaps in the way in which you do things. Pause – reflect – act

Next core skills course
09:30 to 12:30 on Tuesday 28 January | Introduction to Emotional Intelligence | 1 point
At the time of writing there are only 4 spaces left on this one.

You might also like:

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Training

Build your confidence and resilience to develop and better apply your skills, ideas, and experience. Start booking courses, to work with your personal learning and development plan, now.

In-person courses

  • Monday 24 to Tuesday 25 February, and Wednesday 21 to Thursday 22 May | Top Talent | Leeds | 4 points
  • Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February | Place-based Leadership | London | 4 points

Online core skills courses

Your annual membership includes training
Get your guide to using training points. Don’t have enough or you’ve run out? Let us know.
Log in to your user account for an up-to-date number of available training points on the day that you check.

Any questions, just ask us.

How was your course? Tell us about it and be a training champion 🙂

What don’t you know?

Survey end users’ skills to prioritise your future training needs. Get started with a user skills survey.

Browse all training
Socitm infographic - benchmarking 2024

Better data improves everything

You want evidence to support your business cases, and insight into positive changes you can make. Get a concise overview of your service coupled with data to support it.

NEW for your membership (in 2025 ONLY) Use one benchmarking module free-of-charge. Choose from: cost, delivery, performance or user skills.

Never benchmarked before? Know what you’d doing and want to get going? Let benchmarking boss 😉 Matthew Fraser know and he’ll support you as much or as little as you need: benchmarking@socitm.net

Don’t get beaten by a lack of data
With benchmarking you can compare the size, performance and cost-efficiency of your ICT. Leaving you free to concentrate your efforts for improvement. Or make a case for improved funding.

Read more about what you can do and how in the Benchmarking Services Help Centre.

Next benchmarking webinar: 13:00 to 14:00 on Friday 7 February Choosing and using your benchmarking module: an introduction
Benchmarking in pictures
National conference Sheffield 2024

Events

Member-only meetings

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

President’s Conference 2025

Key date for your 2025 calendar: Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 June 2025
Make sure this is in your diary so you can join everyone back in Birmingham for your annual members’ conference.

You’ll be joined by members from the UK and guests from the Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies (LOLA). LOLA includes organisations from Australia, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, UK and USA. Socitm is the only UK member.

Create connections with people from outside the UK and Europe to bring best practice from wherever you find it to your team, place, and community.  

Free webinars and meetings hosted by Socitm

Missed one? Recordings of Socitm webinars are available 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.

Browse events

Mostly free webinars and events hosted by partners and others

January

February

March

Digital Self-Service in the Public Sector 2025: Approach to Service Deliver y Report (10th edition)

Digital Self-Service in the Public Sector 2025

Approach to Service Delivery Report

The GOSS Digital Self-Service in the Public Sector research initiative, provides a deep dive into the current state of digital self-service, capturing the perspectives and experiences of public sector organisations.

In this report, the current state of digital self-service in the public sector is explored, focusing on online service delivery and the integration of AI technologies.

It highlights key metrics such as the percentage of services provided online, organisational readiness, and success factors. By assessing the importance and achievement of digital self-service objectives, it provides insights into the strategies organisations are taking in an increasingly digital landscape.

Discover in this report:

  • Public sector organisations’ current digital self-service delivery and usage levels.
  • The factors driving the success of organisations’ digital self-service plans.
  • How organisations measure their digital transformation and self-service success.
  • If public sector organisations are achieving their digital self-service objectives.
Get your copy

Government Technology Magazine: the December issue

Find articles from 2 Vice-Presidents in this issue:

  • What’s next for cloud transformation in the public sector? By Chris Hazell from techUK
  • Straightforward and compliant cloud computing – the G-Cloud 14 update from CCS
  • From the LGA: Creating a digitally empowered public sector
  • AI in the public sector: the story so far
  • Investing in cyber teams for better resilience….urges Chris Dimitriadis from ISACA
  • The future and sustainability of our connected places by Yogita Popat from Barnet Council
  • Using location data to measure travel times and access to amenities. The ONS worked with the OS to find out this vital information
  • Exploring the value of digital twins. A new collaboration between OS and the Welsh Government
  • Norfolk County Council at the forefront of innovation. Kurt Frary explains further…
Browse December’s issue

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

Found in Guardian Society, this lovely story (and pictures) about ‘Doctor Peyo’: the horse comforting cancer patients in Calais.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash