Cyber Incident Response: Your last line of defence - get better prepared

Newsletter: So much stuff

Authors and contributors: Alexandra Murphy

Keep getting everything you can from your membership

Your events, training and resources

Coming on Monday: Get ready for 2025’s Public Sector Digital Trends Report.

Your research team has been preparing 2025’s report since last year. From Monday you’ll have more useful resources and insight for plotting your digital route.

If you’re reading this on Friday morning, you still have time to register for this afternoons’ webinar all about unlocking the potential of your technology (with WeChange.AI).You can access the assessment and written report parts of this service at a discounted rate until the end of March.

There’s a lot for all of us to take on board with announcements from the UK government this past week. Plus, like many members in England we’re also thinking about devolution and reorganisation. And keeping an eye on the LGA’s devolution hub.

An interesting word (which only appears twice) in this week’s blueprint for modern digital government is ‘collegiate’. Our Socitm community works this way by default. We’re still people though and sometimes we won’t get things right first time. It gives us impetus to keep on doing what’s best for our services and communities. Keeping on finding and applying the most appropriate use of technology and supporting people – inside our organisations and in our communities.

ICYMI Recent announcements from UK Government on Tuesday 21 January:

TL;DR via London CDO Theo Blackwell on LinkedIn 🙂

This week there’s a top 4 (in no special order) of hopefully relevant/useful/interesting things for you

  1. Great reading, ahead of Monday’s publication of 2025’s Digital Trends report, from Atika Mohammed (Director Digital, Data and Technology for Luton) all about developing digital and data skills
  2. Spot Socitm in these highlights of last week’s London Bridges Walk. The next Public Sector Challenge is set for Friday 5 September: Peak Pursuit
    Choose your challenge: with routes of 8, 15, 21 and a marathon 26 miles, plus a wheelchair-accessible route around Lady Bower Reservoir, there’s a perfect challenge for every fitness level.
  3. Read: What the VUCA!?@* Get a flavour for what you’ll cover on Top Talent.
  4. As of yesterday afternoon, February’s How to be an Effective Coach course is FULLY BOOKED. It’s also running (and with spaces still available) in May, July and October.

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 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. NEW 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 from 1pm this afternoon: Unlock the potential of your technology
  2. NEW FOR 2025 ONLY Use 1 benchmarking module free-of-charge. Choose from: cost, delivery, performance or user skills.
    Learn much more on Friday 7 February: What will you measure in 2025? 

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 briefing

Preparing for the new Procurement Act 2023
Get the knowledge and tools you need to comply with the Procurement Act 2023.

AI@Socitm 2.0

It’s easier and quicker to get to what you most need now we’ve reorganised the resources. This isn’t a static collection. New content is added regularly. Bookmark it and keep coming back.

What’s in there?

Research and guidance: find practical support for your next big idea or project 💡
Case studies: see how other people are using AI so you can too 📝
Events, training and webinars: learn more about how you can best use AI 👩‍💻
Groups and networks: collaborate and learn about AI 🗣️

Interesting events coming up:

  • Tuesday 11 to Wednesday 12 February: AI Fringe will return to mark the Paris AI Action Summit with a 2-day event at the British Library Knowledge Centre in London.
    The Fringe will feature keynotes, firesides, panels and showcases with prominent voices in AI from civil society, academia, government and industry.
  • Wednesday 26 February Safeguarding sensitive information with AI

Help shape the future of AI in local public services

We’re supporting a collaborative* AI Readiness Survey which is gathering insights from local authorities to explore how they are navigating AI adoption and driving digital innovation.

Your input matters! By sharing your experiences, you’ll help inform best practices and guide the next steps for AI in local government.

*Led by GoLLM Limited in partnership with Heriot-Watt University’s Intelligent Automation Systems Lab and APSE, supported by Interface funding.

You might have missed…

Watch Stay Ahead: What’s new in Microsoft 365 Copilot

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

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

Public Sector Digital Trends 2024

While you’re waiting for the 2025 edition, remind yourself of what was covered in last year’s version: cyber protection

You might also like:

  • Join: Cyber Incident Response: The last line of defence from 11:00 to 12:00 on Thursday 23 January
    No one can solve every cyber security problem alone.
    Look at the attack scenarios organisations are facing and best practice exercises for when those attacks happen.
    WithSecure’s experts have participated in more European cyber crime scene investigations than any other company on the market.
  • Join: Anatomy of a DDoS Attack from 11:00 to 12:00 on Thursday 27 February
    Learn more about DDoS, how the sector can take steps to defend against them, hear best practice and expert advice
    VP Kurt Frary (CTO at Norfolk) is one of the speakers
  • On Thursday 6 March join us for:

Procurement in 2025

Are you ready for Monday 24 February?

NEW Briefing: Preparing for the new Procurement Act 2023
This briefing gives you the knowledge and tools you need to comply with the new Act.


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.

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 - There are now only 2 spaces left on this one.
Interested, but can't make the date? It's also running in April, September and November.

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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 leadership courses

  • Monday 24 to Tuesday 25 February, and Wednesday 21 to Thursday 22 May | Top Talent | Leeds | 4 points
    Read: What the VUCA!?@* for a flavour for what you’ll cover.
  • Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February | Place-based Leadership | London | 4 points
    BTW This is the only London-based course this year.

Online core skills courses

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.

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.
This year the user skills survey could be the complementary benchmarking module you use with your membership.


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. 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

National conference Sheffield 2024

Events

Member-only meetings

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

President’s Conference 2025: Beyond Borders

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.


Mostly free webinars and events hosted by partners and others

January

February

March


Government Business Magazine

Strong practical theme in this latest issue of Government Business. Here are a few highlights:

National Tree Safety Group launches ‘Common Sense Risk Management of Trees’ 🌲🌳
The Amenity Forum sets out how to best manage weeds in public places 🏡
The Property Care Association takes a look at why flooding is becoming worse and more frequent and to mitigate the risk 🌊
Training: what should it be? Matthew Ferrin explains how to get the most out of training staff 🎓
Combined heat and power: the way to net zero by 2050? ♻️
Economic development: delivering long-lasting change in our towns, cities and regions – writes Tom Stannard, chair of the Institute of Economic Development and chief executive of Salford City Council 🏢


Digital Self-Service in the Public Sector 2025

Challenges and future 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 Approach to Service Delivery 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.

Challenges and future service delivery report: barriers to digital transformation are examined, evaluating the pace at which service delivery has progressed and the forecasted growth in both online services and AI integration.


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

In the week of the US Presidential Election I shared BBC Radio 3’s Mindful Mix. And it’s back to that for the week that started with the inauguration. It’s a little haven of peace.

Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash