Get set to use everything in your membership in 2025
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Newsletter: Sweep the sheds

Authors and contributors: Alexandra Murphy

Keep getting everything you can from your membership

Your events, training and resources

Thanks so much for registering for yesterday’s Alumni Day. It’s super hard at this time of year (and any part of the year tbf) to make time for things outside of your regular work schedule. And joining us for even one session is hugely appreciated. It’s great to have you as part of the Socitm local public services community.

Pete Ackerley‘s sporting analogy really chimed for me. I posted a few immediate reflections yesterday afternoon. How about you, what did you highlight in your written or mental notes?

If you’re putting together a case for training in 2025, don’t forget that your membership includes courses. Invest in yourself to continue developing and keep competitive for the next challenge. Find something to help you in the 2025 training calendar ( https://socitm.net/calendar/?type=training ).

This week there’s a top 5 (in no special order) of useful/interesting things for you

  1. Which route will you pick for the Public Sector Challenge on Saturday 18 January?! Come and join us on the London Bridges Walk.
  2. My picks from the events list (yup gone with 2 again and 1 is mostly because of the name – can you tell which one?!) are The Pirate Code and Ninja Stealth and How Continuous Optimisation Enhances User Engagement for Your Websites. This website one appeals greatly because this continuous optimisation is the approach we take with our site. So I immediately like it and think it works 😀
  3. DSIT’s Model for Responsible Innovation.
  4. What have you all been up to? Nations and regions news, November 2024.
  5. Loved finding this in my LinkedIn feed this week: Essex’s Barriers to Digital Inclusion Mapping Tool has been awarded the Most Engaging Communication of Local Area Research or Analysis by LARIA. Check it out for yourself on the Essex Open Data site.

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

Best wishes,

Alex.

Simple Socitm logo surrounded by drawings of headshots with different coloured hair

Membership in 2025

The pressure you’re under to do more with less and less is intense. But your Socitm community is here to support you and help.

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

The pressure you’re under to do more with less and less is intense. But your Socitm community is here to support you.

  • Prices are frozen for 2025
  • NEW Limits lifted: everything will be available to everyone in your organisation
  • NEW Resources: including AI-focused and (upcoming) cyber content
  • NEW Member-only rate for Impera’s Place Insight
  • NEW for 2025 ONLY Use one benchmarking module [cost, delivery, performance, user skills] free-of-charge
Your membership advantage
Illustration of a woman reading an oversized book, entitled, 'Local gov's big book of ideas'.

In Your Resource Hub

NEW Digital twin technology and place-based services (Part 2)

Technological and financial challenges of implementing digital twins in place-based services

RECENT Local impact, global change: net zero initiatives for our communities

As we navigate through the challenges of climate change, it’s imperative to take proactive steps to ensure a sustainable future

NEW in AI@Socitm

Case study: Oxford University Hospitals innovate with Microsoft Copilot to deliver efficiencies and improve workforce well-being

Senior Research Analyst Diana Rebaza represented Socitm at Responsible Digitalisation and AI Use for Local Authorities earlier this month. Find a blog post about it here: AI in Local Government: Shaping the Future of Public Services.

You might have missed…

Watch Transforming Public Sector IT: Unlocking Innovation Through Cloud Optimisation

SoftwareOne hosted last week’s webinar and if you’re interested in joining one of the M365 Copilot workshops mentioned during the session get in touch with Jason or Paul through LinkedIn.

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 now: Using social progress index data podcast

This episode of the podcast is a comprehensive exploration of data, the social progress index (SPI), and how one size does not fit all when trying to use it in your local authority. 

Central and local government veterans William Barker and Michael Green are asked questions by David Ogden. Listen to their conversation for ways to use SPI data to impact your strategy and activities.

In next month’s Members’ Connection Hour you’ll learn more about Place Insight. It’s a data tool available to members (from next year) at a member-only rate from our colleagues at Impera Analytics. It’s based on a Social Progress Index (listen to more about that in the above newest episode of the Socitm Says podcast).

Listen to all episodes of Socitm Says Podcast. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The new Procurement Act is coming…

Are you ready?

Your Socitm team is working with colleagues from the Cabinet Office and CCS to get you great and pertinent content and people to support your readiness for Monday 24 February 2025.

Preparing for the Procurement Act | 10:00 to 11:00 | Wednesday 11 December
We’re getting buyers and suppliers together (with the Cabinet office and OneAdvanced) to run through the basics, get practical tips, and to address our common concerns.
Have a read through this white paper ahead of the meeting, so you can be up to speed on the day.

ICYMI techUK’s Local Government Procurement Survey is still open. Thanks for taking the time to inform improvements in local public service procurement of tech. Most questions are non-mandatory, so if you are short of time, feel free to skip. Just remember to hit ‘submit’ at the end 🙂

Accessibility and inclusion

Check your Silktide Score. If you’re competitive, see where you’re council ranks in the index for November. It’s not all about being #1. Bassetlaw District Council is up 58 places to 23! Excellent work.

Follow Silktide’s YouTube series: What in the World is WCAG? New this week: Input modalities

Next website-related webinar
13:00 to 14:00 on Friday 13 December: How Continuous Optimisation Enhances User Engagement for Your Websites

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

Hassell Inclusion's next webinar
16:00 to 17:00 on Thursday 19 December How to meet the accessibility needs of an increasingly diverse workforce

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 course
09:30 to 12:30 on Tuesday 28 January | Introduction to Emotional Intelligence | 1 point
Find your Silktide score
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Training

Your training calendar for 2025 is live and you start you can start booking your places, to work with your personal learning and development plan, now.

Microsoft Change Agent courses have concluded for this year, but there are still plenty of Digital Skills Training Hours to take part in. Gain deeper knowledge of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Forms, OneNote, Planner, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Excel and SharePoint Online.

In-person courses

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.

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.

Your local public service community will be getting together with guests from the Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies (LOLA). LOLA is an international organisation of which Socitm is a member. And the only one from the UK.

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

December

Where we’ve been

  • On Monday 25 November President Carol Williams joined the Reform Think Tank conference in Sheffield for Beyond bureaucracy: achieving future-proof local government. Here’s what happened: Reimagining the Local State conference: a new approach?
  • Also on Monday 25 November but in Coventry, Nadira Hussain and Sam Smith lead a session on AI and Assistive Technology to improve outcomes for All at the ADSO Conference. Read their latest report: Working in a Modern Democracy

Come and say hello

  • Friday 6 December APSE Performance Networks Seminar 2024 [Blackpool]
    David Ogden is panellist for the disscusion: Post-election: what’s the direction for local government front-line services? Chaired by APSE CEO Mo Baines.
  • Wednesday 11 December Manage IT LOLA Conference 2024 [Antwerp]
    Members of the President’s and Leadership Teams will be with international colleagues hearing about best local government practice from Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK, and USA.

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

And this week it’s back to AmazingIf and the Squiggly Careers Podcast 🙂

This latest episode (and accompanying resources) is all about how to get heard ( https://www.amazingif.com/listen/how-to-get-heard/ ). I’ve found getting older tremendously helpful – but we can’t always wait that long!

They talk about tactics and techniques that create space for you to speak. From bookending meetings to finding a supporter who can bring you into the conversation, they share 5 practical ideas to help you take action.

Photo from London Speaker Bureau