A few updates from me. Last week I spoke on behalf of the Society at the Transformational Government event in Westminster. It was very well attended considering the weather and I used the opportunity to talk about avoidable contact as well as a number of "CIO role" issues. Plugs for Socitm's Channel Value Benchmarking and Professionalism work duly achieved!

On Tuesday of this week I met Philip Littleavon and Simon Norbury and, although I haven't yet discussed how/who/when with Richard, I want to make sure that we don't lose focus or momentum on this. I know that locally where I work we were a bit upset by the tone of some contact from GC but we see the worth of finally getting everyone linked as a start to building the linkages across the public sector that can help enable the transformation agenda. The Society will, amongst other roles, continue to be a "critical friend" to the programme but it is in all of our longer term interests to make this happen. There is no doubt that Philip and Simon want Socitm to succeed and our discussions were both positive and constructive.

The GC work also raises an important issue for us as a Society however. In every area where we want to have influence it is important to show to others the Society's worth in being involved at the earliest stages of policy and initiatives development. For too long we have been on the back foot and commenting on other people's (particularly central government) ideas and proposals rather than being in there help shaping them in ways that we can work with and that make sense locally. Your Board will be considering how we make sure this happens. I know that GC doesn't apply to many of our members but early engagement regardless of where we are geographically located and who our local, regional or national government is has to be worth pursuing vigorously.

Work is also progressing on the detail and logistics of the 1 day national event on 23rd April. It will be a good day and we have secured Tony Travers and former MP Richard Allan as two of our headline "acts". With a mix of case studies and major strategic issues it will be both informative and participative and I urge members to support it. On the day we will also be holding the Society's AGM including any necessary elections. Be there, have your say and use your vote.

Socitm Board is tomorrow as I write this but next Tuesday gives me my opportunity to "get my own back". I'm chairing a worksstream at an event that features its first 2 speakers as our own Richard Steel and Glyn Evans.


Steve P

Connections

On Monday I chaired a sickness absence Hearing at Newham Town Hall, following which I returned home to work.


Three news articles interested me because of the different perceptions of ICT they reflect. Whilst there’s a view that flexible working enabled by ICT proved its worth in last week’s winter storms and resultant transport disruption, and a majority of public sector employees believe that ICT can help drive down costs, CIOs believe that businesses are ignoring the potential benefits of high-performance networks, and (because?) they have only a middling influence on business strategy. Together, these represent a fair summary of the state of our art, in my view, and draw attention to the key areas in which we need to develop our skills.


Socitm has now received a number of responses to its broadcast about the Government Connect letters that were recently sent to many Authorities concerning CoCo compliance progress. Thanks to all respondents. Some have expressed anger and frustration - which we will be discussing with the team - and one plaudit, was received. Additionally, Philip Littleavon (Programme Director) has replied to a note of mine as follows. (Reproduced with Philip’s permission.)

“We have had a mixed response to the last (Jan 30) letter, but not all (or majority) bad. Roughly 130 responses received out of about 180 requested. Of those that responded about 15 could be categorised as "very disappointed.." and we've said sorry where appropriate, but all of these authorities are doing quite well. The majority were OK and we have had a few plaudits as well. Within the 130 there are a handful that are clearly at risk of not achieving compliance on time.

“Whilst accepting that a few feathers have been ruffled and that we clearly got some facts wrong (eg., some lost responses to the 21 November mailing) the process has moved us on enormously. The acceleration in progress we have experienced is incredible. Currently receiving c. 40 CoCo updates per day!

“We are still collating and analysing, but I have concerns in a couple of areas.

1. Those that did not respond (c.50)
2. Those that did not respond to the previous mailing (c.11). These (on paper) have made least progress.

“We will need to keep working on these Councils until a clear statement emerges. Of course we risk more annoyance.”

We will respond to all the Authorities that contacted us letting them know what action is taken.

On Tuesday, with James Lee and Ian Tomson-Smith of SNT Consulting, Richard Carde and I had back-to-back meetings with Orange and TfL.

We met Bob Pisolkar, Orange’s Public Sector Divisional Business Manager, and Sean Harney, Business Development Manager, to discuss engagement in related areas that include a technology roadmap workshop, commercialisation and market intelligence.

Vince Tooke, from TfL joined us to discuss PSMP project progress and how we address issues such as Programme Governance, Marketing and PR, development priorities and exemplification of a standard business case. We also reviewed related work on the network infrastructure and Data Centre.

A Daytrip to Belfast

It seemed strange, on a wintry Friday morning, parking at Gatwick’s “Summer Special Parking” for my flight to Belfast to attend the Socitm Northern Ireland Regional Meeting, but, at £5.50 for the day, it offered the cheapest deal.

I arrived at the Park Avenue Hotel, the event venue, in time for the morning coffee break. There was a good turn-out in spite of the inclement weather.

The agenda mostly concerned utilising Web 2.0 technologies. Dave Newman, from Queen’s University, presented on its e-consultation research project. I can’t quite remember how he got to it, but the presentation included this YouTube video of a busy junction, probably in India, which excited a lot of interest!

Caron Alexander, the N. Ireland Chair, had already circulated the Socitm Position Statement, which I again plugged in a short update.

After lunch, I stayed for the Committee’s meeting, and we discussed the proposal for a federal society. There were some concerns about the ability to maintain local relevance whilst supporting Socitm UK core themes, but colleagues supported the proposal and agreed to participate in a UK workshop to develop the detail.

Directgov Innovation

As part of her latest MBA assignment, my colleague, Priya, is conducting a survey, which aims to evaluate and compare the online shopping experiences of Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. If you can help-out, please click here to participate. Thanks from us both in anticipation of your support!


I met Ben Rowland of Tribal (formerly RSe) for a catch-up at his office near Tottenham Court Road. There are some potential areas of collaboration, and we’ll be meeting again in May to consider further – by when I hope we’ll be in a better position to resource any agreed action.


Technology and telecare could transform dementia services. A trial is planned in NeAT.


There is a “Directgov Innovate” site with a “School Closures Alpha Demonstrator” at http://schoolclosures.org.uk/ to help answer quickly and simply which schools are open - in times of inclement weather, for example. (It’s closed for maintenance, as I write, ‘though.) I've added feeds from the site in the right column of this Blog.

Better late than never?

We have finally published the Socitm Position Statement. I’m sorry it’s 10 days later than I said it would be. Memo to self – under promise, over deliver! I’ve written directly to Regional Chairs with the Statement, asking that it be communicated to all members, and it will also be featured in the upcoming monthly Socitm Newsletter. This just underlines the fact that we think it’s an important communication, and we are very keen to receive your feedback – good or bad.


Today was a scheduled home-working day, which has turned-out to be a very long one. External e-mail was delayed in the day, giving me the chance to get on with some other work – mainly planning for upcoming meetings – but then correspondence, some urgent, started arriving through the evening. Some concerned Government Connect, and further letters being sent by the Programme Office, which I knew were planned, as I explained in this Blog on Friday. Given the latest correspondence, ‘though, we will be writing to members in a Socitm broadcast, tomorrow, along the following lines.

Socitm accepts that the history of GC has not been ideal from a local government perspective and that had earlier advice from our members been taken we could have progressed far more efficiently. However we also acknowledge that, recently, many significant steps have been taken to ensure that GC is the best sustainable solution to meet the needs of local and central government and we are therefore supporting the GC team in implementing the solution as swiftly as possible. A number of our members have contacted us and commented on the tone of some recent correspondence from Government Connect. Our understanding is that GC has acted responsibly and that authorities, who have responded to requests for information, requested assistance and/or given legitimate reasons for missing deadlines have been offered appropriate levels of support. If this is not the case and any of our members can effectively demonstrate that it has not been we will happily, upon receipt of evidence, take this up as a matter of urgency with the GC Director.

Unlocking the Power of Local Information

Once I’d freed my car from the snow and ice, my journey into the office, today, was wonderfully quick. Most of the outside of the A2 was still unusable, but the traffic was light. I can’t remember ever before driving into London without encountering a single queue!

Adrian Hancock and Elaine Davis met me at Direct House for a session on Business Partnership planning, and Steve Jones joined by audio-conference. Elaine and her husband flew-into Gatwick, yesterday, and will be in the UK for the next six weeks, during which time she will be working with the Events Team on the Spring Conference. We had a good meeting covering the partnership menu, revenue management, marketing and account management, sales, remuneration and data management.

We’ll continue to work on the proposition in the next two weeks, developing thinking on issues like the requirement for a commercial management role, and will meet again on 19th February, with a view to agreeing proposals to take to the Commercial Board on the 23rd.


The Government-sponsored “Power of Information Taskforce”, chaired by Richard Allan, former MP for Sheffield Hallam, has released a “beta version” of a report on liberalising non-personal government information. Richard will be speaking on “Unlocking the Power of Local Information” at the Socitm Spring Conference.

Coincidentally, I had a ‘phone conversation, today, with Richard Quarrell, about the PSIPHON project (to create tools to automate the creation of registers of public sector organisations’ Information Assets) that he and Adrian Norman presented to a Socitm Futures meeting, last November. To my great disappointment we (Socitm) have so far failed to progress the Working Party we committed to at that meeting. I arranged to meet with Richard on 16th to plan how to take this forward.

Snow-go

This morning I was due to attend a “Green IT” event at the House of Lords. I drove in from Kent as far as Greenwich, and didn’t think conditions were too bad, but after hearing on the radio that all London buses were cancelled, most Tube lines were suspended, or part-suspended, no south-eastern trains were running, the Blackwall Tunnel was closed south-bound, more snow was expected later, and people were being urged not to travel unless they absolutely had to, decided to return home.

So, now am up-straight with correspondence again!