Socitm Blog

A large number of attendees, and huge enthusiasm.

Consensus that, by working together, we can fundamentally reshape public services enabled by technology.

Despite the fact that we cannot directly do all of this, we should not under-estimate the power of our positions in linking technology, information, processes and people.

We should publish summary notes openly and widely - this is, as we have said before, 'a call to arms'.

Leadership

• Links between leadership and governance were agreed.
• On governance, we need to establish the broad models for the different aspects of governance - organisational, ICT, information, etc, and within that involving more different bodies which have worked in practice (I know of a number of local authorities who would be willing to share their models).
• The two guides on leadership (which need higher profile on the web) are sufficient to be going on with.Practical implementation of new leadership models need to be driven by the other 'Planting the Flag' themes - ie. what do we need to deliver, shared infrastructure, collaboration, etc?
• The work should link to other aspects of professionalism, talent management and the changing role of the CIO - eg. mentoring, coaching, and the potential launch at the April conference of the 'top talent programme'.
• Jos Creese will convene a short workshop on governance to involve Siobhan.

Organisational Change

Some key points included:

• Manage and avoid risk, drive innovation, entrepreneurial approach, flexibility - always changing, services digitally enabled.
• We are too apologetic about being public servants.
• Best practice is out of date by the time we read about it.
• Autocratic management does not naturally encourage the right style of public service reform required.
• Separation of front and back office doesn't make sense - front office outcomes are what matter; back office is simply investment to achieve this.

Some Other General Points

• Is there a need to link to 'open public services'?
• We need more dissemination - helping people to understand 'what do I do tomorrow?'.Is there an order to things?
• We ought to develop a checklist of outcomes, case studies, templates and visualisation.
• Branding and managing expectations will matter, especially as every organisation has a different starting point - this is about a journey to wards a destination, not everyone arriving at exactly the same place at the same time.
• Evidence is needed - How do we know where we are?Do we need a maturity model for self assessment?
• There is a lot of chaos at present, especially for smaller organisations.How can we make a difference with the strategy, and link this to local issues - especially Health, Police, digital access and efficiency.
• We need people to identify with the strategy and to participate with it.Specific issues will occur in specific sectors if the strategy does not speak to them.eg. Police, central government, transport.
• How will this save money for smaller organisations?ie. 'What's in it for me?'But don't sugar-coat the message for districts.
• What is the industry position?We need more suppliers to back and develop the strategy with us.Openly, visually and visibly.
• Much of this must be driven by money at present - efficiency, economies of scale through shared services, the impact of community budgets... 'this is how ICT can help everyone with those challenges'.
• How do we relate it to the delivery of the national government strategy?
• Can we now run some specific events targeting on the furthering of the strategy themes? (e.g. leadership?)

Summary

• More visibility, on the web, via social networking, via regional events.
• Focussing on outcomes, eg. being clear what 'Cloud' will actually do for public services and being able to evidence that.
• Case studies - not necessarily just best practice, but examples of where organisations have used 'Planting the Flag' models and approaches and can demonstrate that it works.
• Terminology - there was some questioning over the words 'treasure map' and 'trek' - on our table suggestions of 'making the journey' and perhaps geo-cashing?
• Action plan - watch this space.