Socitm Blog

Back from family holiday in Oz to snow beginnings, but this month my world would go ballistic!

Local CIO Council met (virtually) by telephone conference, when Martin Bellamy began our journey into the clouds ..... well, G-cloud to be precise - see my blog entry on Cloud matters ..... in which I have set out Socitm's commitment to helping to specify the shape and contents of G-cloud from a local public services perspective.

Our work on envisioning the shape of Tomorrows (local) public services kicked off with a joint workshop with LGA, IDeA, CLG and Socitm colleagues. This will link with some of the emerging thinking on the future of public services e.g. CIPFA-SOLACE: After the Downturn, Demos: The Power Gap, Commission on 2020 Public Services and the Institute for Government. Our particular focus will be innovation and improvement in information handling and the underpinning ICT infrastructure to support that vision. ­

To put it more succinctly this is about breakthrough delivery of public services.

So, what's next?

We will be distilling our thoughts in preparation for:

• testing them with a group of leading councillors brought together by the LGA
• further testing them with senior figures from the wider public services
• preparing briefings for ministers, advisers and local politicians
• developing guidance for our own members.

Karl Grundy came on board as our new Head of Commercial Development. I began the process of handing over some of the supplier contacts that I had made in recent months.

Talking of returning from Oz, I gave Scott Mansfield, Socitm's latest Graham Williamson Award winner some contacts in Australia to build his intended programme, one kindly provided by a former colleague at IDeA, Mary McKenna who leads the flourishing business that is Learning Pool.

I met with Cath Anley and Simon May of the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) appropriately at the British Library. We talked about areas of common interest, particularly the advent of social media and the reluctance of some Head of ICT to permit its use. Cath and Simon explained that this is seen as a flawed position by librarians who are keen to see its exploration to facilitate learning and information exchange in the increasingly networked world in which their users, and non-users, live. For those who haven't seen it yet, do get hold of a copy of our Socitm Insight report on the use of social media in the wider public services and mirrors SCL thinking.

Socitm Futures met and reviewed progress on our priority policy areas:

• Envisioning, championing and shaping tomorrow's (local) public services
• Information handling
• Efficiency and sustainability
• Shared infrastructures
• ­Citizen and staff engagement

Paul Davidson of the Local e-Government Standards Body (LeGSB) gave an overview of progress in development and adoption of standards. My sense is that after too long a period of gestation, people in important places are starting to 'get it' with respect to standards. Certainly, they feature strongly in the Government ICT Strategy (of which more below). Of particular interest are proposals for defining and specifying standards for the nature of linked data sets, and to determine rights and responsibilities in relation to specific data sets to facilitate proper sharing which is vital for trusted, joined-up, local public services.

Gill Hitchcock of Government Computing Magazine interviewed me about my policy role for Socitm. The article, which sets out Socitm's policy priorities and expanding influence, has appeared in the February 2010 issue of the magazine.

The Government ICT Strategy was published, generating a wave of activity for me in producing a policy briefing and response from a local perspective. The draft briefing is currently being considered by members of Socitm Futures and the Local CIO Panel. Socitm will be playing a full part as critical friend in the strategy's implementation. Indeed, I will be serving on the Implementation Steering Group and endeavouring to ensure that the local perspective is respected and 'designed in' to the proposed infrastructure proposed in each of the strategy's 14 strands of activity.

Jos Creese (Vice president) and Tim Allen (Local Government Association) attended the first meeting of the Local Data Panel late in the month. This coincided, of course, with the launch of data.gov.uk. At Jos' request, I consulted Socitm Futures and Local CIO Council members to develop some thought leadership about the publication (by local authorities) of public data. This briefing is now in preparation - watch this space!

IT Trends had its press launch and we were delighted to have John Suffolk, Government CIO present to discuss the findings.

So was the month really 'ballistic'? Well, I ended it with a presentation at the governmentIT 2010 conference in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, a few floors above the Iraq Inquiry! I reckon we had the bigger audience (on-site, anyway). I shared the platform with Bill McCluggage (Deputy Government CIO) and Martha Lane-Fox (Government Digital Inclusion Champion). Bill gave an overview of the Government ICT Strategy, Martha enthused the audience about the prospects for digital inclusion and raceonline2012. I spoke about the findings in our latest Customer Access Improvement Survey and the enormous potential for simplifying and improving our website content to support 'channel shift' towards digital delivery of public services.

I then crossed the road to HM Treasury for a meeting with Oracle at which they set out their ideas (to a large and varied audience) for a proposed OGC public sector product and services agreement.

Finally, I had a useful discussion with William Barker of the Department of Communities and Local Government about our continuing work with LGA and IDeA on information handling and the prospects for sharing our developing thinking with colleagues in Whitehall who are charged with implementing Smarter Government and digital delivery.

It looks like the next few months are going to be even busier and certainly varied!