Socitm President to launch strategy for ICT-enabled local public services reform at Spring Conference 2011

Conference takes place at the Royal College of Surgeons, London WC2, Wednesday 11 May

President Jos Creese will launch 'Planting the Flag', the comprehensive, highly collaborative and much-anticipated strategy for ICT-enabled local public services reform, at the Socitm Spring Conference in London on May 11. Launch of the Strategy follows extensive consultation on its draft version, know as Routemap for Local Public Services reform - enabled by ICT.

The Strategy is a Local CIO (Chief Information Officer) Council initiative led by Socitm on behalf of all local public services. Its aim is to provide a perspective on the Government ICT Strategy for those enabling local public service reform, whether through developments in ICT infrastructure, increased service sharing, improvements in information management, or delivery of services to customers digitally, 'by default'. Planting the Flag's approach is deliberately 'pan-local', covering public service provision regionally and sub-regionally through local authorities, emergency services, health, education, and the civil society sector.

The conference programme reflects the key areas covered by the Strategy. Following its presentation to the conference, four plenary sessions will be given over to key areas it covers:

• The sharing of ICT services between health services and the local authority - delivered by Zack Pandor, Director of Information and Transformation and Herefordshire NHS & Herefordshire Council
• Customer access and channel management - delivered by Brigitte Giles, Head of Resources Strategy and Amanda Wilde, Customer Strategy & Liaison Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire         Council
• Information, Innovation and Improvement - delivered by Tim Holyoake, Lead Technologist, Software AG
• Better service design and delivery through better and more transparent use of information - delivered by Tony Ellis, Head of IT, London Borough of Brent

A series of facilitated roundtable discussions will cover:

• digital delivery & customer access
• shared services
• business change & transformation
• innovation & service delivery
• key infrastructure including PSN
• information security, sharing & management

Facilitators will include:

• Chris Guest, Head of ICT & Customer Services, Flintshire
• Dylan Roberts, Chief Officer (ICT) Leeds City Council
• Geoff Connell, Geoff Connell, Divisional Director ICT (Acting), ICT & Head of Business Systems at the London Borough of Havering, Resources London Borough of Newham
• Glyn Evans, Corporate Director of Business Change Birmingham City Council
• Ian Bryant, NPIA Enterprise Security Architect
• Kay Brown, Head of ICT in South Lanarkshire Council
• Martin Greenwood, Director, Socitm Insight
• Paul Green, CIO-Director of Information Service
• Russ Charlesworth
• Steve Halliday, Head of ICT at Solihull Council
• Vicky Sargent, author, Better served: customer access, efficiency and channel shift

Socitm President Jos Creese is bullish about the impact of Planting the Flag: "There's never been a strategy for ICT-enabled local public services before, let alone one conceived for a citizen-driven public sector. Planting the Flag sets out a destination, stakes out our territory, and provides a compass, a torch and a map to navigate through it, with organisations coming together in different localities and using it to work out the particular route to their desired destination".

The Conference Primary Sponsor is Software AG, the global leader in business process excellence.

A full programme, further information about the event and bookings are at http://www.socitm.net/info/158/events/116/socitm_spring_conference_2011/2

Further information:

Vicky Sargent
Socitm Press Office
07726 601139