Improvement Service Newsletter, Sept 2016

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Improvement Service Newsletter, September 2016

Chief Digital Officer and Chief Technology Officer for local government appointed

Two senior officers have been appointed to the newly created local government digital office to help a group of Scottish councils drive change across local services.

Martyn Wallace (Chief Digital Officer) and Dr Colin Birchenall (Chief Technology Officer) both have extensive experience driving forward the digital agenda in Scotland across the public and private sectors.

It is envisaged that the new digital office will be a centre of excellence in data, technology and digital, working with the councils to help them with their own transformation and ensuring they are creating top class digital services for citizens.

Scottish Public Services Network Update

Keep up-to-date with Knowledge Hub - sign up for the Scottish KHub User Group newsletter

The bi-monthly newsletter from the Scottish Knowledge Hub User Group brings you news about Knowledge Hub, information on the latest developments, plus tips and guides on getting the most out of KHub. We'll also highlight some of the Scottish groups using KHub in their work.

Signing up is quick and easy. Just fill in this sign-up form.

Our top 3 most active groups this month are:

Analysis, Intelligence and Research (AIR) - Scotland

One Scotland Gazetteer Custodians

Scottish Empty Homes Officer Network

Is there a topic or area of interest you would like to see on Knowledge Hub? Please contact mike.mclean@improvementservice.org.uk with your idea.

Latest publications and resources

Planning events calendar

Our Planning Skills team has put together an online calendar of events related to planning or of interest to people involved in planning. Find it on our Planning Skills web page (click on the Planning Events tab).

Go to the Planning calendar

Kai-Sigma with Gavin MacGregor, North Ayrshire Council

Hear how North Ayrshire Council put employee involvement, innovation and empowerment at the heart of a new internal lean improvement project in this webinar. Described by an external expert as “the best he has ever seen, public or private sector”, this project won the Scottish Business Excellence Award as well as the Personnel Today Excellence in Public Sector HR Award in 2015.

Listen to the webinar

Welfare Reform Dashboard

New data has been added to the Welfare Reform Dashboard, an online tool which brings together key data on welfare reform from NOMIS, DWP and Scottish Government. The dashboard includes local area information on benefit claimant levels and sanctions, local labour market figures, Scottish Welfare Fund statistics, Discretionary Housing Payments.

Go the the Welfare Reform Dashboard

Upcoming Events

Making effective use of the Knowledge Hub across the frontline financial inclusion sector

28 October 2016

In this webinar, participants will learn how advice workers in Dundee have made use of the online collaboration tool, Knowledge Hub, to connect, discuss, exchange knowledge and develop initiatives to improve public services. As well as learning about Dundee's approach, the webinar will also provide more information on Knowledge Hub itself and the support available from the Improvement Service to strengthen and support your own partnerships and networks.

Find out more/register

Change Managers Network Conference - Continuous improvement in local government

31 October 2016, Glasgow

This event, hosted by Glasgow City Council and the Improvement Service, will focus on how the public sector can adopt a culture of continuous improvement through careful planning and the use of techniques such as business analysis, quality assurance and lean. Speakers will reflect on their experiences of using these tools and will also introduce frameworks used to support colleagues throughout the sector.

Find out more/register

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