Staff changes
In: David Amos has recently joined the Shared Services team as programme manager for a piece of work looking at the impact of the Council Diagnostics and what support Councils might need to deal effectively with the major changes required to address the difficult financial climate. His previous roles have included consultant at IT services company Logica, Programme Director at City of Edinburgh Council for their diagnostic programme, and Shared Services strategy Manager at Scottish Government. We welcome David, who is looking forward to meeting up with councils and discussing their current change activities and challenges, which will help inform the future work of the IS's Shared Services section.
Out: Tessa Darley is leaving on the 25th of September for a post as KTN knowledge transfer manager at InnovITS in Oxford. For her first year at the IS, Tessa was project officer for Customer First's A-Z project, which developed and successfully introduced the Scottish Service List, Scottish Navigation List, A-Z and over 1700 generic, standardised FAQs to Scottish councils. For the last two years, Tessa has been pivotal in supporting and developing the communities of practice element of the Improvement Service's KM strategy. We wish her every success in her new venture.
Communities of Practice
Mobile and Flexible Working in Scotland group - Membership has tripled within the last two weeks, with representation already from over three-quarters of Scottish councils, as well as NHS, Police, and other non-profit organisations.
In the forum, Mark Baker, WorkSmart Manager at Aberdeenshire Council has been hosting an open discussion around benefits realisation. Also in the forum, new and existing members have been telling the group their experiences of flexible working - all positive so far! In the library, members have been adding outline business cases from councils in Scotland, policies and guidance that other councils have used, plus lots more!
Join the collaboration site at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/1339395/home.do or contact Mark Baker or Lee Parry for more info on the mobile and flexible working in Scotland group.
There are still some spaces available at the Nomad Scotland annual conference in Edinburgh on October 1st, with 3 for 2 and early bird offers available. Don't miss this great opportunity to meet and network with your colleagues across Scotland, and pick up and share hints and tips on mobile and flexible working. For more info and to book, please visit the event pages on the Nomad site.
Programme and Change Managers in Scotland group - This group has recently been conducting a survey on benefits realisation at councils in Scotland, to identify how this important strand needs to be taken forwards in the future, and how we can support each other in this. The survey highlighted that only 50% of councils have a formal benefits realisation process in place and the majority of those identified that there was a lot of room for improvement.
The PCM group will be holding their next event in Glasgow in October and will focus on benefits realisation. For more information on this group, the event or the survey please contact David Amos, and you can join the collaboration site at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/888150/home.do
