Hosted and sponsored by Radius Communications at the company’s UK headquarters – Radius Court in Bracknell – TCCC’s Autumn Forum gave Local Authority ICT leaders the opportunity to share their experiences with peers and discuss key challenges surrounding technology deployment within Local Government in a confidential and open environment.
The session kicked off with a keynote address on managing and maintaining consistency in ICT against a changeable political landscape. The conversation focused on how Local Government organisations are facing more pressure than ever to deliver improved services to residents against a backdrop of seemingly permanent budget cuts. However, far from being gloomy about this prospect, there was widespread enthusiasm about the opportunity this environment has created for radical technology changes, which can enable better service delivery, in line with increased citizen/consumer ‘techspectation’ and leveraging fundamental efficiencies never before seen in this sector.
Delegates participated in a series of breakout sessions throughout the day, including a roundtable discussion headed by Alan Kennedy, Chairman of Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group. Kennedy’s talk explored the important emerging junction of Local Government, and the National Health Service, and looked at how new combined health and social care services can be delivered using the latest technology.
Kennedy explained how the NHS has responded to long-term and oppositional demand and cost pressures by using cloud technology to simultaneously improve outcomes and drive down spend and waste.
Finally, attendees rolled their sleeves up for a hands-on cloud communications workshop, experiencing the very latest cloud technologies in action.
Martin Taylor, Chairman of the Cloud Communications Council, commented, “The Cloud Communications Council’s Autumn Forum stimulated some hugely interesting discussions between council representatives around the key theme of politics and ICT. With Local Government organisations under more pressure than ever to improve efficiencies and deliver services that resonate with today’s multi-channel consumer-citizen, it was great for delegates to be able to share their varied experiences, working and learning together in a relaxed and stimulating environment.
“We are looking forward to welcoming Local Government representatives back for our Spring 2016 Forum, which is provisionally scheduled to take place in May next year.”