WIREDGOV

The best in public sector ICT were recognised at the gala evening for the Socitm Awards 2017.

A who’s who of public sector technology experts gathered inside the King Power Stadium in Leicester on the evening of 9 October as the winners in five categories were announced.

Presented at the annual Socitm conference dinner, these awards recognise professional technology members who have demonstrated outstanding excellence, innovation, improvement and service to the public sector.

Orbis, the largest local government shared service partnership in the UK, won an Innovative Collaboration award. A partnership between Surrey County Council, East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council, Orbis aims to deliver significant savings by fully integrating back-office services – sharing people, resources and technology. The partnership has achieved £4.1m efficiency savings to-date, and exceeded its financial targets by £2m in its first year.

Northern Ireland Civil Service’s Digital Transformation Service received an Innovative Collaboration Award for its Digital Transactional Toolkit (DTT).

The DTT delivers a platform through which the Digital Transformation Service can deploy digital public services rapidly and cost effectively to meet the needs of citizens. The toolkit has delivered over 20 services, £1.7 million savings and increased the ability of the public to interact with the government online.

Thurrock Council won the Citizen Engagement award for its My Account online scheme. Over 57,000 people are taking advantage of the self-service system, which lets them access a wide variety of Thurrock Council services 24 hours a day.

It was first set up in October 2013 and offers a range of options including reporting missed bin collections, managing council tax, applying for school places and booking appointments to registering births – all using a single username and password.

Graham Jordan, partnership analyst at North Eastern ICT Partnership and Socitm North East region secretary, won the coveted Member of the Year award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the society over many years. The judges said that Graham’s “enthusiasm and diligence” have ensured that the Socitm North East region continues to thrive as a vibrant group, providing a platform for consultation with regional and national policy makers and opportunities to meet with major suppliers.

Finally, Alex Gee at Swindon Borough Council was named Young Leader of the Year for his excellent contribution to the performance of the council’s IT Service Desk.

Following the in-sourcing of IT, Alex joined the council as part of a completely new Service Desk team, taking on the role of Senior Service Desk Analyst. In the first few months of his leadership, the team consistently met their service level agreements and achieved a regular first-time fix rate of 70% and above.

Geoff Connell, President of Socitm, said: “I’d like to offer my congratulations to all of the winners and nominees. It’s important that we share each other’s successes and, more importantly, share knowledge and information. There are many innovative services being provided across the public sector which very often don’t get the publicity and reward that they deserve. I hope that these awards can continue to play a part in addressing that."

The awards this year were sponsored by Canon, Trend Micro, SBL and McAfee.