The Society of IT Management has been invited by the Government Chief Information Officer John Suffolk to set up a Local Government CIO Council to represent the views and interests of local government to the main Government CIO Council.

The LG CIO Council will meet three times a year to review where local government can support, or if necessary challenge, the broader Government CIO agenda and to discuss other issues and priorities relevant to local government transformation.  The existence of this group and its meetings will also enable local government members of the main CIO Council to better represent local government issues across the country at the main CIO Council meetings.

Members of the Local Government CIO Council have been announced by Socitm, and include members from the English regions and the different types of local authority. They are:

• Peter Bole, Head of ICT Commissioning, Kent CC
• Jos Creese*, Head of IT, Hampshire County Council
• Glyn Evans*, Assistant to the Chief Executive on Transformation, Birmingham City Council
• Helen Finnemore, Head of ICT & eGovernment, Teesdale DC
• Vic Freer, Head of ICT Services, Somerset CC
• Steve Hopson, CIO, Cheshire CC         
• Jane Jack, Head of ICT Services, Warwick DC
• Mick Phythian, ICT Manager, Ryedale DC          
• Tim Rainey, Assistant Chief Executive, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
• Nicola Ratcliffe, Information Services Manager, Kennet DC       
• Dylan Roberts, Head of ICT, Leeds City           
• Steve Sankey, Head of IT, Nottinghamshire CC
• Richard Steel**, CIO, Newham LB        
• Angela Waite, Head of ICT & Central Services, Canterbury City
• Steve Williams, Corporate Head of ICT, Sunderland City Council

* member of the CIO Council
** member of the CTO Council

The inaugural meeting of the Local Government CIO Council was held on 1 April 2008. John Suffolk, the Government CIO attended the meeting.

Rose Crozier, the president of Socitm has welcomed the development: ‘Socitm is encouraged and delighted to respond to this opportunity to form the LG CIO Council, and we are looking forward to making a very positive contribution to advancing the Transformational Government agenda through this group’.

According to Jos Creese, who has been working with fellow CIO Council member and Socitm activist Glyn Evans to recruit members to the LG CIO Council, this development is highly significant: ‘Local government has made much progress on the development and delivery of transformational government – and so it should, since some 80% of public services are delivered by us.  However, there is more we can do to ensure that the local perspective on transformation is understood in setting national strategy, and also the implications of national strategy and policy are effectively communicated to local government by central government policy-makers’.

Government CIO John Suffolk said: ‘I am delighted that the Local Government CIO Council has been established. As Government CIO, I am always struck by the many positive examples of transformational government at work in both local and central government. The key for me is how we better share these examples so that we can bring about systematic change for the whole public sector. I believe the Local Government CIO Council has an important role to play in this and look forward to working with them.’

Further information:

Vicky Sargent or Peter Coates, Socitm Press Office      
Tel: 0845 094 5641 vicky.sargent@socitm.gov.uk or peter.coates@socitm.gov.uk