I thought a general update would be useful as there is as lot going on!

Events first

We’re wrapping up after the 14 May health & social care conference and also the Wigan Deal roundtable from 20 May. Both were really well attended.   As an example of the kind of actions that come out of these sessions, the DWP Tell Us Once team has connecting up with Wigan colleagues to look at how bereavement links with support for addressing social isolation.   Could be a great initiative.

Shelley is working hard on 3rd July “Benefits in the Front Office” – thanks for all the ideas and input into this!

On 20 June we’re holding a “local rethink” session to unpick ideas from Lancashire County and Oldham on “Strengthening communities by managing assets better

Ajike is focussing on 19 June “Multi-agency working and information sharing” which is now full  though there’s a waiting list so please get on there as it may not be too late.

On 18 June we’ve a great session with NDL on writing your mobile working business case. Should be good.

And on 10 June we have our next Connected Procurement afternoon, focussing mainly on “Social Value in Procurement”   You can find out more about our events at http://inetworkevents.wordpress.com/.

These are free for member organisations and anyone can attend so make use of them!

What about our lean training?

Cath and Jill are delivering Manchester City Council’s lean day tomorrow and working on a specific “lean for troubled families” day in Merseyside with Liverpool. Cath has incorporated local gov and NHS examples into this plus facilitation techniques and elements of whole systems change and demand management. The feedback is fantastic.

There’s an innovative “lean conference” in the pipeline for September time, so keep your eyes open for that or get in touch if you’d like to be involved.

All things intelligence and data

Paul Davidson (LeGSB.gov.uk) and I are working with the DCLG and Greater Manchester Public Service Reform programme on a local data ecosystem model for troubled / complex families. This is a really exciting initiative which will improve our ability to share intelligence and enable more effective working.

Similarly, Ajike and I met with Jonathan Bamford, Head of Strategic Liaison at the ICO last week and it was good to hear that he’s keen to build on the work with do with them for our members. Great news.

We’re also improving our links with the Health & Social Care Information Centre and found we had a lot in common when we met with their Head of Policy & Strategy last week.

I wont tempt fate by putting anything up here about ongoing with the the DWP on access to data as its taken so long, but with luck we’ll be able to share some good news shortly on something that has been a bit of a mission for almost 5 years now.

There are quite a few other things going on, but I thought it would be good to share!

Our 2014-15 programme is online now if you havent seen it already, so have a look and let me know if you’d like your organisation to get more involved. iNetwork is what we make it!   http://inetwork.dns-systems.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/iNetwork-Membership-Brochure-2014-151.pdf

Let me know if you want me or one of the team to come over to your organisation or a group to talk through any of this – be great to hear about your priorities and think through the challenges.