2020 04 03 — Weeknotes
2.13 — the one where innovation is kicking in with our service delivery
Another very hectic week of planning, managing and responding to the pandemic.
The Community Hub has been a focus again this week, with continuation of the set up of this, as well as refinements to the process and changes to the phones as we prepare for opening at the weekend.
This has meant that we are providing a service desk function over the weekend as more services are also operating, to ensure that we are able to help! I have been really impressed with my team who have put their names down to work over the weekend.
On Thursday evening we received the NHS listing of vulnerable people for Hounslow — over 3000 names on the list that we are taking a prioritised and pragmatic approach to contacting and helping. Hundreds of calls and emails have already been taken through the hub and other sources and food packages have been delivered. The Hounslow response to the current situation has been impressive and a real cross Council operation.
It’s been great to see how the different teams in Digital and IT have responded to create innovative services at these times to ensure that staff across the Council are supported and able to use the technology.
- Meena from the Adults and Children’s Systems Operations Team delivered some online training for the Liquid Logic children’s system the other day. This ensured that social workers were still able to get the vital support and information they needed.
- Adrian and Amaran, our Digital trainers, launched our Live and Interactive Digital Pod sessions this week where staff were able to ask questions and find out about technology whilst home working. We are going to do this regularly over the forthcoming weeks on a range of Digital topics — and extend to other areas of the Council as well.
As the time extends of me working at home, I thought my own health and safety at work was important — so had to get rid of the rickety Ikea chair! I bought a new office chair and webcam to ensure that I was able to be comfortable whilst working at the desk for the length of time that I am at the moment. Chair is great — little bit of self assembly — but the webcam is meant to sit on top of the monitor but brilliantly the image is upside down! And no I can’t just turn it over — although has confused me a lot this week. I think the camera has been installed upside down in the case — so that’s gone back to Amazon! And it has been really nice to actually get outside for some running — not going to win any marathons but am pleased!
With 1,500 people relying on working at home what is the worst thing that can happen at this time, yes, a problem with remote access!!!!! That’s what we were faced with on Thursday morning. The team leapt into action and managed to get resolved by 0845 — so whilst there would have been a impact we were able to keep it minimal and ensuring that everything was up and running quickly! Although we all could have all done without that!
Tune of the Week: Going old school again… N-trance — set you free — I don’t expect you to listen to all 7 minutes!
