3.42 — weeknotes — last weeknotes of the year (the 103rd!) — Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

When I published my weeknotes last week I noticed the number of them that I have published during my time at Hounslow — this one will be number 103 — I can’t believe that I have completed so many. You never know who reads these, apart from my Mother who is always very quick to correct my spelling! I find the whole process really helpful to think about what has been happening during the week as well as a chance to think about what is coming up as well. Although clearly the most stressful bit of the week is deciding on the tune of the week…

It has been hectic through to the end of the year! I know I say this often, but there is so much going on at the moment — all good stuff, just a lot of it. Although the latest variant of Covid has rather sent things into a bit of a tail spin over the last few days — but in true Local Government style we spring into action.

We have achieved so much this year and continue to through to the end of the year. This week we went live with our new telephony system with 8x8. The first phase is with our customer services and service desk teams — both of which have now gone live! A little bit later than planned due to a variety of reasons but the team have done really well in pushing it forwards. Has also been a great example of a multi disciplined team to make some important changes happen in the council.

This first phase for the contact centre will give us some really solid facts and figures about the usage of telephones in the council — that we will use to plan and progress the next stages — where are the calls going, how long they are taking and so on….

Started my Level 7 Management course last week as well — a great start to the sessions, going to be a great course over the next couple of years, lots to think about! A good cohert of colleagues as well from across the council, always good to meet people from across the whole council and get different thoughts.

Had my booster last Friday — so efficient! In and out within ten mins really, and just so friendly, they are there day in and day out and still took time to ask about me, to have a bit of a joke and all done with a smile on their faces (well behind the mask) — so impressive! Get your booster!!!!!

Already starting to think about the elections in May next year, saw the venue we are using for the count. Good to get to see it and start to think about what we are doing, where, and how we can ensure that the technology works.

Right at the end of the year we had the Log4j vulnerability raise it’s head — caused some stresses and strains for the team at the end of the year with some emergency patching of the vulnerability. Obvious thing to say, but ensuring that our systems are protected is the most important thing that we do! Worth a read of Mark Brett’s Socitm blog post — https://socitm.net/resource-hub/blog/not-the-yule-log-we-were-expecting/

Finally then, this has been such an amazing year — thank you to everyone who reads these, to my extended network out in twitter / linked in land (you really help by keeping me amused, grounded, sane and challenged!), to all my LBH team (what a great year and so looking forward to what we have in store next year!), to my Socitm colleagues (we have produced some great events and content this year, the St Georges House event was a highlight of the year — but wow what exciting plans we have for the future )and to my LOTI colleagues (the power of working together is amazing, such a great core team and so much happening — good to catch up the other week and hoping we can again in the new year!)

I am really am genuinely excited about next year, so much great stuff going on. But for now I will leave you to enjoy Christmas and the New Year! Stay safe and ensure that you have a rest!

Finally, finally — I am such a big strictly fan and was great for Rose to win!! My favourite was John, his performances were just amazing — and seeing such inclusion and diversity on mainstream TV is just so important to ensure true representation of society — you just know that this whole series would have helped so many people who watched it.

Tune of the week: Candi Staton You Got The Love John & Johannes Showdance to You’ve Got The Love ✨ The Final ✨ BBC Strictly 2021