5.26 — weeknotes — IG Training, suicide prevention and Internet of Things walk-shop
A shorter weeknote this week as I only published the last one on Monday so don’t want to bore everyone.
Information Governance training on Wednesday for Information Asset Owners. First of the sessions we are having for all senior managers in the council. Such a dry subject but the facilitator really did manage to bring it to life in a meaningful way. Bit of tweaking though for the remaining ones to really make sure it hits home.
HLG on Thursday was another emotional one. A number of sessions on a variety of important subjects including the Thriving Communities Strategy the Colleague conference in November and more. But the session at the end was around the work the Council is doing around suicide prevention. A really emotional topic — Hounlsow has the 7th highest rate of suicide in London and over the national average. So the work that the teams are doing here is really important. The Council has made a short film to highlight the importance of talking about the issue — it doesn’t matter what you say — just say something — Just Say Something — I have committed to ensuring that we talk about it at up and coming staffing meetings.
We also had a Socitm general meeting on Thursday where we approved some changes to the articles that will further help our journey to be a charity. This has been such a journey for the organisation, having attempted this a couple of times before. It does feel that, thanks to all the hard work that the team are putting into it that this time may just be the time!
Friday we had our Taking Internet of Things for a walk, with PETRAS and Lancaster University. They have done this a few other times around the country as part of their research into perceptions of Internet of Things and very pleased that Hounslow are able to contribute to the research. Together with the team, the Leader of the Council and I had a few Councillors, residents and colleagues join us on a walk around Hounslow looking at sensors and internet of things devices — some real and some made up — to generate debate. And debate / discussion there was!
We stopped 6 times on the 90 minute walk to look at various objects — from CCTV, to air quality, apps for maintenance, bollards and parking. Some great questions posed by the Lancaster team to probe the views, the appetite for using our data — the role the council has or should (and shouldn’t) have in the role of using such devices. All of which will feed into their research but the questions and opinions already helping us in our programme of work.
It really was an amazing session — such rich conversations, something different, great to have residents as part of the conversation as well. We will do more of these in the future!!! Was also quite fitting that it was World Car Free day as well!
Tune of the week: RUN DMC — Walk This Way (Official HD Video) ft. Aerosmith
