Border crossing (or the one where I change jobs)

After eight and a half years at Derbyshire County Council I’m crossing the border to take up a new position with Nottinghamshire County Council.

I’m really pleased to announce I’ll be taking up the post of Senior Digital Officer from 5 August and I’m looking forward to the challenges of being within a new organisation, taking on new projects and meeting new people.

I’m also looking forward to writing more on this blog and becoming more involved in the local gov digital (and indeed the LocalGov Digital) communities for sharing and learning.

Initially my focus at Nottinghamshire will be on intranet, internal communications and employee engagement – an area I’ve held an interest in since being Intranet Manager for Northcliffe newspapers. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and helping the county council forward with their ideas.

I’ll be retaining my place on the LocalGov Digital steering group and I’m looking forward to representing Nottinghamshire in this network, as well as forging links with other authorities across the East Midlands region.

I’ve learnt lots during my time at Derbyshire – from the eGovernment agenda and launching websites, intranet, extranets; to adapting governence models and gaining further experience of training people; helping the organisation take its first steps into social media; devising real-time results coverage for local elections; and merging communications, service delivery and customer service through digital. I’ve also had the chance to work with some great people and I hope to keep in touch with them as I hop over the border to a new authority.

All this experience and learning from colleagues, as well as the informal self-directed learning I’ve done through getting involved in digital networks, GovCamps and more, that I’ll take with me on this next stage of my journey. I look forward to sharing parts of it with you here!

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Twitter or search for Sarah Lay on G+ and add me to your circles.