UK Hydrographic Office appoints CTO
Terry Makewell has been appointed as chief technology officer of the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO).
He joins from the Office of National Statistics where he was chief digital officer and has previously been head of digital and global media at the Met Office. He will play a significant role in the UKHO’s effort to become the world leading marine geospatial information agency and hydrographic office by 2020.
One of his first engagements has been to highlight the organisation’s work on using machine learning to exploit satellite imagery at the Cabinet Office’s Sprint 18 event.
Public Health England to move to Windows 10
Public Health England (PHE) has awarded a contract to Stone Group to supply 6,200 Toshiba and Lenovo devices as it migrates its estate from Windows 7 to Windows 10. It carried out the procurement through Crown Commercial Services’ Technology Products 2 Agreement.
Stone will supply its Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager to preconfigure every device with the image, apps and drivers needed by PHE’s users. The organisation is aiming to complete the migration ahead of the end of support for its Windows 7 devices in January 2020.
Council websites OK for childcare info
Most UK councils tested are doing a good job at presenting information on childcare services through their websites, according to the latest results from Socitm’s Better Connected programme. A survey of 206 councils led to 52% being rated as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, with a few more achieving ‘excellent’ or ‘outstanding’.
It showed that most led reviewers into directory services hosted on third party platforms, but that there are often problems with directories not being well implemented or integrated with the main council website. They can also be problematic on mobile devices.
NHS aims to improve online access to therapy
NHS England is working on new online channels for referral to psychological therapies through the nhs.uk website.
It is currently designing and testing prototype pages with users with three goals in mind: making it clear to people they can refer themselves to its Improving access to psychological therapies programme; making it easy to self-refer; and letting them know what to expect.
This follows a recognition that there are problems with searching through the options through NHS Choices, says a blogpost on the move.
