Lunchtime Learning - “How to Find, Organise and Present Public Health Information using AI: A Beginners Guide" - May, 2024
This Lunchtime Learning session was held on the 22nd May 2024 and had 33 attendees from Public Health. Knowledge Services outlined some of the basics of AI, the ethical and legal considerations of using AI and how AI can be utilised at work. Staff at all levels were encouraged to attend this beginners session and no technical knowledge or experience was required to participate. Some of the benefits of AI were explored, but also the session promoted a note of caution when using AI and encouraged the same critical thinking skills we would encourage when using other tools and technology.
We hope the session was a useful introduction to an area that is rapidly developing.
Older People's Community Event - November 2022
World Book Night brings people from all backgrounds together for one reason – to inspire others to read more. Organisations and individuals hold events up and down the country to celebrate the difference that reading makes to our lives. Organisations can volunteer to hand out books from an annual list to people who don’t read for pleasure or own books.
Knowledge Services made an application to receive free fiction books as part of the World Book Night campaign. We received 80 copies of a book called The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.
The book has many public health themes such as bereavement, homelessness, financial loss and walking to improve physical and mental wellbeing. We teamed up with the public health team to ensure these books were delivered at a local Older People's Community Event where the books were distributed to Dudley residents alongside leaflets advertising the Dudley Credit Union and the Park Active sessions. Our thanks to Public Health colleagues who attended the event and ensured residents received the books.
Randomised Coffee Trial - October 2022
Knowledge Services held a Coffee Trial in 2022 under the tagline 'You, a brew and someone new'. We placed an emphasis on encouraging colleagues from across the Council to take part and this year, with Covid restrictions now lifted, we gave participants the opportunity to meet either in person or via MS Teams. Many participants chose to meet in person.
We had 16 participants this year from a wide range of Council departments including from the Red House Glass Cone, Youth Justice, Tourism and Dudley Council Plus. This meant that the pairings could be quite diverse.
Feedback from participants
"Brilliant. It was a great hour out to chat with someone who I actually already knew and
we got to know each other much better and felt very relaxed and 'heard'"
"It was a very easy meeting both online initially and then in person getting to meet a
colleague across the Council who I wouldn't normally have met, as our work does not
normally have any connections. We have arranged to meet up again and have already
exchanged information that may assist from a work perspective in the future. The
benefit is we got along very well and hope to meet up again, so it is a worthwhile trial
from my perspective"
"It was great to meet my random person - it felt a bit like a blind date! It was good to find
out what they do for their job - I had heard of their role before though I wasn't sure of
what it entailed, so to learn the detail was good. I believe that she is someone who I will
be able to contact in the future for work purposes"
Randomised Coffee Trial - 2021
To help colleagues to continue to network and connect Knowledge Services held a Randomised Coffee Trial in July 2021. Due to the ongoing covid-19 restrictions we held this years event virtually with participants from across the council taking part remotely through Microsoft Teams. Participants were paired up with another member of staff working in the council and arranged a mutually convenient time to meet via MS Teams to find out more about the type of work they do and to form useful personal and professional links. The event was very positively received and we have included some of the comments from staff below.
Feedback from participants
"Brilliant. Was easy to arrange, met on MS Teams. Had a lovely chat. spoke about lockdown experiences, shared concerns around working remotely, our work roles, future plans, families etc. Felt motivated and positive afterwards. It was lovely to chat on a social level, felt connected. Will take part again. Highly recommend it"
"It was great. I learnt lots about the person I met and about the job they do. We discussed how we could potentially support each others roles. We are meeting again soon for a catch up. It was great to speak to someone different. Since we have been working from home we don't have many opportunities to meet new people"
"It was really nice to speak to someone outside of your team/department, especially whilst we are all working at home at the moment and we don't get to meet new people. The connection made would definitely be useful in the future and feel that I can approach that person better now following the meeting"
"Easy to arrange and great to chat to someone different . The person works in the area I do the accounts for though I'd never met her before - if I need to speak in future the ice is already broken"
Randomised Coffee Trial - KNOWvember 2019
To raise awareness of Knowledge Management, Knowledge Services held a Randomised Coffee Trial in November 2019. This is a rather fancy name for a simple idea. RCTs are used to connect people in an organisation at random and give them time to meet to have a coffee and talk. Randomised Coffee Trials enable people to meet, connect with one another, establish links and share knowledge.
Refreshment packs for Randomised Coffee Trial participants
We asked participants for some feedback from the event. Here are a selection of responses:
"Meeting went really well, no problem to arrange. Conversation flowed, we talked about a range of things such as background, previous and current work. I found it a positive experience, it was good to have time set to meet and chat with someone. We used the prompt card too which had some fun/unique questions".
"Calendars were a little difficult to arrange. We met at a healthy hub. Chatted very easily about each others work roles and experiences of working for Dudley council, (all good!). Nice meeting. Enjoyed the tea and coffee. Learned a lot about my co-workers service and vice versa. Will be sign-posting both our clients to each others services. I think more people should do the Randomised Coffee meetings. Looking forward to doing this again. Well done. Great initiative."
"It went very well, the time flew by. I found it informative and we plan to meet up again".
"Easy to meet, but I did know the person I was meeting which I think helped. We went to the coffee shop rather than staying in work and chatted for about an hour. It was easy to make conversation, we found some things in common".
We asked participants if there were any benefits to taking part. Here are a selection of responses:
"Feeling like I got to know someone else in the office who I hadn't spoken to before".
"Good to take a short time away from day to day role and make time to meet someone I would usually only see in passing".
"Knowing more about the people you work with which is not all about work. Meeting new people. Having some time out of work".
Blue Monday - 20th January 2020
Knowledge Services took part in Blue Monday events at 3-5 St James's Road on Monday 20th January 2020. Blue Monday aims to raise awareness of mental health, encourage people to talk openly about their mental health and promotes support for anyone who may be seeking help.
Knowledge Services were invited to promote our self-help and mental health resources to staff. We spoke to a range of people throughout the afternoon making them aware of the resources we have on offer to help staff with a range of common mental health conditions. The self-help titles are all available from Knowledge Services, Level 2, Dudley Public Library and are free to loan for all Dudley Council staff employees.