What's going on
Here'is an introduction to what's going on in the Northwest Region
Due to COVID-19 a number of our events have had to be cancelled, postponed or moved online. Please check back for further updates to our regional events program.
CIPFA NW Northern Section – October Event
Webinar: Keeping yourself and your finances healthy
During lockdown, the organising committee has continued to meet virtually to plan ongoing events following our second successful webinar that took place in June. We are hopeful that although these events have continued to run just as well as they did pre-COVID, we will be back to face-to-face events next year, and we can’t wait to see everyone in person again!
Speakers at this event
- Doctor Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health
- Carol Culley, Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer
- Matt Dodd, Programme Manager at Local Government Association
Attendance at this webinar is free for all members and students. Bookings can be made by emailing CIPFANWNorthernSection@lancashire.police.uk.
CIPFA North West: Autumn Seminar and Graduation
CIPFA North West are delighted to be hosting this year's in-person Autumn seminar in the magnificent venue of the Maritime Museum. This event provides an opportunity to hear from an amazing line-up of speakers across the public and private sector on a broad and diverse range of topics as the country moves into a 'New Normal' with implications for all organisations. Each speaker will offer their own insight and practical actions to address a range of new and emerging issues including sustainability in procurement supply chains, ethics and compliance, diversity, new ways of working and customer engagement.
At the end of the event new members will be presented with their certificates by CIPFA President Mike Driver followed by a drinks reception for all attendees.
Book your place here.
CIPFA North West AGM and Spring Seminar 2021
CIPFA Northwest are delighted to be hosting this free online event.
The event will begin with the CIPFA Northwest Annual General Meeting. This will see the appointment of our new NW Regional President, who will give his first presidential address and introduce our online spring seminar: 'Beyond COVID – delivering sustainable recovery.' We will be joined by CIPFA president, Andrew Hardy, who will be giving his own reflections on current issues, and Andy Tong and Richard Moore from Deloitte.
Booking details to follow soon.
CIPFA North West AGM
The North West Region held our very first virtual AGM on 1st May 2020. The papers will be available online shortly
The president's address is available for you to read here.
Introducing your new regional president
On Friday 29 March, the role of President of the CIPFA Council in the North West was taken over by Stephanie Donaldson at the region's AGM.
Read about Stephanie's plans for the region below:
I'm delighted and incredibly proud to be elected as CIPFA NW President and look forward to supporting CIPFA Members in the Northwest and working with other volunteers on the region.
I started volunteering with CIPFA NW Society Council three years ago, having previously been a member of the CIPFA NW Audit, Risk & Governance Group for a number of years before. I also chair the CIPFA TISonline Editorial Board for Internal Audit and am a member of the CIPFA Internal Audit Special Interest Group (SIG) and CIPFA Ethics Working Group.
I joined the Government Internal Audit Agency as a Group Chief Internal Auditor (Deputy Director) in April 2018. The Centre of Government Group which I lead provides internal audit services to 16 customers across Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) and I am designated as the Chief Internal Auditor for HM Treasury and DExEU.
Prior to joining the civil service, I worked in Internal Audit in local government (St Helens Council, Merseytravel and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) and in the retail sector, having started my career as a retail manager with Argos and, later, IKEA and Vision Express.
I was born, grew up and studied in Scotland, graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1996, just a few days before relocating to the north west, where I have lived ever since – my adopted home. I studied for my CIPFA qualification whilst working full-time and raising two small children and it was challenging at times, but has been immensely rewarding.
I very much believe that you get out of CIPFA what you put in. We are, all of us, volunteers who just want to give something back to the Institute, to our professions, and who want to make a difference. At a recent CIPFA event which brought together all the CIPFA Regions we were asked to identify individual targets for our region. Ours in the north west was 'better employer engagement'. So as I take over the helm of the CIPFA NW region from previous president Mike Thomas, I also continue with this pledge.
I know how difficult it is, when workloads are heavy and budgets are tight, to support or attend professional development events or find the time to volunteer.
But if we can engage better with employers on the region we can, in turn, provide better support, a stronger professional network, perhaps targeted or more relevant training and CPD events in the right parts of the region, to better suit our members and colleagues across the north west. Engagement works both ways; talk to us, tell us what support you need, what your challenges are, what topics you want to see at events and in what format.
Secondly, I hope to do more to support our CIPFA students on the region; they are the finance professionals of the future!
As a region, let's help them get the best start, the best development, the most rounded experience to support them in their future careers; let's help them get over the line to full membership and then celebrate that success!
I look forward to supporting and working with you to take the region forward; please do get in touch with me directly, or any of our volunteers, if you have any thoughts or ideas or you would like to look into volunteering with us!
Thank you.
Stephanie Donaldson, North West CIPFA President