Day one – Wednesday 21 September
12.00–13.00: Registration, exhibition and lunch
Venue: Megalithic Exhibition Area
13.15–13.35: Welcome to the 2022 conference
Speakers:
- Martin Booth, Conference Chair, Chair of CIPFA Scotland
- Mike Driver, CIPFA Past President (2021/22)
Venue: Megalithic Suite
13.35–14.00: Keynote address
Speaker:
- Mike Driver, CIPFA Past President (2021/22)
Venue: Megalithic Suite
14.00–14.30: How accountants can save the world
Addressing the climate crisis requires the public sector to mobilise large sums of money into efforts to reduce emissions and build the resilience of people and places to the impact of climate crisis. However, there is a big gap between what’s currently being spent, and what we must mobilise. Some estimates suggest we need a 590% increase in annual climate finance to meet internationally agreed climate objectives and avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change. In this context, what does it mean to be a public finance professional in the 21st century?
Financial professionals have a huge role to play in helping equip their organisations with the tools, skills, capacity, capability and mechanisms to undertake one of the biggest transformations in Scotland’s history, which not only addresses the climate crisis but improves the lives, wellbeing and prosperity of people, businesses and places in doing so. Kit England will provide an overview of the challenges, setting out how Glasgow City Council is approaching this task and seeking to mobilise over £40bn of investment over the next decade. He will share the council’s emerging plans for green budgeting, transition finance and wider citywide flows, drawing on best practice examples from around the world, and seek to show that with faith, innovation and determination, accountants can, should and will be at the heart of efforts to save the world.
Speaker:
- Kit England, Glasgow City Council
14.35–15.00: Workshops
Delivered by:
- Baillie Gifford – The climate transition: opportunity and accountability
2021 saw Glasgow host COP26, and one year on, the skyrocketing cost of energy has underlined our need to move away from traditional fossil fuels. In this session, Siobhan Cleary, ESG specialist at Baillie Gifford, will discuss what a net zero world might look like and where brave and patient investors may find opportunities in support of the great transition.
- Zurich Municipal - Navigating the cyber insurance market presented by Arunava Banerjee, CISM
The last couple of years have seen a significant change in the cyber risk landscape. This session will look at the present cyber threat landscape, its impact on the cyber insurance market and discuss key recommendations for navigating the market while developing a cyber resilient organisation.
- Hymans Robertson – What do the new Employer Flexibility Regulations mean for LGPS administering authorities in Scotland?
New LGPS regulations came into force in Scotland from 1 June 2022. In this session, we’ll discuss how the changes will be implemented and how they can benefit both funds and employers.
- CIPFAStats+ - Data Value in the Public Sector
This talk will cover the developments in the Data Team’s outputs and how this offering is developing to bring even more value to Scottish councils. The team’s latest advance, ‘Predictive Analytics’ – a methodology for making predictions of public sector data, will also be introduced. This forecasting model will soon be implemented across CIPFA’s data products and bespoke consultancy pieces.
15.10–15.40: Refreshments and exhibition
Venue: Megalithic Exhibition Area
15.40–16.15: Senior managers’ stories
Join us for an open discussion between some of our senior CIPFA members from a variety of different backgrounds and hear about their journey from having qualified through CIPFA and how it has helped them to where they are today.
Speakers:
- Martin Booth, Glasgow City Council
- Joanne Brown, Grant Thornton
- Donella Steel, Historic Environment Scotland
- Alison Cumming, Scottish Government
15.40–16.10: Workshops
Delivered by:
- CIPFA property asset management presented by Mike Potts, CIPFA
CIPFA Property holds a unique position within the public sector as both critical friend and trusted partner. As part of CIPFA, we can leverage wider existing expertise and experience, supporting individuals and organisations in the effective delivery of property and estates-related outputs. This session looks briefly at property asset management and the support available from CIPFA to help manage your property portfolio. A useful session for finance and property colleagues.
- Internal audit: untapped potential presented by Diana Melville, CIPFA
Diana will highlight key areas of CIPFA’s report and discuss how internal auditors and public sector organisations can make positive changes to ensure continued access to high-quality internal audit.
- CIPFA in the sustainability space presented by Nina Johansson and Richard Lloyd-Bithell
Sustainability reporting is key to driving change and positive impact. Join us to discuss the challenges facing Scottish authorities, specifically in terms of reporting on climate change parameters.
- Are you fully prepared to tackle fraud and corruption? presented by Marc McAuley, CIPFA
This session will discuss what public sector organisations must consider to reduce fraud and corruption.
16.15–17.00: Estate planning and collaboration
Integration in health and social care is such a key priority for Scottish Government that it has been put on a legislative footing. However, collaboration and cross-sector working is just as important in other parts of the public sector, from a service user perspective, to share costs in a time of continuing financial constraint, and share infrastructure to assist with meeting net zero targets.
Police Scotland and Aberdeen City Council have exemplified this approach, with Police Scotland officers and staff now co-located in Aberdeen City Council’s headquarters, Marischal College. James Gray, Chief Financial Officer at Police Scotland, and Jonathan Belford, Chief Financial Officer at Aberdeen City Council, will discuss the benefits, challenges and opportunities that collaboration has provided so far and where the two organisations will be going next as the continue to work together.
Speakers:
- James Gray, Police Scotland
- Jonathan Belford, Aberdeen City Council
17.00–17.10: Close of day one
Speaker:
- Martin Booth, Conference Chair, Chair of CIPFA Scotland
Evening programme: Public Finance Live 2022 dinner and awards
- 19.00–19.30 Drinks reception, Megalithic Exhibition Area
- 19.30–21.30 Conference dinner followed by awards and evening entertainment
Day two – Thursday 22 September
8.30–9.00: Refreshments and exhibition
Venue: Megalithic Exhibition Area
9.00–9.10: Welcome to the 2022 conference
Speaker:
- Martin Booth, Conference Chair, Chair of CIPFA Scotland
Venue: Megalithic Suite
9.10–9.40: Bold and fearless: advancing a human rights-based agenda in Scotland
At a time when inflation is at its highest for 40 years, the neo-liberal economy delivers massive profits for energy companies at the expense of the poorest who are struggling to survive.
There are calls for radical change in how our economy works. This includes calls for public authorities to lead the change that we need and deliver what matters to people.
Set in a context where new legislation is being developed to bring international human rights treaties into Scots law, there are opportunities for rights holders to be at the heart of policy making and shaping budgets that will deliver real change for the people who need change most.
This session will explore how bold and fearless action using a rights-based approach to budgeting and policy agenda setting can help shift how priorities are set.
Speaker:
- Clare MacGillivray, Making Rights Real
9.40–10.25: Recovering from COVID-19 and levelling up funding
Jeff Matsu will share insights from CIPFA’s recent Investing in regional equality – lessons from four cities report, which looked at Fukuoka in Japan, Cleveland in the US, Nantes in France and Leipzig in Germany, which have all seen success in this area. Lauren Bruce, Area Director at Cities and Local Growth Unit will be joining Jeff to give a Scottish perspective.
Speakers:
- Jeffrey Matsu, CIPFA
- Lauren Bruce, CLGU
10.25–10.55: Workshops
Delivered by:
- CIPFA’s Professional Accountancy Qualification presented by Anna Howard, CIPFA
This workshop is to update delegates on the recent changes to the CIPFA Professional Accountancy Qualification and receive feedback that can be fed into our annual qualification review.
- Zurich Municipal – Procurement: more than a business necessity
Without procurement, it would be impossible for most business operations to function. Procurement is becoming a driving force for innovation, customer value and sustainability, while playing a key role in enabling businesses to fulfil their strategic objectives. This session will present the findings and insights from a previous procurement roundtable and report.
- Capital accounting review presented by Derek Yule, CIPFA Council
This session will look at the background to the review of capital accounting, including service concessions, and will consider the risk of further review and change and what this might mean for councils.
10.55–11.25: Refreshments and exhibition
Venue: Megalithic Exhibition Area
11.25–12.00: Building the workforce of the future, today
While the business community has shown enormous resilience and innovation throughout the pandemic, the speed and quality of our economic recovery is going to depend on the national and local policy environment and those supporting.
This session will explore the need to build on our current workforce as we move to higher-skilled, higher-paid models to ensure we are meeting the demands for skills that are needed today and in our green and digital future.
Speaker:
- Liz McAreavey, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
12.00–12.45: The science of FLOW
We will explore the science of FLOW and how we deal with challenges and change as individuals. In doing so, we begin to look at the importance of removing stress, apathy and boredom in our working environment.
Speaker:
- Alice Beveridge, Psychologist, Teacher, Director
12.45–12.50: Close of the 2022 conference
Speaker:
- Martin Booth, Conference Chair, Chair of CIPFA Scotland
Venue: Megalithic Exhibition Area