As always, we have an exceptional line-up of guest speakers and exhibitors for you to enjoy at our 2018 Solace Summit. The theme of this year’s Solace Summit is Future Horizons, and will focus on how local government leaders can maximise the opportunities that lie ahead while successfully managing the risks to local communities as change accelerates.
This year’s session from Grant Thornton UK LLP covers what is arguably the most important topic facing local government – financial sustainability.
In an interactive session Grant Thornton will cover the levers in place for councils to ensure their ongoing financial sustainability, including the importance of long term forecasting of both costs and future revenues from council tax, business rates, fees and charges and other income sources. The session will also consider how local authorities can further innovate and transform, and develop strategies that will not only help them survive in the shorter term but whose overall objective is to achieve longer term financial sustainability.
Ignite is a system leadership programme designed specifically to enable current local government Chief Executives to develop their understanding of their roles in an increasingly complex environment.
Ignite is a Solace programme delivered with Collaborate CIC and sponsored by the Local Government Association, and supported by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Three cohorts of Chief Executives have now participated, exploring what it means to be a great public leader in a changing political and policy environment. Themes explored have ranged from health and social care integration, the future of central-local relations, system leadership, relationships with staff, the future of digital and the role of social activism. Through the sessions, participants have reflected on what these themes mean for them as Chief Executives of local authorities and their changing role as leaders within systems and places.
Dr. Margaret Heffernan produced programmes for the BBC for 13 years. She then moved to the US where she spearheaded multimedia productions for Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard & Poors. She was Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and then iCast Corporation, was named one of the “Top 25” by Streaming Media magazine and one of the “Top 100 Media Executives” by The Hollywood Reporter. Dr. Heffernan’s third book, Wilful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. In 2015, she was awarded the Transmission Prize for A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, described as “meticulously researched…engagingly written…universally relevant and hard to fault.” Her TED talks have been seen by over eight million people and in 2015 TED published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. She is Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organisations. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and continues to write for the Financial Times. An updated edition of Willful Blindness is due out in autumn 2018; Dr. Hefernan’s newest book is scheduled for release in Spring 2019.
Born out of local government, FutureGov has been leading the industry in the way we create organisations fit for the 21st century for the last ten years. Through user-led technology products, we’re radically changing public services to make a big impact. Today, we’re seeing digital teams across the public sector transform the way organisations work. Informed by Dominic’s recent experience as interim Chief Digital Officer of Homes England, which is going through a radical change of scale, we’re asking: how can we create sustainable change that is considerate of local challenges and how can the public sector be the ones other organisations aspire to emulate?
Supported by two leaders in digital innovation, this session will reflect on the last ten years across the sector and look forward to the emerging opportunities of the future, facing the challenge of taking large, established organisations through transformational change.
The idea that public sector procurement can unlock wider economic, social and environmental benefits for residents and communities is not new. But there is a renewed focus on social value in public policy discussion, following the demise of Carillion and amidst ongoing concerns about the long-term cost of PFI initiatives. Is it time for a fundamental rethink about what we mean by value and how we embed it as an integral principle in our consideration of the future of public services?
Study Tour Three: Preserving Brighton & Hove’s historic seafront and securing investment for the future.
Study Tour Four: Housing delivery models.
Plenary Four: Comprehensive Spending Review – Can we Create a Sustainable Sector?
In March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that a Comprehensive Spending Review would be called in 2019. For local government, the stakes could not be higher, with the long-term sustainability of local services seriously in question. With the first Section 114 notice in almost two decades having been issued earlier this year and no certainty about council funding after 2020, the risk of financial failure looms large.
This session will explore what needs to be done to ensure that local public services come out of the next Comprehensive Spending Review on sustainable footing.
Although most of the key factors that will determine the long-term sustainability of local services will be settled in the next Comprehensive Spending Review, as public service leaders we have a responsibility to be at the top of our game when it comes to strategic financial management for our organisations. This session is an opportunity to hear from an expert panel on how to make the most of evidence and governance tools to weather this time of unprecedented financial uncertainty.
Commercialisation in public bodies is everywhere. Financially challenged by austerity, Local Authorities are turning to commercial ventures as one way to generate the funds needed to deliver essential services. We are seeing the rise of the ‘deal-making’ CEO and the ethical questions about the role and purpose of a local authority need attention.
Commercial ventures are inherently risky: investing in the high street, when retailers are failing, commercial property development in the shadow of Brexit. All have their potential returns, and their potential downfalls so are we sure we are managing the full spectrum effectively?
In this session we’ll look at the some of the areas of challenge around the commercialisation agenda, including the ethical and social considerations, and consider the key questions, frameworks and governance needed to manage the risks.
On Anti-Slavery Day we invite you to join us for a highly interactive session.
Local government is one of the UK’s biggest contractors of private goods and services and also one of its biggest employers. Although local government has started to work on this issue, as awareness grows of the scale of modern slavery, there is increasing concern that public money could unwittingly be contributing to the problem.
The Modern Slavery (Transparency in Supply Chains) Bill – sponsored by Baroness Young – seeks to extend the reporting requirement of the Act to include all public authorities. This practical and thought-provoking briefing will draw on private sector experience to support attendees to respond proactively to these growing concerns and expectations.
Experienced local government leadership consultant, Max Wide along with James Barlow and Zoe Croom from leading human rights consultancy twentyfifty will facilitate this highly interactive session.
Are you confident you know the extent of the issue in your area?
How are you using this debate to change organisations and communities?
Over the past decade, children’s safeguarding as local government’s biggest pressure for unplanned spending, leaving many councils with little choice other than to protect budgets for acute need. But we know that this is coming at the cost of investing upstream to create the right conditions for all children and young people to thrive. Our expert panel will challenge us to think about how as public service leaders we can use all our powers and resources to promote resilient families and communities.
Digital technology is developing rapidly. The latest technological wave is transforming how we live and work, and having profound impacts on the communities we serve. How we are now able to utilise vast quantities of data, using AI in particular, is increasingly seen as having the potential to radically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, while presenting new and testing ethic and political challenges.
This session will explore the potential of digital technology with practical examples from both across the UK and internationally. We will also explore what we might get wrong along the way and start to shape a roadmap to help our organisation utilise tech ethically.