What's going on in Northern Ireland
CIPFA Northern Ireland region lunchtime event, 2024
Written by Dean Russell
On May 14th 2024, the CIPFA Northern Ireland Branch held a successful Lunchtime Event in conjunction with the MCS Group in its offices in central Belfast.
The theme was Can a public body go bust? - Learning lessons in strong financial management and the event was attended by 42 people in total (26 attended in person and 16 attended over Zoom).
The recently retired CIPFA Finance Director, Gareth Moss, spoke at length about the context over the last 15 years or so of public bodies facing financial pressures which are becoming more acute given economic challenges as well as rising demand for public services. He referred to the growing number of councils in England that have recently declared insufficient financial strength to meet expenditure commitments by issuing Section 114 notices and, according to Gareth, the indicators are that more high-profile councils will ‘run out of money’ in the near future as Birmingham, Thurrock, Croydon and Woking councils have done.
To outline the potential risk, Gareth stated that, although about £100 billion of public money is managed by more than 300 local councils in England, there has been a 26% drop in core spending power since 2010. To add to the risks, councils in England face a 41% funding gap; they are no longer subject to the same oversight as in the past; and, changes in regulations have enabled councils to enter into greater commercial activity, including borrowing and investment.
Gareth talked about his personal experience of being seconded to Thurrock Council in 2023 as Finance Director on the back of difficult decisions about raising council tax not being taken by councillors as well as poor risk management of the council’s investments which had led to serious cash-flow problems. He referred to the Thurrock Best Value Inspection Report as a very useful guide to the failures of public financial management in councils as well as the lessons learned.
The most important lessons that all those involved in public financial management should draw from these local government failures, according to Gareth, relate to poor governance and a lack of leadership challenge and scrutiny as well as poor project and programme management. In conclusion, Gareth made very clear that being honest and keeping a strategic view whilst “getting the basics right” and “sticking to what you know” are critical to mitigate the range of risks that public bodies now face in a more complex environment.
Public Finance Live Northern Ireland 2023
Written by Dean Russell
The Public Finance Live NI conference took place in the Hilton Hotel Belfast in late October 2023 and was attended by over 100 people. Once again, the conference was expertly chaired by local journalist and broadcaster William Crawley and, there were a number of exhibiting sponsors, namely MCS Group, CCLA, RSPB and the NI Audit Office.
Sir Mark Lowcock, CIPFA Junior Vice-President, set the global scene for delegates as he talked about the main global forces at work today – geopolitics, global economics, technology and climate change.
The keynote address was given by Professor Sir John Curtice, Professor of Practice Politics at the University of Strathclyde and frequent contributor to TV discussions about the polling fortunes of the major political parties in the UK. He clearly stated that the Conservative Party is in a deep electoral hole based on the latest polling data and recent trends but, that the Labour Party’s appeal is not without a number of challenges. The biggest challenges for the current government in getting re-elected, he said, lie in the public’s generally negative perceptions of political leadership, the economy and public services.
Gareth Hetherington, Director of the Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre, reminded delegates that Northern Ireland has the highest percentage level of economic inactivity in the UK and that there are now much fewer people of working age due to demographic changes.
Dr Eleanor Roy, Health and Social Care Policy Manager at CIPFA, spoke about the preventative benefits of investing in health in light of the fact that the need for healthcare is forecast to rise nine times faster than the revenue to fund it. She suggested that more funding should be directed towards upstream services rather than downstream, acute services. In her view, this will require finance professionals to persuade politicians to make better, longer-term decisions.
In one of the optional seminars, Joanne Pitt, Local Government Policy Manager at CIPFA, spoke about the importance of both good decision-making and financial management as a means of providing strong governance. Similarly to Dr Roy, Joanne said that finance professionals need to do all that they can to help decision-makers to make good decisions through the effective presentation of financial information and advising on financial resilience.
Elma Murray, Chair of Young Scot and Deputy Chair of Developing the Young Workforce, spoke about leadership during austerity and uncertain times. She said that leadership is about social influence, maximising the effort of others, challenging the status quo and putting yourself in others’ shoes. With regard to stewardship, she said that this is essentially about looking after your team’s interests.
Grainia Long, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, spoke about the current landscape for the provision of public services such as social housing. In her passionate talk, she said that we under-estimate what we can achieve in the long term but over-estimate what we can achieve in the short term. Turning to the idea of perma-crisis, she went on to say that, whilst macro and micro-crises give organisations opportunities to do things differently, we need to distinguish between different sets of problems and fully understand them before we can try to solve them or ease them.
As I write this reflection on the PF Live NI Conference, I remain thankful for the opportunities that I and many others had to listen to such an interesting range of speakers; to network with a range of delegates from many different organisations; and, to get away from the laptop to consider the bigger picture as a public finance professional. I would encourage all CIPFA members in NI to make plans to attend the 2024 conference if they can and to invite others to join you. The details will be publicised on the CIPFA website in due course.
Congratulations to the Graduates and Prize Winners for CIPFA Scotland 2023
Caroline Rassell, CIPFA President and Jo Brown, Chair of the CIPFA Scotland presented the graduates and prize winners for 2023 with their certificates at the ceremony in Glasgow City Chambers on the 3 November 2023.
CIPFA Scotland Public Finance Award Winners 2023
The CIPFA Scotland Branch would like to thank all the nominees and to congratulate the shortlisted and prize winners for the CIPFA Scotland Public Finance Awards 2023.
The winners for this years awards were as follows:
CIPFA Scotland Public Finance Team 2023 - The Scottish Exchequer’s Fiscal Framework Team
CIPFA Scotland Emerging Talent 2023 – Jack O’Shea, Glasgow City Council
CIPFA Scotland Finance Professional 2023 – Joseph McLachlan, East Ayrshire Council
We look forward to welcoming nominations for the 2024 awards.
President visits
Belfast
The CIPFA President Caroline Rassell made a visit to Belfast on October 6 and during the course of her visit, she met with Dorinnia Carville, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) for Northern Ireland, and Rodney Allen, Chief Operating Officer for the Northern Ireland Audit Office, at the NIAO’s HQ. Mark McBride from the CIPFA NI Branch Committee is also pictured.
The CIPFA President met some CIPFA staff based in Northern Ireland, including Sharon Hetherington, Director of Finance in the Department for the Economy.
The CIPFA President, who is CEO of the charity Parkinson’s UK, was hosted by the city’s First Citizen, the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Ryan Murphy, in Belfast City Hall. She also made time to have lunch with CIPFA NI Branch Committee members.
Bournemouth
Steve Mungavin, Chair of the NI Branch, attended the CIPFA Regional Forum in Bournemouth on October 18 and 19 where he met with the CIPFA President, Caroline Rassell, and the Chairs/Presidents of the South West, South East, North West, North East, Midlands and Wales Regions.
