The Future of Local Government 2021
Online Event 17 March 2021, 8:00am - 19 March 2021, 2:00pm
Day 1
8:00am
Online Registration
9:30am
Chair’s Welcome Address
David Collins, Chief Executive Officer, Smith-Collins Group
9:40am
Special Keynote: Re-building For A Better Local Government Future
- Creating fairer and effective funding arrangements for local government
- Levelling up, building back, and creating a sustainable future
- Empowering local communities
- Recovery from the pandemic
- Investing in our future infrastructure
- Governance of arms-length bodies
- We need to talk about local government reorganisation and devolution
- The private sector and local government
- Local government as an enlightened and enabling employer
Sean Hanson, Chief Executive, Local Partnerships
10:05am
Introducing New Operating Models For Local Government
- Assessing the role of local government and local government innovation
- Making the case for a radical reimagining of the relationship between citizen and state
- Embracing communities and families as partners in a new ecosystem in which public services play new roles
- Launching the Upstream Collaborative to provide local government innovators with an active learning network
- A snapshot of the Upstream Collaborative councils and case study examples of their work in delivering services to focus on creating the economic, social and community conditions that enable citizens to thrive
Anna Randle, Chief Executive, Collaborate CIC
10:30am
Case Study: Developing A District Response To Covid-19 At Watford Borough Council
- Adapting and responding through new ways of working as the pandemic develops
- The importance of leadership in successfully steering staff, members and the borough through the recovery journey
- Resetting the council’s role and relationships according to the requirements of the crisis
- Getting the foundations right: agreeing on operating principles and galvanising the council to manage effectively and flexibly
- Getting to the heart of local communities and delivering help where it is needed
Donna Nolan, Managing Director, Watford Borough Council
10:55am
Questions And Answers Session
11:20am
Break and Networking
11:50am
Case Study: Delivering A Marshals Scheme And Integrating It Into The Wider Local Response To COVID-19
- Working closely with environmental health organisation, the police and other local partners
- Maintaining information sharing and working relationships through weekly partnership tasking meetings
- Identifying emerging risks and specific areas of concern across the county and enabling the response to flex to areas where it is most required
- Employing marshals labelled as ‘Community Officers’ via an event management company and using staff who are used to engaging with the public
- Training the marshals via a detailed briefing to reflect the latest government COVID-19 secure guidance
Matthew Hoy, Emergency Planning Manager & Ruth Austen, Environmental Health and Licensing Manager, Northamptonshire County Council
12:15pm
Behind the Buzzwords: Digital Experience for Local Government
- Why hybrid working is here to stay and what this looks like for local government workers in the future.
- The impact of the pandemic on urban planning models and how this has increased support for 15-minute cities.
- Creating an experience for citizens that’s shaped around the channels they use.
- What local gov customer service employees need to deliver a consistent citizen experience that covers digital channels.
- Steps you can take to adopt technology that meets citizen and employee needs and prevents issues such as shadow IT.
Gareth Johns, Senior Director, Vertical Solutions Marketing, RingCentral
12:35pm
Questions And Answers Session
1:00pm
Chairs Summary and Close
Day 2
8:00am
Online Registration
9:30am
Chair’s Welcome Address
Daniel Houghton, Political Advisor, London Councils
9:40am
Keynote Address: Analysing Local Government Funding Now And In The Future
- Implications for core spending power from the Final Local Government Finance Settlement 2020 to 2021
- Providing more funding for social care, protection for core funding and the prevention of excessive Council Tax rises
- Assessing the impact of Covid-19 for local authorities' budgets
- Examining the increases in spending power compared to 2019/20
- Looking to the future funding allocations for councils: plans for 2021-22 and beyond
Nicola Morton, Head of Local Government Finance, Local Government Association
10:05am
Case Study: Emerging From The Coronavirus Pandemic: Assessing The Scale Of Change Required In The Medium And Long Term
- The Future of Local Government No Going Back: analysing the results on the future impact of Covi19 on local government
- The need to consider changes in the definition of “essential service” pre and post-Covid and considering the cessation of some services provided by the council on a permanent basis
- Making new choices around what residents need and value, what councils can afford and how much residents are willing to pay
- Forming new and enhanced relationships through multi-agency collaboration as a foundation for the future public sector
Natalie Abraham, Managing Director, CIPFA C.Co
10:30am
An Update On Delivering The Ambition For The National Procurement Strategy In England
- Developing a new approach about investing and using procurement teams more effectively
- Delivering benefits to communities through specifying additional social value and engaging with local companies and voluntary sector groups
- The importance of best practice in reducing procurement fraud at a time of heightened council activity
- Assessing the progress of councils under the National Procurement Strategy
- Understanding areas of good practices as well as areas of concern
Martin Reeves, Chief Executive, Coventry City Council
10:55am
Questions And Answers Session
11:20am
Break and Networking
11:50am
Building a Future Ready Digital Workplace Strategy With Intelligent Automation and Bots
- Accelerate your digital transformation journey
- Automations - to improve citizen services and operational efficiency
- Intelligent Automation AI & Bots in action
Olly Philips, Senior Account Executive & Robin Varghese, Lead Product Consultant, Freshworks
12:15pm
Case Study: Making The Case For And Against Creating More Unitary Authorities To Replace Councils
- Abolishing 213 smaller councils in England and replacing them with 25 new local authorities to save almost £3bn over five years
- Reducing complexity and giving communities a single unified voice
- Avoiding the danger of bigger councils becoming unwieldy and undemocratic
- Considering the risk of instability from spitting up children’s social services and adult social care departments
- The importance of people having a real democratic voice at a local level
David Fothergill, Leader of Somerset County Council and County Councillor for Monkton and North Curry
12:40pm
Questions And Answers Session
1:00pm
Chairs Summary and Close
Day 3
8:00am
Online Registration
David Collins, Chief Executive Officer, Smith-Collins Group
9:30am
Chair’s Welcome Address
9:40am
Keynote Address: Outsourcing and Insourcing in Local Government
- What is the evidence on how well outsourcing has worked?
- Where has it gone wrong?
- Where have local authorities started to bring services back in-house?
- What is needed to make a success of insourcing?
Tom Sasse, Associate Director, Institute for Government
10:05am
Recommendations for Local Authorities to Protect and Deal with Data More Effectively
- Assess – gain visibility of vulnerabilities or any data protection gaps
- Plan - how a fully automated modern data protection strategy ensures that data is protected and always secured.
- Testing - with confidence to recovery and restore successfully in an outage event.
- Training – employees are paramount when it comes to defending against cyber-attacks and protecting data.
- Partnering - with a third-party vendor that possesses expertise and heritage in modern data
Katherine Szelesi, Public Sector Enterprise Account Executive, Veeam
10:30am
Imagining The Future Of Local Government Delivery With Intelligent Automation
- Developing the transformative capability of automation
- The role of how other councils are applying automation to drive value back to the organisation
- Understanding from peers the practical lessons of implementation and driving business change
- Easing the burden of budgets and relieving the complexity of processes making time to action much quicker
Keith McDowell, IMT Project Manager, Norfolk County Council & Richard Boddington, Head of Local Government & Housing, Blue Prism
10:55am
Questions And Answers Session
11:20am
Break and Networking
11:50am
How Insurance Can Aid Future Strategy For Local Government
- An informative and thought-provoking session looking at how insurance can aid local government future strategy.
- Insight on the risks faced by Local Government when developing alternative structures
- What protection can be given to the public purse under the various proposals
- What role insurance has to play and what are some of the alternatives
Tim Devine, Managing Director, Public Sector & Education, Gallagher
12:15pm
Closing Keynote Address: Towards The National Institute of Health Protection (NIHP)
- The lasting legacy of NHS Test and Trace in the fight against COVID-19
- How the NIHP will come together
- Working together in partnership with local public services
Baroness Dido Harding, Interim Chief Executive, National Institute For Public Health
12:40pm
Questions And Answers Session
1:00pm
Chairs Summary and Close
1:00pm
Consultation