Finance Summit Agenda 2024

Top Tips for Boosting Productivity and Reducing Year-End Stress
John Fagan, CEO at Scribe

Drawing from our extensive experience talking to hundreds of clerks and Responsible Financial Officers (RFOs) every month, we will share valuable insights into the main challenges they face. Our expert advice covers automating routine financial tasks, maintaining accurate records, and conducting regular financial reviews. Learn how to streamline compliance processes, leverage advanced budgeting and forecasting tools, and invest in staff training to maximize productivity. Discover the benefits of centralizing financial data, utilizing advanced reporting tools, and planning for year-end well in advance to minimize stress. Additionally, we provide guidance on choosing and procuring the right accounting software for your council. We’ll cover key criteria such as user-friendliness, comprehensive features, security, compliance, scalability, support, and integration capabilities to help you make an informed decision if you’re looking to change your current system.

Financial Resilience in Local Government
Jennifer Bevan, Network Advisor for CIPFAs Finance Advisory Network (FAN)

Local government finance has been facing high levels of volatility and uncertainty, trying to balance strategic aims with in-year balanced budgets in an environment that has ever increasing levels of demand pressure with reduced resource creating a challenging financial landscape for practitioners to navigate. Recent years has seen local government struggling to cope with some of these financial pressures with an unprecedented number of authorities unable to maintain a balanced budget and making reports under section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988. It is therefore more critical than ever that finance practitioners know the warning signs of financial stress and how to deal with them. This session will cover the fundamentals of financial resilience, the warning signs to look out for along with best practice for strong financial resilience and some underlying principles of good financial management.

Procurement
Janine Gardner

Whether you’re thinking about updating a play area or planning a full-blown construction project, planning financially for your procurement exercises and maintaining financial records which put a smile on your auditors’ faces are fundamental jobs on your to-do list. Cranbrook Town Council in East Devon serves a new town which started being built in 2011 on land which used to be green fields. Since its creation in 2015, the Town Council has been delivering many assets, including a sports pavilion, a skatepark, two multi-use games areas, an outdoor gym, a trim trail, seven new play areas, CCTV installations and all the associated contracts, including a grounds maintenance contract worth £200,000 per annum. Come and learn from Cranbrook’s experience – and hopefully pick up a few hints and tips along the way to implement in your council.

Internal Audit – It’s Not All About the Finance!
Jane Olds, SLCC General Advisor

Many people groan when the Internal Auditor comes to call, but it shouldn’t be like that. Internal Audit isn’t just about the finance – actually it’s more about the governance and processes of the whole council. So, whether you’re a Clerk to a large, medium, small or tiny council, the responsibilities are similar. This session should help delegates to understand that the internal auditor isn’t there to ‘catch you out’ but to help you and the council think about how to move forward with the right systems and processes in place. It might even attract you to become an internal auditor and join the growing number who have taken the PIALC training.