CfPS Annual Conference and Good Scrutiny Awards 2010

Last updated:13 July 2010

The 2010 CfPS Annual Conference – Sustaining outcomes in challenging times – took place on June 30th and July 1st art the Brewery in Barbican, London.

Over 300 delegates attended this year’s conference which focused on the role structures of public accountability must play in minimising the negative impacts of looming budget cuts.

There were a number of themes which arose throughout the conference.  Here are three of the most prominent as a taster to the conference report which will be published later this month.

Taking the power back

“You have got your professional judgment back”, Lord Victor Adebowale CBE, Chief Executive, Turning Point

There was a clear feeling amongst speakers and delegates that despite the threats associated with the end of ring fencing and looming budget cuts the coalition programme for government presents opportunities for local decision makers to focus on the priorities of local people. However, it was agreed that increased localism and a general power of competence for councils would require stronger local accountability.

Challenge accepted reasoning

In a time of challenges and opportunities for public accountability it is important to challenge dominant positions and ask difficult questions. Our conference benefitted from the robust challenge to overview and scrutiny as the necessary vehicle for local authority accountability which came courtesy of Professor George Jones, Emeritus Professor of Government, London School of Economics. Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, RSA challenged the idea that the customer is always right pointing out that their priorities are sometimes contradictory and they need to be made to understand why they cant have what they want. Is this a key role for scrutiny in these more austere times? Professor John Seddon, Managing Director, Vanguard Consulting also challenged the rationale for moving towards shared services and voiced scepticism about the likely benefit of Total Place approaches to service transformation.

Total Place

“If the problems are joined up then so must be the solutions”, Jessica Crowe, Executive Director, Centre for Public Scrutiny

Despite notable words of caution as stated above there was strong support for a continuation and expansion of the Total Place agenda. Professor Sue Richards, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government pointed out that Total Place is the product of a cross party recognition of the need for genuine decentralisation and the ending of departmental silos – not a new Labour invention. The eroding of silos in public services provision does of course have implications for public accountability which at present is operating within a fragmented framework. Jessica Crowe, Executive Director, Centre for Public Scrutiny summed up thoughts on Total Place by pointing out that Total place challenges us to re-write the case for scrutiny.

On a final note our Good Scrutiny Awards were held on the evening of the 30th - day one of the annual conference.  The awards, in its 3rd year, showcased the work of non-executives actively engaged in scrutiny and accountability across the public sector.  A record 95 entries were received and anticipation was high as our gala dinner came to a close and our host, Baroness Sally Hamwee, House of Lords & CfPS Advisory Board, opened the awards ceremony.

Congratulations to the winners and runners up which can be reviewed here.