CIPFA’s Technical Update seminars are intended to assist practitioners from all local government organisations in Scotland. The topics covered relate to issues arising in producing year end financial statements as well as information on developments in the Scottish local government environment.

Within the last year two major reports - the Independent Budget Review and the Christie Commission have highlighted the need for public service reform.  Any future reform will of course be set against a background of a reducing level of centrally available public resources.  The challenge faced is to continue to deliver stable public services while decisions are awaited on any future reform.

The findings of the independent budget review and more recently the findings of the Christie Commission in June 2011, places outcomes (rather than inputs) as the forward focus for public services.

The message from both could not be clearer that the result of public expenditure in Scotland should be improved outcomes for its citizens.

This means a new financial relationship between public bodies, it?s resources and its services users.  The historic financial expression of policies on an ?input? basis will become a thing of the past as public bodies plan to allocate resources to achieve outcomes.  It also means that the notion of an increased level of budget s being used as a proxy for an increase in service provision will also be consigned to the past. 

The future will require a transformation in financial management practice, the extent of which has not yet been fully recognised.  The challenge is this: realigning budgets (and perhaps practices) to accommodate the requirements of what will be new form of accountability.  Scotland?s public service s have not stood still and there is evidence of some progress.  What is that progress? And how does a public body make the change from an input based budget to a budget for outcomes?

The Christie Commission has now reported.  The key message from the Commission is that it believes ?..Scotland?s public services are in need of urgent and sustained reform to meet unprecedented challenges??

As the public services await the formal response from the Scottish Government we have selected some key elements from the report where immediate but practical leadership can be shown by public service professionals.  In a carefully designed one-day interactive seminar we have engaged public service experts to deliver four practical sessions which will empower finance and other public service leaders to take the important first steps towards transformation.

We will examine the ongoing financial challenge arising from balancing financial planning with realisation of savings while at the same time undertaking a fundamental shift in budgetary behaviour to link available resources to outcomes and priorities.  The scale of such a challenge means that the financial management process with an organisation has to be ?fit for purpose? and we will set out how public bodies can assess their existing finance service and identify what needs to happen to support a transformed service delivery.

The risks associated with reduced budgets and in extreme cases, public service failure, are addressed to ensure decisions are infoemed and that responsibility for delivery is clear.

Shared services is the current focus and a coming reality for many public bodies.  We examine how one specific public body translated shared service theory into reality and into a return on investment.