AgendaNi: Public sector finance seminar | La Mon Hotel, Belfast, Thursday 10th June 2010

Public sector finance seminar

learning to deliver more with less

The scale of the challenge

There is little doubt about the scale of the challenge facing the public sector over the coming decade and beyond. The UK government is facing unprecedented levels of national debt and while the impact this will have on public spending is not yet fully determined, it is expected to be severe. HM Treasury has forecast that without tax increases, annual public sector expenditure could have to fall by up to £35 billion per annum if national debt is to be reduced by 50% by 2014. The impact of lower public spending is already being felt locally with Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, MLA outlining earlier this year how £367 million would be cut from the Northern Ireland budget next year, with the aim of ensuring that our public finances remain on a stable basis.

Ministers and their departmental officials now face the challenge of delivering more with less – finding ways of ensuring that priority frontline services can be protected while reducing their spending plans. Now is the time to look at ways of increasing the resources available for public services, cost reduction and implementing efficiency savings.

Finding new ways of delivering more with less

This seminar will address these three inter-related themes and will examine how a major transformation of Northern Ireland’s public finances can be brought about. While the tough high-level decisions on where spending cuts should fall may lie with Ministers and high-ranking civil servants, the responsibility of implementing cuts and finding efficiency savings will impact across all those working in frontline service delivery roles across Northern Ireland’s health, education and other public services sectors. It is the responsibility of everyone to learn to ‘do more with less’ and find innovative ways of working that can reduce costs while preventing a negative impact on vital public services. This seminar will be of interest to all those working across government and the wider public sector with an interest or role in tackling the financial challenges facing Northern Ireland government at all levels. It will also be of interest to those in the business and voluntary and community sectors who are working in advisory or service delivery roles.

Featured speakers include:

	Marian Corcoran Head of Management Consulting Ireland Accenture		Stephen Peover Permanent Secretary Department of Finance and Personnel
	Michael Smyth Head of School of Economics University of Ulster		Nigel Smyth Director CBI Northern Ireland
	Robert Watt Assistant Secretary Department of Finance, Republic of Ireland		David Carson Divisional Director Central Procurement Directorate