Hive Event

Our studio hosts sit down with Andrew Cartner, Deputy Head of the Government Finance Function, to ask about the launch of the new strategy and what he is most excited about at the conference.

Empower your career journey, hear how you can build your career in Government Finance.

Join Regional Finance Network colleagues for an inspiring and interactive panel discussion focusing on career development within GFF, hear how colleagues have successfully navigated their careers.

The panel will share their unique career journeys, focusing on importance of continuous development, networking and evolution to meet the needs of GFF. They will cover top tips and advice on overcoming challenges, taking opportunities.

There will be opportunities for open Q&A to seek advice from the panel on your career journey.

Hear from experienced professionals who will share with you their experiences of implementing technology solutions that have revolutionised how finance functions work. They will cover what the impact has been on the finance teams in terms of upskilling, career development, productivity and customer service.

Case Studies will be presented by:

• Dr Iain McGregor, Director of Innovation and Development, GIAA: Iain is the Director of Innovation and Development at the UK Government Internal Audit Agency. He leads the strategy on Innovation including the application of data analytics to internal audit and counter fraud and investigation activities. He previously worked at the Knowledge Transfer Network, Tata Steel, Lotus Engineering, ABB Rail Vehicles and Alcan International. He studied aeronautical engineering at Glasgow University and obtained a PhD in advanced materials working with Westland Helicopters.
• Nick Cooling, Fractional CFO eClarity: Nick is a CIMA qualified accountant with a background in consumer driven businesses spanning retail, FMCG and e-commerce. Currently, Nick operates as a Fractional CFO with the consultancy, eClarity. He provides strategic and financial advisory services to high-growth e-commerce brands alongside outsourcing day to day financial activities utilising eClarity's team of qualified finance professionals.

The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) is a uniquely comprehensive view of the public sector’s financial position and performance. It consolidates the UK public sector in line with International Financial Reporting Standards and is made up over 10,000 entities. While the Public Accounts Committee is the primary stakeholder, we aim to illustrate how the data in WGA can inform decision-making and enhance transparency for a broader audience.

The purpose of this session is to explain the different components of the WGA, whilst demonstrating how the finished product can be seen as more than just a set of accounts and be used for decision-making across government and beyond.

This session will break down WGA’s components, highlighting its potential as a strategic tool beyond accounting. Participants will be divided into four groups, each randomly assigned a different section of the WGA and assigned a specific stakeholder group (e.g., universities, MPs, the media, members of the public). Each group will explore how to best utilise their assigned data for their designated stakeholder. At the end of the session, groups will present their findings to a panel of WGA team members.

This interactive approach will demonstrate WGA's versatility and emphasise how finance professionals can harness its data insights for improved decision-making across the public sector. Participants will gain an appreciation for how WGA data can be used to support more effective public service delivery.

International Womens Day (8 March) theme is ‘Accelerate action’ to acknowledge the strategies, resources and activity that positively impact women's advancement, and to support and elevate their implementation

Did you know women are still under represented in senior roles in finance? This workshop is aimed at supporting you to discover helpful tools to advance the career progression of women in finance.

Hear from some of our amazing Women in Finance about what tools have advanced their careers and helped them overcome some of the most common obstacles we face - from confidence, returning to work, gender bias and more…………

We'll then get practical with tips on how to get confident with the great skills you already have and secure the development you need. Eg daily development sprint methodologies

Throughout, you'll have time to connect with your peers and commit to take action to support yourself, your colleagues and your team.

While this workshop is aimed at supporting Women to fulfil their potential, the challenges and advice to be discussed may not be unique to women, furthermore, we all work with women and can support colleagues to fulfil their potential, therefore everyone can benefit from participating at this session.

Join us for an inspiring session that delves into our transformative journey towards automation and process improvements in the finance sector. Discover how we've harnessed the power of technology to boost productivity and elevate the quality of our work.

As government departments and ALBs prepare to move their ERP to the cloud as part of the Government Shared Service Strategy, challenges are ahead. Join this session to hear first-hand from two senior leaders from DEFRA and the Cabinet Office, where they are already making plans for their migration to a shared service as part of the Synergy and Matrix clusters. Hear the learnings they will share as you prepare for your own move. You’ll also hear from our ERP specialists, sharing their lived experience of overcoming common pitfalls to ensure your move to the cloud, is a successful one.

The UK government spends around £300 billion annually on goods and services - about one-third of public expenditure - and the rules governing that spend are changing with the Procurement Act 2023. But procurement reform is not just ‘a procurement thing.’ This session will explore how finance teams can leverage the introduction of the new regulations as a transformative opportunity to deepen collaboration with commercial colleagues. Attendees will gain actionable insights on how finance can play a critical role in enhancing the quality of spend data and controls, to create a step change in cost insight and intelligence, and support government to meet its ambitious efficiency targets.

Public sector accounting experts, Peter Morley and Graham Oliver, will explore how organisations can fully leverage the opportunities available in the finance technology market. Their discussion will cover topics such as Cloud, AI, Cyber Security, and what fits best for different types and sizes of organisations. Morley and Oliver have extensive experience in public sector accounting and their discussion will be grounded by their deep knowledge of Government Reporting Standards

We’ll dive into the exciting, and sometimes daunting, world of GenAI and its growing impact on finance. While Chief Financial Officers see the potential of GenAI, they are grappling with concerns about risk management, data infrastructure requirements, and the investment needed to harness its power. We will demystify GenAI, showcasing its ability to create diverse content, from text and images to code and video, across various industries. Looking specifically at finance, we’ll look at a future where GenAI reshapes everything from strategic planning to investor relations. Deloitte's AI Institute provides a roadmap for successful GenAI adoption, emphasizing a holistic strategy that considers not just technology, but also people, processes, and data.

We all know how important the GFF community is. Join our studio hosts for a conversation with the GFF Race Network, who won The Inclusion Award at 2024’s GFF Awards, to find out more about what they do, and the value of being part of one of our networks.

In this session we'll talk about Sustainability and the role of finance, the AI impact on finance, the Power skills needed to meet the new expectations of finance and changing perception of the profession.

Following their keynote, Daniel Hayes and Christopher Clark, share some more insights from their work within the NHS, and how we can apply them to the GFF.

HS2 Programme is dynamic and evolving as it moves through various phases of construction through to the running of the new railway. HS2 Finance Team needs to respond to this by evolving to ensure it is supporting HS2 Programme strategic priorities.

In 2022, HS2 Finance began an ambitious transformation programme, Our Future Fit Finance (OFFF), to invest in our people, processes and digital capability. This focused on designing a fit for purpose organisation that maximised the value from finance business partnering and placed finance transactional activity together in one internal partnering team. The aim was to free up time from low to high value activities, improve and streamline ways of working and reduce silos, whilst also providing our people with the opportunity to enhance and develop their skills. Processes were simplified, standardised and automated to reduce the reliance of spreadsheets for planning, forecasting and reporting.

A Power BI financial reporting portal was established and a new financial forecasting system was implemented working with IT, HR, suppliers and stakeholders across HS2, integrated to source data from different systems and reporting systems to enable single version of truth reporting and self service, improved accuracy and great insight for decision making. In addition, a 5 Year Strategy for Finance has been created, using the Government Finance Function objectives as its framework ensuring alignment to wider GFF and ensuring HS2 Finance is supporting HS2 Programme in achieving its strategic priorities.

Hindsight provides lessons, insight offers clarity, and foresight enables readiness for what is to come. Join this session between the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) and Ernst & Young (EY) where they will share their journey from hindsight to foresight. GIAA will highlight their approaches in generating insights and foresight from cross-government internal audit activities, including a presentation of their latest AI tool, the Foresight Engine. EY will discuss how their knowledge of various sectors enables them to provide customers with a broader perspective on opportunities and will showcase their AI solutions for enabling this. A panel discussion will follow, revealing how customers are using insights to deliver actionable outcomes.

We have a panel of 4 industry leads, who will share how technology is changing the way their organisations work and the impact of this on efficiency and productivity. They will discuss how finance teams are having to adapt to new ways of working and the level of adoption they are seeing. They will also focus on how critical it is to have a digital mindset. On our panel we will be joined by:

• John Graham: John has worked mainly in the NHS in England in a range of NHS organisations, including the Department of Health and in Chief Finance Officer/Director of Finance roles. He is currently Chief Finance Officer – Tameside and Glossop IC NHS FT & Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Deputy Chief Executive – Stockport NHS Foundation Trust.  John also represents the professional body of CIMA as Deputy President.
• Marie Reynolds: Marie is the Director Finance Defence Digital, Ministry of Defence – responsible for all financial, governance and assurance aspects of Defence Digital business in addition to overseeing and enabling an efficient and effective pan-Defence financial view of the digital portfolio.
• Nick Cooling, Fractional CFO eClarity: Nick is a CIMA qualified accountant with a background in consumer driven businesses spanning retail, FMCG and e-commerce. Currently, Nick operates as a Fractional CFO with the consultancy, eClarity. He provides strategic and financial advisory services to high-growth e-commerce brands alongside outsourcing day to day financial activities utilising eClarity's team of qualified finance professionals.
• Sarah is Deputy Head Finance MOD and over the past 3 years Sarah has been leading finance teams in Finance Operations, Finance Business Partnering and Specialist Services, to deliver quality services to support major programmes. Sarah also brings external insight on technology adoption and sustainability as the former President of CIMA.

Unlock your potential and elevate your career with insights from the Government Finance Function (GFF) Race Network! Join us for a thought-provoking session that delves into the internal and personal barriers that might be holding you back. Don't miss this unique opportunity to reflect on your journey, learn from others, and equip yourself with the tools to elevate your career.

Join us for an insightful session on our department’s finance transformation, where we’ll share the valuable lessons we’ve learned along the way. This session will delve into the refresh of our Finance Business Partner (FBP) operating model and service offer, emphasizing a shift towards high-value activities delivered on a risk-stratified basis.

We will explore the key components of our transformation journey, including the improvement programme designed to enable change and build capacity for more efficient operations. Attendees will gain a deep understanding of how we identified and prioritized high-impact areas, streamlined processes, and leveraged data-driven decision-making to enhance our service delivery.

Throughout the session, we will share practical insights and lessons learned from the transformation process, highlighting the challenges faced and the innovative solutions implemented. This session is a must-attend for finance professionals seeking to drive value and efficiency within their own organizations. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from our experience and take away actionable strategies to apply in your own finance function.

Join us for an engaging and energising panel discussion featuring functional leaders from across government. Greater collaboration is central to the new GFF Strategy 2030 and as a finance community, it's paramount that we join forces with professionals across government to deliver unparalleled solutions for our customers. Engage with our panel through thought-provoking questions and discover what they see as the real opportunities to strengthen our relationships and fortify our collaborative efforts. Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to ask your questions directly to the experts and be a part of the future of government finance!

We've all heard the phrase 'garbage in, garbage out,' and it's especially true with our finance data. We also know that the future of finance will involve more innovation and enhanced capabilities: but if we're feeding things like generative AI poor-quality data, we can't expect it to give us good results. High-quality, accurate finance data is essential to make the most of modern innovations and capabilities. This insight we get back is only good as the data quality we put in.

It needs to be accurate, consistent, and timely. When we have all these elements, our data becomes reliable, helping us make better decisions and manage resources effectively. But how exactly do we get this level of finance data? What does it mean to have ‘mature finance data’? Join us for this session where we will map out the opportunities of analytics tools and AI – but the data journey we need to go through to get there.

Join us for a one-hour session where we will talk through our finance data challenges and priority areas for improving its quality. This event will highlight the importance of having top-notch finance data and actionable steps to boost data maturity. There will be opportunity to discuss with colleagues, hear from experts, share experiences, and help shape our collective steps towards better finance data in government.

Prepare to elevate your capabilities, excel in your roles, and evolve with the future of finance. Join GFF People & Capability Team for an interactive, informative, and inspiring session where we encourage everyone to:

• Evolve: Understand the key skills for the future within the Government Finance Function and their alignment with the refreshed GFF strategy in an evolving function. Hear insights on how this will impact our finance professionals as they grow and evolve within their roles.
• Elevate: Understand how to maximise use of the GFA curriculum, hear about the exciting L&D strategy, and be signposted to other complementary platforms (e.g. CDDO)
• Excel: Build confidence and celebrate your strengths by self-assessing your technical skills and recognise the growing importance of specific inter-personal and human skills as enablers as you seek to map out your journey to excel within the Finance Function.

You will leave with a dynamic mix of insights, practical strategies, and interactive discussions tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities within the finance function to help you with learning and skills focused on the future.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are essential for integrating business processes and enhancing efficiency. However, as will be discussed in our main stage panel session earlier in the day, the journey to successful ERP implementation is often fraught with challenges that can derail the project and lead to significant financial and operational setbacks. In this session Tony & Nick will delve into the key pitfalls and discuss strategies to avoid them. By correctly addressing these pitfalls and following the suggested strategies, organisations can enhance the success of their ERP implementations, maximise their investment, and achieve the desired improvements in efficiency and integration.

With cost reduction a priority for government departments and major shared services and ERP implementations well into their design phases , now is the moment for government and public sector bodies to reframe how effectively designed controls can ensure they achieve their objectives, reduce their cost to control and harness controls to drive strategy faster.

We will bring you practical insights from both the public and private sectors on:
1. Controls transformation – how to maintain control through transformation and achieve the right ‘controls by design’
2. Insight into using latest technology to automate and reduce the cost of control
3. Share perspectives on feedback from our recent Controls conference with CFOs and controls leads from across industries

This will be a 15 minute session focussed around a recruiters perspective on how to attract and retain talent to government finance. The problems with recruitment in the government finance arena and how this can be overcome.

Next in our ‘spotlight on’ network series, we find out more about the Women in Finance Network, and how others can get involved in the work that they do.

Join us for an insightful session focused on the developments and strategic issues within the management of money owned to Government by the Government Debt Management Function.

Alongside showcasing key data insights and visualisations within the Government Debt Book, we will provide updates on the Debt Functional Standard and its impacts on departmental financial management, enhancing understanding of the evolving guidelines and best practices.

The session will delve into the strategic engagement of the third sector and the collaborative efforts in co-designing of debt policy making, to that end will showcase the latest work in ensuring government is aligned to best practice in debt communications as well as overviewing revised vulnerability metrics, offering a nuanced approach to identifying and assisting those in financial distress.

In addition, we are excited to discuss the establishment of a dedicated debt profession, aimed at fostering specialised expertise within the field. You’ll benefit from an overview of bespoke debt learning opportunities, designed to elevate proficiency in debt management and debt awareness that will be open to finance professionals.

Concluding with a look ahead as to the impacts shared service reform and AI might have on how government manages its debts. This session is suitable for delegates within all roles and level, but will be especially helpful those in Cash Management and Strategic Finance roles.

In today’s public sector environment, ensuring Value for Money (VfM) is crucial for efficient resource allocation and enhanced service delivery.

In this engaging session, you will learn:

• How to maximise outcomes from exploring real-world recommendations; 
• Learn how engaging with the NAO and stakeholders has been integrated into the MoJ processes to drive efficiency and collaboration to enhance public service outcomes;
• How positive and continued open engagement throughout the VfM audit process enables the NAO to offer fresh perspectives and constructive challenge that we value;
• What it’s like from the NAO’s perspective.

There will also be the opportunity for an interactive discussion: participate in a Q&A,  where you will have an opportunity to engage with MoJ and NAO colleagues.

This is a jointly led session between the NAO and MoJ. The NAO is the UK’s independent spending watchdog and it supports parliament in holding government to account. It is independent of government and the civil service. The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Gareth Davies, leads the NAO. He is an officer of the House of Commons with statutory authority to:

• audit and report on the financial accounts of all government departments and other public bodies;
• examine and report on the value for money of how public money has been spent. 

The Ministry of Justice is a major government department, at the heart of the justice system. We work to protect and advance the principles of justice. Our vision is to deliver a world-class justice system that works for everyone in society.

Accurate forecasts can make or break government finance. Despite this, the reasons behind inaccurate forecasts are often seen as difficult to overcome. This is a particularly relevant issue at the Ministry of Defence, where project-based financial decision making is highly localised to branches of the Armed Forces. We sit at the forefront of applying data science to government finance: our work involves us thinking through the main benefits and challenges that arise when trying to take advantage of analytical technologies to leverage the wealth of data available. To support forecasting accuracy improvements, the Financial Analysis team in MoD Head Office take you through how analytical concepts, data science techniques and applied machine learning products help to improve the accuracy, objectivity, and transparency of financial forecasting. We look at how these approaches can be combined with the experience of financial professionals to create a better forecasting accuracy proposition. In our session, we will guide you through our data science and analytical approaches and products. We will explain how we developed our understanding of underlying issues, how we’ve implemented machine learning, and the benefits we have seen. We look into future developments within this space and how they can be utilised within Finance and risk management. Our hope is to provide an example of what can be achieved when finance invests in data and technology.

Jump on board for a journey with rail finance from a time when stable rail franchises meant rail companies were focused on minimal subsidy or highest premium through a pandemic which required immediate action to keep services operating and changed the government’s focus to a future of public ownership and Great British Railways.

Learn how the Department for Transport’s interest in the rail businesses changed, requiring more commercially focused teams and standardised reporting, with significant changes to the risk profile. How have new insights improved forecasting on a budget with costs of £12bn and revenues of £10bn, and led to improved confidence in the numbers and how this has helped address the significant financial challenges faced.

We’ll look at how the industry is different today than it was in the past, and how improved reporting and data collection and consolidation is informing decisions relating to the future public ownership of rail services and the transition to Great British Railways.

Would you know how to find $1 million in cash overnight and move it into a war zone? Or get funding to a partner where banks fear to tread?

During a global crisis, Finance can play a key role in HMG’s mission to keep British Nationals safe and maintain departmental operations. Learn more about how FCDO finance has evolved our crisis response to deliver practical solutions on the ground so that vital payments can continue to be made when financial systems are collapsing and navigating many novel and contentious issues in very challenging situations. When time is of the essence, FCDO Finance supports our consular and policy colleagues by providing robust advice to our Accounting Officers and working alongside colleagues in HM Treasury and the international Departments.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to understand the fast-paced and lifesaving nature of our work!

Government Efficiency Framework was launched in July 2023. It introduced common standards and definitions, drawing on existing literature such as the Green Book and NAO toolkits, allowing departments to consistently categorise and hold efficiency data. It standardises how HMG tracks and monitors efficiency savings and provides guidance and best practice on benefits realisation.

Efficiency reporting opens the door for sharing best practice, identifying and mitigating common challenges in efficiency delivery, and instilling a culture of continuous improvement where data is used to inform decision making.

The session will include a walkthrough of the dashboard HMT have created to visualise department’s returns and the cross-cutting insights you can derive from it.

We will also discuss our lessons learnt from sharing financial data across different departments and our next steps/plans for the auditing of the data and publicly publishing it as per the Public Account’s Committee recommendations.

From the award winning Corporate Systems team at HMLR we want to show how we have invested in our ERP system to improve the both the service we provide our customers and the impact it has made to their teams. ERP systems can be seen as a burden but we have focussed on how a ERP system can support frontline workers and help to improves HMLR’s productivity.

We want to talk about our successes but also the challenges we have faced to get the organisation to recognises "what corporate systems can do for you!". Some of our successes include;

• Allowing for over 95% of all invoices to be automatically paid out by HMLR equating to over 10,000 invoices with no manual intervention
• Reducing the average time taken to fix service requests (SR) by over 5 days per SR
• Pro-actively working with Oracle to save HMLR over £1m through cost avoidance by streamlining HMLR use of fusion licenses
• Freeing up over 100 FTE hours per week for front line workers to concentrate on caseworkers
• Allowing for the re-deployment of 1.5 FTE accounts payable staff to other activities
• Reducing the headcount of the corporate systems teams by over 3FTE whilst improving services
• Reducing the number of HR service desks calls by over 50% through self services systems"

Be Future-Ready Today: Essential for Every current and aspiring FBP

The GFF vision for FBP’s continues to be at the heart of decision making with a vital role in aligning business and finance agendas. We know that new technologies will transform not only what FBP’s do, but also how, when and where they do it.

This will be an interactive session aimed at developing understanding of and encouraging the adoption of new technologies that might enable FBPs to add greater value and perform better in their role as Business Experts and Financial Advisors. We will provide an overview of new technologies including benefits and drawbacks and link this to the GFF FBP model. We will also bring to this to life with some case studies and a session that will enable participants to experience the potential benefits for themselves.

The session will conclude by looking forward to gain a collective understanding of what we can do next to really leverage the benefits that are potentially available and enable FBP’s to strengthen their Influential Voice.

Discover how ICAEW’s resources can help drive innovation, efficiency, and sustainability in the public sector. In this session, we’ll introduce our sustainability courses, designed to equip professionals with the knowledge to address environmental challenges. We’ll also explore the Data Analytics Certificate, empowering individuals to unlock insights and make informed decisions using cutting-edge analytical tools.

Join us to see how these, and other, resources can enhance your skills, support your team, and contribute to building a resilient and forward-thinking government funding ecosystem.

In today’s fast-paced environment, finance teams need to transform quickly while managing cash flow, cost control, and productivity. In this session, we’ll introduce Celonis, the leader in Process Mining—a powerful technology that helps organizations uncover inefficiencies and optimize their operations. You’ll see first hand how Celonis identifies hidden bottlenecks in financial processes, enabling smarter, faster decision-making. We’ll also share real-world use cases to show how Celonis helps finance teams streamline processes, reduce costs, and drive performance, all while accelerating transformation.

Former West Midlands Police, Pete Gutteridge-Paye, will discuss the crucial steps required to prepare, deliver and succeed in delivering a Cloud implementation with key Change Management considerations.