Scotland's need for capital investment in infrastructure is well researched, documented and signposted.  However, our ability to deliver in core areas such as net zero, transport, housing, digital infrastructure and projects supporting public service delivery is now acutely challenged by the state of our public finances following pandemic, war, recession and budget recklessness.  So, how bad is the picture on our infrastructure prospects and what can be done to prioritise spending, innovate on funding, attract additional investment and find new ways to partner in project delivery?

This conference will take place online.

Employees are critical to every area of work - too few, too inexperienced or insufficiently skilled creates cost, delay and damage to public services and economic competitiveness.  Yet the current labour market shortage is evident across our public, private and third sectors.  Our ability to deliver critical public services is undermined by it.  The need to grow and compete our way out of recession is threatened by it.  The capacity of our third sector to provide essential safety nets in the midst of growing poverty and household financial breakdown is damaged by it.  So how should organisations anticipate, plan and react in order to attract and retain staff, minimise employee turnover and upskill and innovate with their valuable and scarce staff resource?

This conference will take place online.

Placemaking now sits at the heart of almost all policy development and delivery in Scotland.  It is both an objective and a process.  However the cumulative resources needed to deliver effective placemaking across all Scottish project scales and geographies are significant.  Where, therefore, will the funding come from to match demand?  How do we reconcile the differing needs of both the public and private sectors?  What will it take to move placemaking in Scotland from planning to delivery?

Scotland is not short of projects with the potential to deliver successful placemaking.  However the objectives of the public sector and the challenges facing the private sector often conflict, threatening to limit placemaking at scale.  The public sector expects the highest environmental standards and quality of public realm, driven by the need to support sustainable and successful communities while driving for net zero.  Developers increasingly argue that development is now becoming too expensive to do with all the add-ons required by policy and sought during development negotiation.

Can the Scottish Government and the Scottish public sector put more resource on the table to draw the private sector into investing?  The public sector balance sheet is not strong.  Is it possible for Scottish Government investment to be more tailored, joined-up and coherent across sectoral, service and project boundaries?

This conference looks at what it will really take to deliver on Scotland's placemaking potential.  It considers the key factors to be addressed across national and local government and the role of other agents and players.  It reflects on the challenge of ensuring placemaking projects are not thwarted by silo practices in how budgets, policy and decision making are controlled by various partners.

The conference examines these challenges in three sessions:

This conference will take place online

Practicing good governance in all public and third sector organisations which receive public money is essential.  It demonstrates transparency, accountability, inclusion and responsiveness to service user needs.  However, poor governance has the opposite, destructive, effect.  Even bodies delivering value for money and good service delivery can see those achievements devalued by poor governance.  How should organisations promote, practice and protect the good governance which helps prevent institution and career ending episodes? 

This conference will take place online.

Scotland's public services provide critical support to every age group, community and area of activity. They are essential to wellbeing, the economy, public safety and quality of life. However a tsunami of challenges to our services already exist, with many more on the horizon. The labour market is constricted, creating acute staffing shortages. COVID has left services struggling to catch up and keep up with demand. War has driven economic instability and UK government fiscal uncertainty suggests serious funding issues for public services. The context seems to be that change is now permanent. So what can those leading and delivering our critical public services do to cope with the challenges of now and prepare for those which are coming? How can they harness smart service design approaches and core elements of delivery to provide services which remain resilient, reliable and relevant? What opportunities exist to work differently and better in trying to do more with less?

The conference will take place online.

The Scottish Government is to introduce legislation during this parliament to encourage Community Wealth Building as Scotland's core approach to economic development.  A consultation on the proposed Bill has just concluded.  The aim is to enact new - or amend existing - laws to accelerate this form of economic development in Scotland.  What is Community Wealth Building?  How will it reform who takes decisions locally on what is spent - and on how, where and for what purpose?  The Bill's aim will be to bring economic transformation and to create empowered, resilient local communities.  Therefore, change is coming which will affect current decision makers in the public sector and their other sectoral partners.  Who will lead decison making in the future and how will communities be involved in that process?  How will this affect your organisation?

This conference will take place online.

Emergency planning, resilience, business continuity and risk reduction are the activities we plan, practice and train for in the hope they will never be needed.  They mitigate the worst when it happens and bring assurance and stability when it does not.  However, the threats presented to normal order are magnified by local, national and international events which can bring instability to our own front door.  The consequences of globally linked economies in bad times.  The potential public health effects of diseases on intimately linked societies.  Open and interwoven digital worlds across national borders.  A destabilised international order.  Increasingly turbulent effects of climate change.  The impact of economic downturn on lower public investment and safety and quality outcomes.  Then there are the kinds of accidents and disasters which can occur in good or bad times.  So how do we plan for the unexpected, ensure that we learn from every opportunity, collaborate to maximise best practice and keep our emergency planning and resilience practitioners, and our responders at every tier, well-resourced and able to prevent and react?

This conference will take place online.