Scotland’s public services are critical. Those services and the bodies that deliver them depend upon financial stability which is key to long-term sustainability. However, acute fiscal pressures and lack of pace in delivering reform have created a sense of crisis. This conference explores how we got here and what the scope of the challenge is, what can be done to deliver change, and which are the practical steps possible to move forward.
The programme explores the critical issues facing Scotland’s public finances, the urgent need for public sector reform and the long-term challenges for budget sustainability. With a tough economic landscape, growing fiscal pressures, and increasing demands on public services, the need for a focused and strategic approach to budgeting and reform is greater than ever.
What strategies can we pursue to modernise public services and improve efficiency? Are there lessons from elsewhere which could help us to apply best practice in Scotland? Can we ensure financial sustainability while addressing urgent needs now? What long term planning and thinking should we be implementing for public service resilience and innovation?
This conference offers key insights into managing financial challenges, redesigning public services and navigating the tough economic landscape. It is an opportunity to join speakers from a range of bodies including government, public bodies, think tanks and academia in exploring solutions to safeguard Scotland’s public finances.
The conference discusses the challenges ahead in three sessions:
Topics to be discussed
Who Should Attend
Director
Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK)
Associate Director – Place, Housing & Economic Investment
Scottish Futures Trust
Chief Executive
Scottish Futures Trust
Senior Manager
Audit Scotland
Chief Civil Architect
Leidos UK
Dr Emma Gordon
Director
Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK)
Dr Emma Gordon is Director of the ADR UK Strategic Hub and Director of ADR England.
She is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the programme, leading on the coordination of the partnership and engagement with senior stakeholders, to improve access and analysis of administrative data to inform policy decisions. She is also part of the ADR UK Leadership Committee, and is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS).
Emma joined ADR UK from HM Treasury, where she led the team supporting government economists and social researchers across government.
Prior to this, Emma was Head of Health Analysis at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and at the start of her career was a post-doctoral researcher on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Diarmaid Lawlor
Associate Director – Place, Housing & Economic Investment
Scottish Futures Trust
Diarmaid is the Associate Director for Place, Housing & Economic Investment at the Scottish Futures Trust.
He was previously Head of Urbanism with Architecture and Design Scotland. An urbanist, with a multi disciplinary background, he has worked on projects involving the shaping and implementation of change for clients in Ireland, the UK and Europe, for the public, private and tertiary sectors. He has almost 20 years' experience of helping clients make well informed decisions about complex, connected urban policy and investment challenges. He is an educator, communicator and collaborator who writes and speaks on creative approaches to making better places.
Peter Reekie
Chief Executive
Scottish Futures Trust
Peter has worked across the private and public sectors as a civil engineer, an infrastructure financier, and an advisor with one of the world’s leading professional services firms.
He joined SFT in 2008 when it was established by Scottish Government as a centre of infrastructure expertise and became its chief executive in 2018.
Peter leads SFT’s work encompassing long-term strategy development across infrastructure sectors, structuring and managing multi-billion-pound investment programmes and making the best use of existing assets in the transition to a net zero economy.
Peter is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Richard Robinson
Senior Manager
Audit Scotland
Richard is Audit Scotland’s performance audit lead for Scottish devolved fiscal powers, wider public finances and the reform agenda. In recent years this has included auditing the Scottish Government’s approach to Covid-19 spending, the public sector workforce and financial planning. He began his career in financial audit in England where he gained his CIPFA qualification before moving to Scotland to focus on performance audit.
Richard has represented Audit Scotland as an expert lead for the fiscal framework, national long-term performance outcomes and equalities budgeting. He believes in the importance of the close links between financial and performance reporting to show the difference public money makes. Richard is a keen proponent of public sector reform, heading up Audit Scotland’s engagement with a wide variety of public sector leaders on reform activity and the role of public audit.
Mark Watson
Chief Civil Architect
Leidos UK
Mark is the Chief Architect for the Civil Division of Leidos UK.
Working across the Central Government, Devolved Government, Transport and Air Traffic Control sectors, Mark brings a wealth of experience to his customers. Mark is a seasoned professional known for introducing groundbreaking solutions to the market. His achievements include spearheading innovative projects such as Biometric services for Borders, Machine Learning applications, and Digital Twin technology for Intelligent Road Management.
Mark has also led initiatives in Robotic Process Automation for Passport Control and has contributed to Security Accredited Shared Services, significantly reducing ownership costs for Government Departments.
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