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.

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 decision 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.

Providing protection against discrimination is a legal requirement for all organisations.  Age, disability, race, gender, religion, cultural background and sexual orientation are all covered by legislation. Supporting the rights of people with protected characteristics is an obligation in equality law and a characteristic of successful organisations.  However, failure to do so is potentially reputationally damaging for both organisations and individuals.  In the worst cases, it can be career – or even organisation – ending.  While compliance is one thing, actively and successfully promoting equality, diversity and inclusion is another.  What do you need to know?  Where is current good practice heading?  How do organisations get it right?

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.

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.

The Scottish Government will publish its Legal Services Regulation Reform Bill sometime between now and June 2023. However the 2021 consultation on reform revealed striking differences of opinion on the way forward, particularly - though not exclusively - between practitioner and consumer interests. So how will the new Bill seek to deliver open, transparent regulation and enhanced accountability and consumer rights? How can this be balanced with concerns about avoiding political interference in the legal profession and legal services and perhaps higher costs to consumers? Most importantly what will this mean for the way the legal profession, legal practices and all those fall within the definition of legal services are scrutinised, regulated and held accountable in future?

This conference will take place online.

Scotland's voluntary sector and the staff and volunteers working within it deliver vitally important services in every Scottish community.  However, uncertainty in funding, future and capacity is one of the few things the sector can be certain about.  So, does the Scottish Government's new Charities Bill address the challenges the sector and its staff face?  What are the implications of the Bill for future regulation and accountability?  How will and can core issues on funding, staffing, regulation, quality, purpose and status be addressed if not in this Bill?

This conference will take place online.

Debt in Scotland has become a new epidemic. It has claimed more and more individuals and households as the cost of living has risen dramatically and the value of incomes has declined in parallel.  However, for many, options to tighten budgets in order to meet rising costs were already exercised long ago.  There is nowhere left to go.  What advice, support and assistance can be given to the rising number of people falling into debt that they cannot manage?  Can their debt be reduced and stability restored to their living costs?  Can our statutory debt management, debt relief and debt advice resources meet the volume of demand and the scale of need within that demand?

This conference will take place online.

All organisations need to be aware of their data protection obligations. They have to be organised to comply with those requirements, be proactively engaged with the evolving contexts in which they are operating and they should be supporting their data practitioner staff in their roles and in their professional development. However the context in which organisations store, share and use data is fast evolving - both in terms of law and best practice and in respect of how public and private sector organisations operate. How therefore do organisations need to respond in order to remain agile in an ever changing data world so that they support the development and constant upskilling of their critical data protection professionals, ensure the organisation is always learning from best practice and collectively react swiftly to the planned and unplanned changes that can threaten data security?

This conference takes place online.

The Scottish Government’s National Care Service (Scotland) Bill has been published and is now in its parliamentary stages toward becoming law.  However, the scope of the Bill has seen the original proposals grow to now cover adult, child, justice, substance misuse and some mental health services and also proposes a system which would be accountable to Ministers.  So what do you or your organisation need to understand about what was in the published Bill, the responses to it and its parliamentary progress?  How is Scottish Government thinking on the Bill evolving during its parliamentary stages and to what extent is it responding to concerns?

The conference takes place online.