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, Scottish Parliament, Ministers and MSPs control legislation, policy and spending decisions directly impacting upon the activities of all organisations and people in Scotland. Informed, good decision making is important in good times, but absolutely critical in bad times. These are bad times. War in Ukraine, a weakening domestic and global economy, high inflation, constitutional uncertainty, volatile UK Government and its stark consequences for public finances and public spending - all while still in the after effects of pandemic - require the best judgement. So, in the midst of wave after wave of uncertainty buffeting Scotland's public services, private sector and third sector, it is essential to understand how to effectively influence, inform and connect with the key decision makers as they respond to the challenges ahead.

This conference will take place online.

Every public sector body wants and needs satisfied service users. People happy with the services they receive attach value to both the services and the organisation delivering them. However a negative experience can mean service users have toxically different views from the producer’s perception. Left unaddressed, complaints become grievances which cost time, money and potentially severe reputational damage. So what should organisations do to develop positive relationships with their service users? Is your service protecting itself effectively by valuing service users, fostering person-centred engagement and then intervening fast and well when complaints arise?

Online

Organisations in the public, private and third sectors all need to be able to communicate effectively with government and MSPs.  Often that communication can go badly due to misunderstanding of how government and MSPs work.  In a post pandemic world many voices will be seeking to influence what happens next.  Will yours be heard?

Online

This webinar will focus on the new risks of public sector fraud which have emerged during pandemic. It will consider evidence and insight from what has been seen during the pandemic period, discuss potential vulnerabilities and how to deploy best practice to remain alert to unfolding challenges and reflect upon the nature of non-pandemic related fraud during and beyond pandemic.

Online

This webinar is intended to explore how public services and the organisations delivering them have responded to, coped with and been reshaped by pandemic. It will discuss the longer-term implications for these services of the financial, demand, and sustainability effects of the pandemic and will address the questions of which services we will want, which we will need and whether we will have to choose which we can afford.

Online

The webinar will explore how the COVID pandemic and its consequences have impacted upon public bodies in terms of availability of information, effects upon accountability and transparency of decision making. It will discuss the lessons of that experience during pandemic and the implications for a culture of openness in those bodies post-pandemic. 

Online

Public finances have changed dramatically in just a few months. Public spending and debt is rising enormously as a consequence of the impact of coronavirus. As lockdown recedes and the emergency measures associated with coronavirus come to an end, the business of delivering core public services remains.

Online