The District Councils’ Network annual conference offers an unparalleled opportunity to any business or organisation seeking to engage with district and unitary councils.

To find out about the options available, please read our event prospectus by clicking on this link.

Among the packages we offer event sponsors are exhibition packages, speaking slots and the opportunity to sponsor name badges.

Please email dcn@local.gov.uk to speak to the DCN team about how we can meet your organisation’s specific needs.

By clicking on the bullet points below you can read and download our essential conference documents:

• The DCN Conference 2024 Programme

• DCN Conference Handbook 2024

• Speaker Biographies

Conference tickets have now sold out.

The conference will see us look ahead to the opportunities and challenges our sector faces over the lifetime of the next parliament. Our 2030 and Beyond theme will consider how DCN councils can devise new and effective ways to deliver for our communities in areas including housing, preventative healthcare, net zero and growing economies.

Delegates will have the chance to engage with high-profile speakers, including Government ministers, MPs across the political spectrum, local government partners, leaders from the private sector and other walks of life.

There will also be interactive sessions showcasing best practice and innovation in service delivery. The conference offers a golden opportunity to meet others in our network and find out how other elected members and officers are grappling with the same issues we face. The conference will include a drinks reception and gala dinner on the evening of 14 March.

Useful information:

• Conference registration opens around 11am on Thursday, 14 March
• Conference finishes around 2pm on Friday, 15 March
• Venue: Sopwell House, Cottonmill Lane, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 2HQ
• Dress code through conference: business attire
• Social media: use hashtag #dcnconf2024.

Sponsors

DCN is hugely grateful for the support of our strategic partners and exhibitors who will be sharing their expertise with our delegates.

Strategic partners:

Exhibitors:

We expect further speakers for the event at Sopwell House Hotel in St Albans on 14-15 March to be announced over the next month.

We regret that overnight tickets for the conference have now sold out.

Among the highlights will be appearances from Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, as well as Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs who shadow his department’s work – Labour’s Jim McMahon and the Liberal Democrats’ Helen Morgan.

We have keynote appearances from Chris Boardman, the former Olympic Champion cyclist turned Active Travel Commissioner; leading pollster Gideon Skinner, AI expert Chris Meah and LGA Chairman Cllr Shaun Davies.

DCN 2024 annual conference programme 18.01.24

We will have plenary sessions on inward investment, health and prevention, environment, and the cost of living. Confirmed speakers for our range of sessions include Patricia Hewitt, former Health Secretary, Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, Lord Harrington, Chair of the Government’s Review of Foreign Direct Investment, and Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice.

In addition we will run closed sessions for chief executives, and for our four political groups, as well as breakout sessions covering issues in more depth. Of course, there will be plenty of time for networking and socialising.

We’re delighted to announce that the DCN Annual Conference will be held on 14-15 March 2024. If you’re a councillor or officer at a DCN member council, you can book your place now.

The event will again be held at the prestigious Sopwell House near St. Albans, Hertfordshire.

For our 2024 conference, we will look ahead at the opportunities and challenges our sector faces over the lifetime of the next parliament. Our 2030 and Beyond theme will consider how DCN councils can devise new and effective ways to deliver for our communities in areas including housing, preventative healthcare, net zero and growing economies.

Delegates will have the chance to engage with high-profile speakers, including Government ministers, MPs across the political spectrum, local government partners, leaders from the private sector and other walks of life. There will also be interactive sessions showcasing best practice and innovation in service delivery. The conference offers a golden opportunity to meet others in our network and find out how other elected members and officers are grappling with the same issues we face. The conference will include a drinks reception and gala dinner on the evening of 14 March.

Booking is now open – please click here to secure your place.

Useful information:

• Conference registration opens around 11am on Thursday, 14 March
• Conference finishes around 2pm on Friday, 15 March.

Accommodation at Sopwell House is limited and is offered on a ‘first come, first served’ basis so please book your place quickly if you wish to stay there. There will also be off-site accommodation, in nearby St Albans city centre at either the Premier Inn or Travelodge hotels. Free shuttle buses will transport delegates from them to and from the conference venue. The pricing for all options includes meals – two lunches, the evening meal and breakfast. We are in the process of arranging discount codes for delegates who wish to stay at any of the hotels on the Wednesday night, before the conference begins.

Pricing:

• Conference plus Sopwell House accommodation: £499 + VAT
• Conference plus City Centre accommodation options: £439 + VAT
• Conference without accommodation: £395 + VAT

We do have special rates available for exhibitors, sponsors and other groups. If you are not from a DCN member council but would like to attend the conference, please email DCN@local.gov.uk to find out more.

Please book now to secure your place, at what is sure to be a popular event.

The event – the biggest gathering in the district council calendar – will again be held at Sopwell House Hotel, near St Albans, Hertfordshire.

It will feature some of the biggest speakers from within and around the sector, as well as networking opportunities, discussion of best practice and, of course, our prestigious conference dinner.

We anticipate high demand for the conference from our member councils after this year’s event was sold out. DCN expects the conference booking system to open in late October and we will bring you full details nearer that time.

The 2023 event featured national speakers including Local Government Minister Lee Rowley, Attorney General Victoria Prentis and former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam.

We very much hope you can attend and look forward to seeing you there.

It has become ever harder to run councils as budgets tighten, staff come under greater pressure and demand for services escalates. So how should local government respond? How can we make our organisations more resilient? How can we ensure that, despite our pressures, our services continue to deliver for our communities? And how can we respond to new crises and changing priorities?

This was the subject of a DCN roundtable, held with the support of Capita, which focused on the sharing of best practice in using the latest working practices, technology, data and management techniques to deliver services flexibly and responsively.

The discussion began with participants – who hold a variety of roles in district councils, including chief executives, human resources leads and finance leads – outlining the specific challenges they face on their councils.

Competition for staff

Many outlined the difficulty of recruiting and retaining staff. Some said the fact they were in an area growing economically meant that there was much competition in the labour market. One attendee said that changes in post-Covid working practices, with three days of home working a week being common, meant their council was now in competition with London boroughs for staff who would have previously been deterred by long commutes on five days a week.

Planning, finance and legal services were named as areas particularly prone to staff shortages. Some participants noted their council’s need for new groups of staff, for instance specialists in technology or ecology as presenting a challenge.

Staff networks, including those for young professionals and black and minority ethnic, was highlighted as a means of retaining staff, as was more flexible working patterns. There was a widespread view that flexibility was essential to encourage people into local government. Flexible working practices and structures were deemed vital to attract staff from the private sector – and to stem the flow of employees from councils.

Finance

Of course, finance challenges loomed large too. One participant said that budget cuts had made the core of their authority less resilient and agile. Others said that while their authority had previously been relatively comfortable financially, projections of budget difficulties in the coming years means transformation was now essential.

“Although our financial position is not critically desperate, if we don’t do anything there is a massive problem,” said one. Another framed transformation in a more positive context: “Change and development is as much about us winning as a council as it is about us staying alive: we should be excited about this and embrace it, it’s not just about keeping the wolf from the door.”

Culture change

But transformation can be unsettling for staff. One participant emphasised the necessity of workforce engagement and their desire to highlight that team members could often come up with new ideas on how they could better operate: “We have a huge sales job with staff. I haven’t sugar coated it. But I want to emphasise that often they have the solutions.

“It’s about turning to the people seen as ‘the moaners’ and ask why they moan,” they said. “Put them on a pedestal. See them as a ‘problem alerter’. Everyone can make a really big difference.”

The need to change working practices was highlighted – including the need to cut down on unnecessary meetings and ending meetings promptly and bringing about a culture of mutual support so that staff understood how finishing work on time assisted their colleagues.

Some participants spoke of an end to the “clocking in, clocking out” culture which is being replaced by a results-orientated attitude. “You know what’s expected – you want the approval of peers and colleagues,” said one. One district had specified targets to achieve every 90 days for the coming period as part of its work on a 25-year strategy – attaining these targets was considered far more important than usual office hours.

Frontline staff needed to be empowered, it was widely agreed, with as few layers of management between them and leaders as possible. “People on the frontline get what’s important on delivery,” said one. One district was restructuring to ensure a greater consistency of management tiers across its organisation.

The changing workforce needs of councils was discussed. One participant spoke of their council’s “unashamedly commercial approach” which saw it employing “business analysts, robotics people, and talent acquisition people instead of HR”. Their aim was to avoid “traditional silos”.

Partnership

Councils’ partnership work was highlighted. Local wildlife trusts and Citizens Advice were, for example, named as organisations with specific expertise which respectively help councils in their conservation and poverty alleviation work. However, there were mixed reports about the effectiveness of shared services between councils, with the flexibility of structure and governance seen as key to success. “It helps if the chief execs have worked together before and are close but if one changes it falls away,” warned one.

Citing the fact that many staff on their council’s revenues and benefits team were approaching retirement, one participant said the focus of shared arrangements should be resilience – ensuring fully skilled teams were available, rather than making savings.

“When your starting point is ‘we have to make savings’, that should be a flashing red light,” said one. “Our starting point is resilience.” Another suggested councils should seek to lead partnerships in areas which they were particularly strong in, adding, “we can’t be exemplars in everything.”

Technology

There was enthusiasm for the potential of new technology. AI was being used by one council to improve ability to publicise planning applications among those living in the affected area, as well as to give a sense of the overall sentiments of responses. “Tech has huge potential to drive down costs,” they added.

One attendee said the work of their council was underpinned by three or four main computer systems but an additional 50 systems were used by specialists in specific areas. They considered this unwieldy, stating: “You cannot pull a single report out of 55 systems.”. Transformation is underway. The participant said that too many staff were undertaking manual tasks such as sending emails or post. It is hoped that AI will free up staff to take on more complicated tasks.

One authority said it had set a target of customers being able to self-serve on 60% of queries, with just 10% dealt with by the council’s technical experts. Three years previously, the proportion was the opposite way around. The digital onus is very much about empowering service users, it was widely agreed.

And robots are being increasingly used. One council said robots cut the time it took to complete a revenues and benefits procedure from 20 days to 24 hours.

“I’d like 20 robots by 2025,” they said. “My nirvana is that my council will become a robotics specialist.”

It is clear that we are living in an era of change. There are rapid developments in technology, working culture and ways of operating and districts are embracing them. The clear aim is to make councils more resilient – and they have to become more resilient to serve the evolving needs of its communities in a world that is becoming increasingly unpredictable and difficult.

The event, held on 20 July, brought together the representatives of member councils and other parts of the health and care system to discuss how we can work together to reduce healthcare inequalities.

Chairing the event was Cllr Hannah Dalton, DCN Health Spokesperson, and it also featured Chris Naylor and Luca Tiratelli of The King’s Fund, who recently undertook research for the DCN on this issue.

Other speakers included Professor Jim McManus, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health; Ian Fytche, Chief Executive of North Kesteven District Council; and Ian Davidson, Chief Executive of Tendring District Council. Mr Davidson contributed footage from his council’s work on supporting children in schools through the Great Bentley Wellbeing Hub.

The importance of working across different bodies to instigate change was a prominent feature of the discussion.

To find out more about the research you can read the King’s Fund full report, as well as various articles which appeared in the media about the research.

Media coverage of our King’s Fund Report

• Jamie Sutterby and Trevor Holden, Broadland and South Norfolk Councils in The MJ (£): Leading the prevention revolution
• Natalie Brahma-Pearl, Chief Executive of Crawley Borough Council in The MJ (£): When it comes to health, districts matter
• Cllr Hannah Dalton, Leader of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council in LGC (£): Prevention-focused districts can help relieve the NHS burden
• James Hood, Director of DCN in NHS Confederation blog: Engaging with district councils – ICS Blog
• Ian Fytche, Chief Executive of North Kesteven District Council in Health Service Journal (£) District councils are the NHS’s natural health improvement partners
• Expert briefing in Health Service Journal (£) The Integrator: the race to the neighbourhood NHS

Reports mentioned in the discussion

• Association of Directors of Public Health report: Putting the ‘integrated’ in ICSs – ADPH Report
• Cheltenham Borough Council: Scrutiny task group on tackling multiple deprivation
• Tendring District Council: Primary school wellbeing hubs – DCN Innovation Spotlight

We’re pleased to be providing a cyber security webinar in partnership with the Cyber Centre of Excellence.

Particularly as:

• More than 2 billion cyber incidents in local authorities have occurred so far this year
• With local authorities experiencing an average of 10,000 attempted cyber-attacks every single day
• And more than 12 councils had complete denial of their systems in the last 3 years.

Anyone who attended the final session of our recent annual conference will also remember what a compelling speaker CCoE board member Major General Martin Smith, former Commandant of the Royal Marines, is and we’re delighted he’s a speaker on this call.

This is a session for all chief executives, leaders and senior officers responsible for IT or cyber security.

We hope to see many of you there and we ask that you register to attend using the form found here

About the call

The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE), which was launched at the DCN Conference earlier this year, was formed to research, identify and test practical cyber solutions for councils and their communities, and help with their adoption. This online session will be led by members of the CCoE Advisory Board who will share their insight and expertise. They’ll cover highlights from existing council pilots currently underway and pose some practical solutions on demystifying the current cyber environment. They’ll also reveal some “very interesting” findings of a new assessment that measures the level of security for local authorities.

• Major General Martin Smith will set out the international context on why and how we are being targeted at the state level
• Sandip Patel, Kings Counsel, will talk about what happens following a successful attack and holding attackers to account
• Kurtis Toy, CCoE convener, and Councillor David Tutt, Leader of Eastbourne Borough Council and DCN Board Member, will describe the CCoE pilots that are currently underway, highlighting how councils with excellent defences are taking them to the next level
• Irene Coyle, former Chief Inspector of Police Scotland responsible for GDPR, will talk about how to ensure that all of your staff, including the management team and members, are suitably trained in cyber resilience.

• Kurtis will also introduce CCoE’s latest assessment of the state of security of England’s district councils.

Again if you plan to attend please confirm by registering for your free place using this simple registration form. A calendar invite will be provided once you have registered.

The DCN is delighted to announce we will be holding a roundtable on building organisational resilience, in partnership with Capita. It will take place in Westminster, London on Friday, 16 June at 10.45am for an 11am start. Our discussion will be followed by an informal lunch.

The roundtable is intended to spur debate and the sharing of best practice on how best district councils can respond, using technology, data and the development of staff to build service resilience. Themes likely to emerge in our discussion include:

• The nature of the looming challenges – including financial constraint – to which district councils must respond
• How to build a strong, reliable, skilled workforce which is responsive and prepared for priorities changing at short notice
• Creating flexible structures that can respond to unexpected events and fluctuating demand
• Using data to forecast changes in demand and working out how to respond
• The role of new technology and how it can take on much of the strain.

The focus will be on sharing knowledge and practical tips on district councils’ challenges, and on how best we can support our teams to deliver flexibly, particularly in response to the cost-of-living crisis.

We are looking for up to 15 representatives from district councils to participate in what should be a thought-provoking discussion. Among the participants we are seeking are chief executives, finance officers, data specialists, human resources leads and leaders.

Should you or a colleague wish to attend, please email dcn@local.gov.uk, with the subject line, ‘Roundtable attendance’.

There is a balance to be struck between financial prudence and securing future growth opportunities, writes Kelly Watson, Head of Local Government Relationships at CCLA, in response to a CCLA/DCN roundtable on district council finance

The scale of the challenge facing local government has reached new levels. Living through a global pandemic whilst managing the impact for residents, businesses and staff created pressure on a scale that we could not have conceived previously. The country is now facing a cost-of-living crisis and levels of inflation not experienced since the 1980s, in addition to an energy crisis and longstanding budget constraints. District councils are at the forefront of supporting communities and delivering for residents, particularly at difficult times.

Under pressure

The pressures and challenges faced are significant. Following years of austerity, efficiency programmes, invest to save and many other initiatives, local government is facing some of its biggest pressures in recent history. Some describe the current climate as a perfect storm with one of the greatest challenges yet still to be faced: the investment required for the move to net zero.

At the same time as costs rise and new funding lags behind inflation, demand for district council services is growing – especially the unprecedented demand for affordable housing and temporary accommodation. Big constraints remain on district councils’ ability to recover the full costs of providing important services, especially planning and licensing, and to generate income.

District councils are grappling with decisions which will affect the lives of everyone they serve. Stark choices between statutory and discretionary services will be debated and the ability to invest in local regeneration may be questioned. These choices and decisions are uncomfortable and future implications difficult to predict, the only certainty is that authorities will take decisions in the best interest of their communities.

It’s not all doom and gloom

District councils are in a unique position not only to survive but thrive.

Perhaps district councils are like trees! Trees are vital, they give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilise the soil and support life. Trees benefit health, the environment, boost wildlife, strengthen communities, grow the economy (people are attracted to living, working, and investing in green spaces) and protect the future (Royal Parks).

District councils do all of these things and are deeply ‘rooted’ in their communities.

District councils exist to serve communities and provide vital services. Securing greater financial freedoms for local government and providing more certainty over future funding could support councils with longer-term planning and investment. This would allow further innovation, working together with communities to deliver a sustainable local economy fit for the future.

Just like trees, district councils are in a great position to have a positive impact on people’s lives – provided they have the financial freedom and certainty to support themselves and their communities.