The mornings are getting colder and the evenings darker, which for us at the County Councils Network (CCN) means we’re fast approaching our annual conference.
I attended my first CCN conference 12 months ago and found it a hugely rewarding experience.
The event is big enough to attract the sector’s most important speakers and to learn plenty – especially as a (relatively) new councillor – but also intimate enough to network effectively and make useful connections.
This year, I am honoured to be heading back to Marlow as CCN Chair. We have a refreshed CCN Executive, which now features six political groups, including, for the first time, the Green Party.
I want to work with all of them to secure a better deal for county areas and the residents we serve.
CCN members will arrive in Buckinghamshire with a shared purpose and a common set of challenges, even if our places and identities may differ.
Yes, Lincolnshire may be different to, say, Devon, but both face the practical challenges of delivering services to large, diverse and often rural places.
“Challenges specific to the county family are what unite us”
Challenges specific to the county family – such as providing adult social care across large geographies, the rise in rural homelessness, and tackling road defects across hundreds of miles – are what unite us.
Our conference aims to bring together the most prominent council leaders and officials from counties, alongside the brightest minds in local government, to examine how we can work through these challenges.
Indeed, ensuring our perspective is heard is vital in an era where the new Prime Minister’s policies have had an urban feel to them. As worthwhile as many of these may be for the cities, we must remember that county areas are very distinct from them.
This year’s agenda aims to get to the heart of this: what do county and rural areas need from this government, and how do we in turn build stronger counties and stronger communities?
We have former Health Secretary Alan Milburn to talk about his independent review into young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), with a perspective on solutions for rural, deprived and coastal communities.
We will hear from the former Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson. With county and rural unitary councils on course to be spending at least £7 billion more on services by 2029, it will be useful to hear him unpack the fiscal environment facing local government.
Baroness Neate, former Chief Executive of Shelter UK, will help us explore the challenge of homelessness in rural communities, while Baroness Casey will join us for an ‘in conversation’ session on her Independent Commission on Adult Social Care. We hope this provides an opportunity for a frank and honest discussion about one of local government’s most complex areas.
These are just some of the highlights. Councillors can also look forward to sessions and workshops covering topics including neighbourhood health, ‘Rewiring the state’, digital transformation, planning reforms, reorganisation – and much more.
I hope to see as many people as possible from across our 39 county and rural areas in the conference hall in the middle of November.
- The CCN’s annual conference takes place from 15-17 November in Marlow, see the CCN website to find out more and book your place