A view from the Board Table Simon Judge Finance Director, DCMS [email protected] GFP...

A view from the Board Table

Simon Judge

Finance Director, DCMS

[email protected]

GFP Trainee Conference

Brighton

10 July 2009

Department for Culture, Media and Sport Improving the quality of life for all2

What am I going to talk about?•Myself•How I qualified (and why)•My current job and some of the challenges, based loosely around my first impressions, and attempts to set some priorities

•Reflect on what these challenges might mean for you today, at your stage in your career. I am assuming you aspire to something

•Questions and comments


My experience to date• Maths degree - very useful.• HM Treasury - wide range of jobs, including poll tax,

privatisations, VAT, IT• DWP - various Spending Reviews • DCA - merger (with part of Home Office) to form MoJ


Project management – creating MoJ


My experience to date• Maths degree - very useful.• HM Treasury - wide range of jobs, including poll tax,

privatisations, VAT, IT• DWP - various Spending Reviews • DCA - merger (with part of Home Office) to form MoJ• DCMS - the finance director (not “a”)

• Small department - only 500 people. On the edge of viability - read our capability re-review. 20 in finance

• About 60 NDPBs and other bodies, most with own Accounting Officer

• I think I am supposed to lead the finance function across them all - some bigger than we are, some are better run

• £1.5 billion resource, and £200m capital – tiny share of the budget


Ben & tax credits

Health

Local Govt

Defence

DCMS

Other

Pub serv pens

Other Lottery

EU

LASFE

BBC

DCSF

Debt interest

DEL£340 bn

DebtInterest

Benefits & tax credits

DCMS

AME£270 bn

DCMS within total public spending


My experience to date• Maths degree - very useful.

• HM Treasury - wide range of jobs, including poll tax, privatisations, VAT, IT

• DWP - various Spending Reviews

• DCA - merger (with part of Home Office) to form MoJ

• DCMS - the finance director (not “a”)• Small department - only 500 people. On the edge of viability - read our

capability re-review. 20 in finance• About 60 NDPBs and other bodies, most with own Accounting Officer• I think I am supposed to lead the finance function across them all -

some bigger than we are, some are better run• £1.5 billion resource, and £200m capital – tiny share of the budget• Olympics (£9.3 billion programme), BBC (£3.3 billion), Lottery (£1.7

billion) all on top. I only get involved when things go wrong


Getting qualified ... Why and how?• Lots of experience - but wouldn’t get a board level job• Chose the Warwick Business School / CIPFA route• See article by David Wright (DWP) in Trainee Gasette No 1• Warwick diploma:

• how to be a social scientist. Useful for many more senior managers - strategy, leadership, governance

• learn to write an essay• learnt how to walk around a problem• research-based dissertation• Manageable finance element: investment appraisal, tax and

financial accounting. Governance module most useful to me so far• Friendly and small group. Graduated on Monday


Some newly-qualified accountants ...


Some newly-qualified accountants ...


Getting qualified ... Why and how?• Lots of experience - but wouldn’t get a board level job• Chose the Warwick Business School / CIPFA route• See article by David Wright (DWP) in Trainee Gasette No 1• Warwick diploma:

• how to be a social scientist. Useful for many more senior managers - strategy, leadership, governance

• learn to write an essay• learnt how to walk around a problem• research-based dissertation• Manageable finance element: investment appraisal, tax and

financial accounting. Governance module most useful to me so far• Friendly and small group. Graduated on Monday

• CIPFA final test: case study. (What does it test ?)


So what are the issues ?

•Get organised

•Keep learning

•Governance and culture


Issues (1) – get organised• Manage your boss - “management review”, “sign off return

to HMT”, escalate stuff when you get stuck, help us to prioritise (eg technical assistance to our NDPBs)

• Customer focus - some basic disciplines on solving problems. Know a bit about a lot across corporate services

• Learn how to manage change projects. Backward planning, take some risks (eg CSR/SR), acknowledge we are less than perfect, but accept less than perfection


The starting positionW

OR

LD C

LAS

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SE

LES

S



OR

LD C

LAS

SU

SE

LES

S

Internal controls

Statutory accounting

In-year reporting and control

Forward planning



OR

LD C

LAS

SU

SE

LES

S


The new FD arrives ....W

OR

LD C

LAS

SU

SE

LES

S


... then common sense breaks outW

OR

LD C

LAS

SU

SE

LES

S


Issues (1) – get organised• Manage your boss - “management review”, “sign off return to

HMT”, escalate stuff when you get stuck, help us to prioritise (eg technical assistance to our NDPBs).

• Customer focus - some basic disciplines on solving problems. Know a bit about a lot across corporate services

• Learn how to manage change projects. Backward planning, take some risks (eg CSR/SR), acknowledge we are less than perfect, but accept less than perfection

• Make finance interesting, useful, and consequential - eg risk management

• Write policies, design systems, or understand and tackle culture? Where’s the leverage?

• Sit at your desk, or get out there and talk to people?• Look for quick wins and for people to be defenestrated


Issues (2) – keep learning• Work with other specialists eg economists, lawyers,

statisticians, estates, HR, procurement, communications etc etc

• Welcome others into finance – don’t be an exclusive priesthood

• Look at how others simplify issues. Jargon is not always necessary, and not always helpful

• Look at other organisations – both similar and different. Not necessarily hugely time consuming. Feed thoughts back on how might do things better here

• Do a non-finance job, for a bit• Learn about public sector finance systems


Issues (3) – governance & culture• Understand how your organisation is supposed to work,

and how it does work in practice. If you don’t know, ask and keep asking. Confusion leads to understanding

• Governance disciplines are important – tend to reside in finance (but not mandatory) – for example in DCMS loads of others need to get involved

• Think about trust, versus formal accountability• Be clear what you do and what you don’t. This requires

resilience (and good customer care skills to say “No”)• Understand what the FD role really is – eg importance of

single set of books, and of key financial judgements (slippage). Look for areas where FD/ you can be a bit awkward – eg retrospective approval


Conclusion• Doing a formal qualification is useful – but not always in

the areas you expect• Finance is interesting and you must make it so for non-

experts. The function is crucial to running any organisation, and planning its future

• Reflect on you learn stuff, how you think about issues, how you behave with colleagues, customers, senior managers

• What does that mean for your skills gaps and how you behave? What are you going to do about this? Harry can help!


Conclusion• Doing a formal qualification is useful – but not always in

the areas you expect• Finance is interesting and you must make it so for non-

experts. The function is crucial to running any organisation, and planning its future

• Reflect on you learn stuff, how you think about issues, how you behave with colleagues, customers, senior managers

• What does that mean for your skills gaps and how you behave? What are you going to do about this? Harry can help!

• Questions and comments please

[email protected]



Tax and spend as a share of GDP

CSR SR


Public spending - capital & current

Public sector net investment will fall to 1¼% of GDP by 2013-14.

Proceeds from additional assets and property sales available to supplement capital budgets

Current spending will grow by 0.7% in real terms each year in next SR (2011-12 to 2013-14). [1.8% at Budget 08: 1.2% at PBR November 2008]

Additional efficiency savings allowing the Government to focus resources on front-line public service priorities.

.

Current Spending (PSCE)

-1%

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

real

gro

wth

CSR

SR

Net Investment

0%

1%

1%

2%

2%

3%

3%

4%

% o

f G

DP

CSR

SR


Ben & tax credits

Health

Local Govt

Defence

DCMS

Other

Pub serv pens

Other Lottery

EU

LASFE

BBC

DCSF

Debt interest

What does 0.7% mean for DCMS ?

2009-10: pages 239-41

DEL£340 bn

DebtInterest


DCMS


Ben & tax credits

Health

Local Govt

Defence

DCMS

Other

Pub serv pens

Other Lottery

EU

LASFE

BBC

DCSF

Debt interest

What does 0.7% mean for DCMS ?

2009-10: pages 239-41

DEL£340 bn

DebtInterest


DCMS

AME£270 bn


Response (1) - in the CSR period• £5 billion extra value for money savings in 2010-11 -- announced in

the Pre-Budget report.• Detailed split in the Budget (pages 129-132).• DCMS contribution is £20m - our fair share.• Secretary of State has written with details to the organisations affected,

setting out his approach. • Also toughening of policy on public sector pay, including for NDPB

Chief Executives (page 127).• Reviewing capital budget, which is over-committed in CSR period, and

creating new Investment Committee. Need urgently to look forward to next SR period.

• Maximising DCMS contribution to skills & jobs agenda (page 95)


• Launched a year ago: five strands (page 122)• Collaborative procurement (Martin Jay) - £90bn in scope.• Back office operations (Martin Read) - £18bn, plus £16bn on IT.• Asset sales (Gerry Grimstone).• Property (Pat Carter) - £25bn in scope (plus disposals).

• Budget “bakes in” savings of £15bn a year, to be delivered by 2013-14, across the public sector

• Common and strong themes: management information, incentives, accountability, expert support

• DCMS action, as discussed at NDPB advisory board:• Procurement Council (Steve Morris, British Library)• Benchmarking (Chris Walker, UK Sport)• Building a (useful) financial model to 2013-14 (Discussions with Museums: understand

cost and income drivers).• July strategy for back office operations

Response (2) - Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP)


Response (3) - Public Value Programme• Programme launched a year ago

• NHS commissioning, teaching assistants in schools, NEETs, RDA management, prison management (page 125)

• Need to extend this to cover 50% of DEL, with focus on spend that impacts across departmental boundaries

• But also some scope for looking at AME (eg benefit spending and public service pensions - page 128)

• Just starting now to scope these reviews in DCMS

• Need to start in June, and complete by the end of 2009

• Best not to organise on an institution by institution basis


Response (4) - the next Spending ReviewIt’s all rather unclear …

• Period covered - assume 2011-12 to 2013-14• Overall fiscal position: DEL and AME envelopes not yet set • Timing: when it starts, when decisions are taken, when announcements

made• Nature of engagement with departments and other organisations we work

with. Bottom-up or top-down?• The key themes? Relevant to building the evidence base.• Likely scope for changes to the control framework (e.g. museum

reserves)?

… so all involved need to be ready for anything.


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A view from the Board Table Simon Judge Finance Director, DCMS [email protected] GFP...

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