Weightmans will be hosting its first Local Government Conference in its Birmingham office on 5 March 2025.
Local government in England faces a devolution revolution with the White Paper promising the most radical shake up of local government for half a century.
Join us in person to hear expert speakers talk you through the consequences for local authorities and the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead.
If you'd like to attend our conference, please register below.
Event itinerary
09:00 Welcome and Registration
09:15 Introduction Sarah Perry
9:30 The Local Government Landscape and the Implications of the Devolution White Paper, Joanne Roney (Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council)
- issues facing local authorities
- the new devolution deal
- rising to the challenge
10:00 The role of the Strategic Authority (Helen Edwards, Director of Law, Governance and Audit, West Midlands Combined Authority)
- the strategic authority
- governance issues within devolution
10:30 Governance and the Monitoring Officer (Simon Goacher)
- dealing with devolution, turbulent times & protests
- a new member conduct regime?
- the governance challenge
11:00 Break
11:30 The Employment Revolution (Radhika Aggarwal)
- Employment Rights Bill
- Flexible working- should staff be working 5 days in the office?
12:00 The Special Educational Needs Crisis (John Roberts)
- funding and legal challenges
- homeschooling
12:30 Public Sector in the age of digital data (Thomas Barrett)
- Artificial Intelligence as both a savior and potential saboteur of Public services,
- a penny today a pound tomorrow, the mathematics of Incident response
- Compliance: the devil is in the detail. The 5 “W” questions you need to ask with every restructure or migration in addition to how!”
13.00 Lunch
14:00 Social Care Responsibilities (Marion Robinson and Morris Hill)
- care proceedings trends
- how to fight CSE
- the end of the funding cap
- devolved & shared services and adult Mental Health
14:30 Planning: the new focus (John Gregory)
- The National Scheme of Delegation
- the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
15:00 ESG and the Green Revolution (Aidan Thomson/Nick Fothergill)
- windmills and solar farms
- electric car infrastructure
- the local angle
- devolved responsibility
15:30 Break
15:45 Transparency, Inquires and Claims (Henry Bermingham)
- inquiries and CSE
- duty of care (adult service users) HK, KK, MK v H
- CSE liability, emerging trends and the horizon
- legal and insurance consequences of devolution
16:15 Questions & Discussion
16:30 close
