Cipfa chief: ‘We have to be open to doing things differently’

Owen Mapley on the opportunity to “reframe some of those big issues” 

At his first public outing as the chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy Owen Mapley admitted his career as a “bean counter” was not one he had planned.

Mr Mapley told an auditorium of accountants at the Public Finance Live conference earlier this month that when he was unsure what to do for work, he thought a finance qualification “was good business grounding that would open doors into the future”.

These doors lead him into the Ministry of Justice, HM Courts Service, the Legal Aid Agency, the Home Office and more than eight years at Hertfordshire CC, first as the director of resources and then as chief executive.

In his latest role, Mr Mapley sees himself as a “career companion” with an ambition to empower those who “make a choice to work in public service” to “speak truth to power”.

Speaking to LGC fresh off the stage in Manchester, Mr Mapley said it is a “great time to join” Cipfa as “we’re at a bit of an inflection point” with a new government.

He said: “I see this as a big opportunity to think about the challenges ahead and to try and influence and reframe some of those big issues that we are all facing. I’m delighted to be here and looking forward to getting stuck in.”

One of the many things he plans to get “stuck” into is the debate around how local government is funded and their relationship with Whitehall.

“We have to be open about doing things differently. We are calling for a different approach to financial planning, we want longer term [funding settlements], we want more stability. This will help unleash creativity and innovation, because it helps give confidence that things will be at least stable, even if they’re not increasing. Then you can make longer term decisions and that generally allows you to make better decisions.”

The Labour party pledged to reintroduce long-term financial settlements after six years of one-year boosts and end bidding pots.

While Mr Mapley said it is “great” that “everyone” recognises the need for long-term financial planning “they’re not the first government to promise things”.

“We have seen in the past commitments to long term plans that then get reopened and changed each year. So the principle has to be that long term plans are important but I would be comfortable waiting for something that we can rely on but at the same time recognising that we can’t wait that long because there are real pressures that public finance is facing already.”

The sector too should “think about opportunities to innovate and do things differently”, such as “exploiting new technologies”, working with communities, residents and the voluntary sector to be more productive, Mr Mapley said.

‘Real pressures’

An example of the pressures include the number of local authorities granted exceptional financial support for this financial year.

A total 19 councils were granted permission in principle to use capital receipts from asset sales or borrowing to fund day-to-day costs up to around £1.5bn for 2024-25.

Mr Mapley said: “We are well beyond the suggestion that financial problems are just because of excessive commercial risk or inappropriate borrowing or anything like that.

“It is clear there are mainstream challenges for most authorities now – that is evidence right there, that it is becoming increasingly hard to deliver all of the responsibilities that local authorities are responsible for within the constraints of the funding that we are currently at.”

Despite this, Mr Mapley is “encouraged” that the cabinet has already shown support for “the role that local areas can play” through meetings with mayors and council leaders.

He said: “It’s really clear that stable, well-funded, well planned local services can be engines of local growth, so I would like to see anything that inspires and enables those services to be improved and that can be through devolution.”

However, Mr Mapley added that if this is how the government plan to fulfil their “primary mission for delivering growth”, “we’ve got to recognise that large swathes of the country aren’t covered by those devo deals” and cannot be “categorised as city regions”.

He said: “Everywhere can contribute towards growth so I would like to see talk of devolution expanded. The last government promised devolution deals to all those who wanted them but that didn’t happen in reality so I would like to see discussion about devolution extended to all areas whether they are covered by a current deal or not or whether they’re covered by a city region, mayor or not.”

Part of these deals, Mr Mapley believes, should be a “partnership” between the government and local areas to “set out the outcomes that they are seeking and then work together on ideas on how best to deliver them”.

So the future of national organisations such as the Office of Local Government should promote “transparency, integrity and open reporting of financial operational performance” and he “absolutely” endorses “early warnings when things aren’t going well”.

But Mr Mapley says, Cipfa will be trying to influence the “conversation” so there is “something that works for everybody” rather than “something imposed from above that we haven’t had a say in influencing”.

One example of this is the “productivity plans” that Mr Mapley said “doesn’t feel very productive” when it “requires loads of effort to prepare” even though he “absolutely” supports the principle of productivity and “demonstrating to local communities and partners what the council is doing to spend money wisely is a good one”.

‘No easy solutions’

The main mechanism that financial directors use to demonstrate their sound accounting continues to be auditing, but hundreds of external reviews remain outstanding.

Mr Mapley said there are “no easy solutions” to this backlog that has been caused by a “complex set of issues and influences” but it is “clear” that “we have to improve the current situation”.

He said: “It cannot be normalised to have late and qualified accounts; it has to remain a big deal if there is an accounts qualification with work done to remove that.

“I know that Cipfa and all the other partners who have a role to play in that are continuing to work hard to identify things we can do in the short, medium and long term, to improve that situation”

He added: “We will absolutely stay true to recognising that it’s a mess at the moment and we need to fix it. But no one organisation, no one thing is going to be the magic answer.”

There has been long running debate over whether accounts should be simplified to help residents understand their council’s activity.

Mr Mapley said while “there’s a responsibility on all local areas to help local people navigate the key information and material within them”, it is “really important” to maintain the technical elements of accounts for the sake of transparency and accuracy.

He added: “You don’t have to become a technical expert but we should be finding ways of presenting the information in a more accessible way.”

The expertise of Cipfa will be utilised under his leadership, Mr Mapley said, by providing assistance to councils to identify “the true position they are in” and through their “rich network” of advisers.

“We are unique in our role as championing financial management, both here and around the world,” he said.

“We have the experience, expertise and insights to be able to play an important role and so long as we are transparent about any work we’re doing and who we’re doing it with, then I absolutely think that sort of approach should continue.”

This is why Mr Mapley “would invite any council with concerns about their financial position to have their conversations internally and conversations with Cipfa and engage with the government early”.