This year’s CCN Annual Conference 2021 took place in late November – one of the first in-person local government events since early 2020.

Over 200 delegates in Marlow in Buckinghamshire heard from expert and high profile speakers, such as the new Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove MP, Shadow Local Government Sectary Steve Reed MP, Chair of the government’s review into children’s social care Josh MacAlister, former Health Secretary Alan Milburn and Chair of the Health Select Committee Jeremy Hunt.

Below, you can watch the plenary sessions from this year’s event.

Day One – Morning

CCN Chairman Cllr Tim Oliver’s opening speech (from 27 minutes)

The Future of Children’s Social Care (from 44 minutes )

• Josh MacAlister, Chair, Independent Review of Children’s Social Care
• Luke Tregidgo, Director, Newton
• Debbie Barnes, Chief Executive, Lincolnshire County Council

Adult Social Care Reform (from 1 hour 27 minutes)

• Gillian Keegan MP, Care Minister
• Jeremy Hunt MP, Chair, Health and Social Care Select Committee
• Vic Rayner, Chief Executive, National Care Forum

Delivering County Deals (from 2 hours 59 minutes)

• Rob Turner, Director, Grant Thornton (presentation can be downloaded here)
• Tom Foster, Associate Director, Grant Thornton
• Akash Paun, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government

Planning Communities (from 3 hours 45 minutes)

• Matthew Spry, Director, Lichfields (presentation can be downloaded here)
• James Gore, Director, Copper (presentation can be downloaded here)

Day One – Afternoon

The Role of Counties in Net-Zero (from 25 minutes)

• Polly Billington, Chief Executive, UK100

Local Government Association View (from 57 minutes)

• Cllr James Jamieson, Chairman, Local Government Association

Liberal Democrat View (from 1 hour 12 minutes)

• Baroness Cathy Bakewell, Lords Spokesperson

Labour View (from 1 hour 32 minutes)

• Steve Reed MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government

Conservative View (from 1 hour 53 minutes)

• Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, Housing, and Communities

Day Two

Local Government Finance (from 23 minutes)

• Adrian Jenkins, Director, Pixel Financial Management (presentation can be downloaded here)
• Lorna Baxter, President, Society of County Treasurers

Where Next for Levelling-Up (from 1 hour 10 minutes)

• Nick King, Director, Henham Strategy
• Polly Mackenzie, Chief Executive, Demos
• Katy Balls, Deputy Political Editor, The Spectator

Leading Recovery, Delivering Renewal (from 2 hours 29 minutes)

• Alan Milburn, former Health Secretary and current advisor to PwC

CCN has also released two reports during the conference.

The first, produced with Newton, contains emerging findings from a major project looking into the future of children’s social care and possible reform. Read our press release here.

This research gained extensive coverage in the media, including BBC News at One, BBC Radio 4 Today, BBC News Online, The Times, and The Daily Mail.

The second report we launched was with Grant Thornton.

This report independently assesses governance options and structures for possible county devolution deals, and looks at what powers should be devolved to county authorities.

The report echoes CCN’s call that further deals must be negotiated quickly once the first tranche have been concluded, and calls for devolution to be rolled out in counties across the country.

Read our press release here.

Thanks to all of our CCN Annual Conference 2021 Partners!