The County Councils Network’s Annual Conference 2023 took place in Marlow on November 20-21 as we welcomed hundreds of delegates, partners, and high-profile speakers to this year’s event.

Below, you can watch each of the main plenary sessions at this year’s event.

Day 1 Line-up:

Chairman’s Opening Address

• Cllr Tim Oliver, CCN Chairman

Report Launch: Finding a Way Home: Optimising Hospital Flow and Discharge this Winter

• Daniel Sperrin, Newton
• Helen Whately MP, Minister of State for Care

Download the report here

The Future of Population Trends and Statistics

• Emma Rourke, Deputy National Statistician, Office of National Statistics

The Outlook For Public Finances

• Paul Johnson, Director, Institute of Fiscal Studies

Labour View

• Baroness Sharon Taylor, Labour Local Government Spokesperson

Driving Local Growth: Local Enterprise Partnership Transition

• Louise Sunderland, Partner, EY
• Andrew Smith, Chair, Buckinghamshire LEP
• Richard Roberts, CCN Economic Growth Spokesperson
• Debbie Barnes, Chief Executive, Lincolnshire County Council

What Next for Adult Social Care Reforms?

• Andrew Harrop, General Secretary, Fabian Society
• Nadra Ahmed, Chair, National Care Association
• Damian Green MP, Chair of the APPG for Care and former First Secretary of State

Liberal Democrat View

• Helen Morgan MP, Lib Dem Local Government Spokesperson

Local Government Association View

• Cllr Shaun Davies, Chair, LGA

Conservative View

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

Day 2 Line-up:

In Pursuit of Net Zero

• Annie Pickering, Co-Director, Climate Emergency
• Ed Whincup, Senior Adviser, Behavioural Insights Team

Report Launch: Making School Transport Services Sustainable

• Natalie Parish, Director, ISOS Partnership
• Joanna Killian, Chief Executive, Surrey County Council

Download the report here

To Build or Not To Build?

• Nicholas Boys Smith, Chair, Advisory Board, Government Office for Place

Evolution, Devolution or Revolution: What Should Manifestos Offer County Voters?

• Nick King, Managing Director, Henham Strategy
• Jessica Studdert, Deputy Chief Executive, New Local
• Sebastian Payne, Director, Onward
• Andrew O’Brien, Director of Policy and Impact, Demos

We have been working hard to make this year’s event environmentally-friendly and sustainable, and we’ve worked with Zellar to monitor the conference’s sustainability. Over the past few years, we have begun our journey to make CCN Annual Conference more sustainable. We no longer have canvas bags with printed programmes and leaflets, our lanyards are reusable and our conference app enables us to be paperless.

We’ve worked the Crowne Plaza Marlow to introduce other sustainable initiatives including bedroom signage to encourage delegates to re-use their towels, the use of local suppliers a compost bin available at refreshment breaks and the replacement of disposable cups with mugs and glasses.

These steps, though positive, are only part of our journey to making our conference more sustainable and reduce our carbon footprint. We are grateful to Zellar who have measured our carbon footprint for the first time – and you can read their report here.

Watch Zellar’s Gary Styles set out how they do that below.

CCN Conference 2023 was a great event, but don’t just take it from us – see what our delegates and speakers thought!