Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope colleagues had a restful break and enjoyed quality time with family and friends.  

As Deputy Head of the Government Finance Function (GFF), I wanted to share my reflections on the GFF’s recent progress, and to get thinking about the year ahead, especially with SR Phase 2 and the GFF Conference in sight. 

We certainly achieved a lot over the past 18 months! We organised eight regional events, from London to Glasgow, and Nottingham to Belfast, reaching almost 1,000 finance professionals across the UK, where we delivered numerous workshops showcasing finance innovations and hosted senior leader panel discussions on the future of the Function. We also held our first in-person GFF Awards ceremony in September, honouring the incredible talent, dedication, and passion of the best and brightest in government finance. 

In October we celebrated the GFF’s People and Capability team winning the ‘Best Careers Website Award’ at the 2024 TIARA Awards, and in November we marked one year since launching the GFF’s Skills Capture Tool which approximately one third of the Function are using to aid their L&D. If you are not already using it, I would encourage you to do so asap – it's a great tool to support your own personal development! 

Additionally, the GFF has been proactively attracting the best talent by supporting recruitment campaigns for finance roles from SCS to SEO across government, and attending university careers fairs up and down the country. 

On top of this we’ve been hard at work developing a new GFF–wide strategy, which was the focus of our last event of 2024: the Senior Finance Leaders Conference in November. The event brought together over 150 senior finance leaders from 57 UK government departments and ALBs to foster a rich exchange of ideas and best practices. 

As we prepare for the launch of the GFF 2030 Strategy at the GFF Conference in Liverpool on 4-5 February, I am excited about our collective efforts in shaping the future of public sector finance. This strategy will build on our strong foundations and set a clear path for achieving our long-term objectives. 

I know that like the previous twelve months, the year ahead is going to be busy. However, I am confident that your professionalism, commitment, expertise, and sound advice will ensure we achieve many more milestones to be proud of.

Let's continue to inspire each other and work together towards building a better, stronger GFF. 

Happy New Year!