Picture the scene: a warm Friday afternoon in the city. Around 30 finance professionals from local government, central government, health, education, housing and professional services (and from as far afield as Preston) had voluntarily given up half a day's annual leave to spend four hours talking about leadership.
Our panel of five inspirational section 151 officers shared their career journeys, why others should aspire to leadership and how to prepare for it.
Everyone arrived early, but we had to delay the start because the conversations were flowing too well to interrupt. And when it was all over, I had hoped to catch the 5.30pm train home from Paddington. I ended up on the 7.50pm because so many people stayed behind to keep talking.
This wasn't mandatory training. There were no CPD points. No manager insisting on attendance. Just finance professionals who want to become better leaders.
As someone who has spent much of my career recruiting s151 officers, I found that really reassuring.
Because if you listen to the conversation across local government, you could easily conclude that the finance leadership pipeline is running dry. The Local Government Association and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's (CIPFA) 2024 finance workforce action plan found senior finance professionals retiring or moving into interim roles and councils reporting gaps in succession at deputy chief finance officer level.
Almost every recruitment brief I receive now begins with something along the lines of: ‘Andy, this isn't a learning opportunity.'
Which is entirely understandable. Nobody has ever telephoned to say: ‘We'd quite like somebody to come and join us to experience their first financial crisis.'
Today's briefs usually involve structural deficits, political uncertainty and services that are stretched and over budget (‘Andy, demand in adult services continues to rise and our children's services need to grasp the concept of opportunity cost...'). The Local Government Information Unit reports that 15% of those surveyed expect to need exceptional financial support this year, rising to 39% within five years. You can see why briefs ask for experienced leaders.
But I increasingly think we are asking the wrong question.
The debate tends to focus on whether there are enough future finance leaders. From my work at Penna, our partnership with CIPFA and countless conversations with established and aspiring leaders, the more interesting question is whether we are recognising potential early enough.
We have become remarkably good at identifying experience and associating it with lower risk. We are less good at recognising potential and supporting development.
During our seminar's Q&A, around a third of the room immediately put their hands up to quiz the panel, and we only stopped because we ran out of time. More encouraging still, the questions weren't about finance. They were about political leadership, professional courage, embracing technology and knowing when people were ready to become a s151 officer.
That chimed with something else I've noticed over the years. The strongest candidates almost never begin interviews by talking about finance. Nor do the best interviews resemble technical examinations. The candidates who stand out describe how they develop relationships, or make difficult judgements, or a mistake they made and (most importantly) what they learned from it.
Technical excellence still gets people into the room, but its leadership capability and potential that gets them appointed.
If I have learned one thing from recruiting finance leaders, it is that the people who go furthest share two characteristics. They are relentlessly curious, and somewhere along the way somebody believed in them before they fully believed in themselves.
That is why the responsibility now sits as much with organisations as with individuals. The next generation of s151 officers will only emerge if we get better at recognising potential, investing in leadership and creating safe, supportive opportunities for talented people to succeed.
At our seminar, Maria Christofi (recently named as Newham LBC's new chief executive) described being a s151 officer as ‘the most fun and exciting job'. Listening to the conversations that afternoon, it was clear plenty more people aspire to earn that privilege.
Every future s151 officer is already sitting in someone's finance team. Their organisation may not believe they are ready, they may not believe it themselves yet, but let's help them get there.
At CIPFA and Penna, we are placing more emphasis on identifying leadership potential earlier: coaching, mentoring, secondments and career conversations, and encouraging organisations to broaden people's experience before they step into the s151 role. With local government reorganisation on the horizon, restocking a talent pool where demand already outstrips supply matters more than ever.
We're also evolving how we recruit: looking beyond experience alone, assessing judgement, curiosity and leadership potential with greater rigour and helping clients build roles with proper onboarding and support, so people can step up rather than wait until they have done the job elsewhere.
And if anyone doubts that public finance has a bright future, spend an afternoon in a room like the one we had that Friday, or join us at our next event.
Andrew Tromans is a Partner at Penna and national lead for finance and resources recruitment
