The first face-to-face meeting of the Strategic Finance Network Group tackled the fascinating subject of ‘Influencing Upwards’ at an event hosted by ICAEW at Chartered Accountants Hall.

The Strategic Finance Network Group has been established for just over a year and now boasts more than fifty active members from across government. The aims of the group are to:

• build financial capability by driving the adoption of strategic finance best practice across Departments
• be a more collaborative government finance function by sharing expertise to deliver quality services
• strengthen links to HMT by ensuring representation from HMT and exploiting opportunities to support existing areas of HMT work.

The meeting was a joint enterprise with Alison Ring OBE FCA, Director of Public Sector and Taxation, ICAEW and was headed up by Rachel Fraser ACMA, CGMA, Head of In-year Management, Defra Group Finance.

One of the real benefits of such groups is the opportunity to meet likeminded individuals facing similar challenges, on this occasion facilitated by a networking lunch. “It was really great to meet colleagues in person and exchange thoughts and ideas from a strategic finance lens,” Rachel said.

The guest speaker at the event was Iain Wright, former MP and former Chair of the BIS Select Committee, now ICAEW’s Managing Director of Reputation and Influence highlighting three key areas of focus for influencing: alignment -the golden thread of goals from organisational objectives through to personal goals; communication; and awareness – for example, insights into how you and others operate, which might be very different from what you think.

Subsequent discussion in smaller groups allowed members to share views on their experiences of the influencing techniques that had worked well - and not so well - in the past.

Discussions also focused on how the Strategic Finance Network Group could help members achieve their organisational objectives. “There was an especially useful discussion about what resources are available to us as finance professionals,” Rachel said.

The meeting also agreed on key areas of focus for the year ahead. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Spending Review was the top of the list. However, members also expressed a desire to focus on personal resilience as they look ahead to a very busy summer. Other projects will include comparing approaches to in-year budget management and sharing organisational structures.