• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Conference
  • Events Calendar
  • Webcast151
  • MOTB
  • Log In
  • Register

Room 151

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews

Dawn Reeves: Why the S151’s story is a thriller filler

0
  • by Guest
  • in Blogs
  • — 8 Aug, 2017

Dawn Reeves

Unlike the proverbial frog in a pan of water, you know the heat is being turned up. You keep your head above the surface but your scalp tingles and the skin on the back of your neck feels too hot to touch. After years of gradual temperature rises there’s no getting away from the fact you’re almost at boiling point. You tell yourself you are okay, you just need to stay focused, you know what you’re doing.

Yet there’s another £15million in savings to find and more services to deliver with no additional resources. Generating income could turn the temperature down a notch or two, but that’s increasingly risky when you have to borrow big and markets are uncertain.

And you’re worried that it’s not just you in the hot water. There are your colleagues and your team to think about. The kids and your elderly mum. The neighbourhood isn’t what it was and the whole city could face municipal bankruptcy if you don’t balance the books. There’s no way you can bail out now – not while you can still make a difference.

Sound familiar? It’s just one of the many rich and varied stories that could be told about Section 151 officers. As a political thriller writer, former local authority policy director and writer in residence at CIPFA I know when I’m on fertile ground; that’s why I’ve put a council finance director at the heart of my new novel.

It may seem unusual but there are three good reasons why I know S151 officers make great characters. First is the inbuilt jeopardy in the role. Whether it’s publicly acknowledged or not, S151 officers are in high stakes situations. The numbers are big and the impact of the actions taken is universal. My character is swallowing hard as he tells truth to power – and hoping not to get punched in the process. He struggles to remain stoical when signing off on another round of redundancy letters, one that affects his own family directly. My tale is about what happens when good people are tested.

S151 officers make interesting characters because although we know they are there and that they are crucial (there are plenty of narratives about following the money) most of us still don’t really know what they do. They live in an obscure world bound by accounting regulations and treasury guidance which are often like shifting sands, open to interpretation and designed to drag down even the most skilful public servant.  I’ve got to know many S151 officers who have access to knowledge most people will never have, and who can tell the kind of specialist stories that help explain the world. And they make entertaining guides to a strange land when their guards are down.

Listening to some of the commercial deals that S151 officers have pulled off, I’ve felt my own stomach lurch. In a novel you get to explore in more depth how a character deals with high levels of risk; stories about public finance are never just about the numbers. A long read helps us make sense of the world through the eyes of a character we don’t necessarily like but one that we can come to understand why they do what they do, warts and all. I’ve been keen to explore what’s at stake emotionally and how they respond or change as people.

S151 stories illustrate deeper aspects of the human condition. It’s not about city whizz kids making money, delivering public good is tough stuff. The issues are contested, differences in values, beliefs and ideologies are writ large. At the heart of the conflict are difficult decisions about what’s right and wrong in society, what sort of places we want to live in and how we afford it.

The recent debate about levels of public sector borrowing and the possibility of the next credit bubble is a classic example of this. Is this a sensible and long-term policy that generates income to re-invest in services or a foolhardy venture undertaken by people without the experience to make the big calls? You invest in an expensive asset for good reason but is it a time bomb waiting to go off? There are competing narratives at play here, alternative stories that end differently depending on who tells it and how. My novel unpicks why people tell the stories they do and lets the reader make up their own mind.

Which leads me to my final point. My work with CIPFA was about hearing the voices of S151 officers, supporting them to tell their own stories. I think we need more stories that put public finance experts in the spotlight in as many formats (novels, TV, opinion pieces and blogs) as possible. If we – and I include myself as someone who wants to challenge the stereotypical and negative narratives about councils – want to end forever the misconceptions about wide-scale corruption and incompetence that irritatingly persist, we need more stories about you and told by you.

Dawn Reeves is a trainer, facilitator and writer in residence at CIPFA.  Her new novel  – We know what we are – is to be published by Shared Press in October.

Share

You may also like...

  • Ask the Auditor: School assets and your balance sheet Ask the Auditor: School assets and your balance sheet 27 Nov, 2014
  • The art of the trade war: Putting tariffs into perspective The art of the trade war: Putting tariffs into perspective 16 Oct, 2018
  • Jonathan Bunt: LGPS pools could ‘add value’ by investing in housing assets Jonathan Bunt: LGPS pools could ‘add value’ by investing in housing assets 17 Oct, 2017
  • Jonathan Bunt: Necessity will create the solution for housing in 2018 Jonathan Bunt: Necessity will create the solution for housing in 2018 11 Jan, 2018

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Latest tweets

    Room151 15 hours ago

    What role will climate change have on the pricing of government bonds?: Sponsored article: Kerry Duffain finds that “vulnerability and resilience to climate change” have a significant impact on the cost of government borrowing. Ardea Investment… dlvr.it/RtNKv7 pic.twitter.com/wDjT31x4Yt

    Room151 1 day ago

    ESGenius: Slashing emissions will fuel green growth for decades: Sponsored article: Velislava Dimitrova argues that a big enough investment could mean transition to a low, or no, carbon economy can become a reality. The world needs to slash carbon[...] dlvr.it/RtKZJp pic.twitter.com/cd8S3ijERl

    Room151 1 day ago

    Prudential code: “Not perfect, but its heart is in the right place”: The new Prudential Code offers revised rules for borrowing. Nikki Bishop is sceptical it will work while Gary Fielding offers his support. Nikki Bishop I have been asked to give[...] dlvr.it/RtKZFh pic.twitter.com/OriN28lXcb

    Room151 2 days ago

    Tremendous report from @MarkSandford3 citing @room_151 no fewer than six times (despite what the @lgcplus fact checking/counting dept might tell you) #localgov commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief… 1/5

    Room151 1 week ago

    Dan Bates: Capitalisation directions are not the only tool for rebuilding finances: Dan Bates argues deep seated problems are contributing to a rush for capitalisation directions. For some time now we have been reading that a number of councils are in… dlvr.it/RspKff pic.twitter.com/xRRsgVim9u

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Is local government funding “broken”?: Andrew Hardingham looks at the underlying issues that caused more than a third of respondents in the Room151/CCLA treasury survey to say that the funding system for local govenrment is[...] dlvr.it/RsYhsg pic.twitter.com/plNp7Ayys6

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    GameStop: A lesson for LGPS in the risks of short selling: Day traders coordinating their efforts through the social media platform Reddit have not only boosted the stock of US GameStop, but also badly hurt hedge funds engaged in huge bets[...] dlvr.it/RsGdVV pic.twitter.com/NTMC3j6J2u

    Room151 2 weeks ago

    Room151 panel backs unitary councils and devolution: Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to local government, according to Sir Bob Kerslake, chair of the Peabody Trust, but “ …we need to move to unitary government and[...] dlvr.it/RsFPNv pic.twitter.com/lT4eCi0TmV

  • Categories

    • 151 News
    • Agent 151
    • Blogs
    • Chris Buss
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • Dan Bates
    • David Crum
    • David Green
    • Development
    • Forum
    • Funding
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O'Donnell
    • Interviews
    • Jackie Shute
    • James Bevan
    • Jobs
    • LGPSi
    • Mark Finnegan
    • Recent Posts
    • Resources
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Fitzgerald
    • Stephen Sheen
    • Steve Bishop
    • Technical
    • Treasury
    • Uncategorized
  • Archives

    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
    • 2011
  • Previous story News roundup: CCLA fund grows to £500m, Barnet LGPS fined, councils must pay for post-Grenfell works
  • Next story Dealing with the in-year budget challenge: a risk based approach

© Copyright 2021 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.