Emerging From a Turbulent 2021 – and Into a Brighter 2022

As public sector finance teams move on from the trials of the past year, their continued willingness to modernise will ensure more optimistic times lie ahead, says Richard Gwyther, Regional Sales Director, UK&I, Public Sector, at SAP Concur.

For public finance teams across central and local government, the past 12 months have been every bit as turbulent the previous 12 – resulting in a two-year spell that has seen them placed under huge pressures as they seek to deliver uninterrupted public services amidst a host of disruptive forces.

• The Covid-19 pandemic is, of course, the disruptive force that seemingly just won’t go away. As we moved out of the vastly tumultuous 2020 and into the optimism of 2021, the focus for many was on the removal of pandemic restrictions and a return to some kind of normality. However, while many restrictions were lifted, the crisis continued to drag on – with new variants and volatile infection rates ensuring a cloud continued to hover above the public sector. For another full year, local and central government departments have had to redirect vast amounts of resources towards Covid-19-related measures – while simultaneously striving to deliver uninterrupted frontline services.
• Brexit also dragged on in 2021. While for many, the end of the transition period signalled the completion of the UK’s exit from the EU, for public sector bodies, much of the work was just beginning. The fall-out of the deal with the EU was another huge drain on resources and energy – as all manner of departments got to grips with new processes and new guidance for tens of millions of people, from importers to exporters and those living and working overseas. And it wasn’t just those groups for whom government departments had to revise their guidance – Brexit also continued to deliver challenges for the health sector; for expats; for border control; while also delivering knock-on impacts on supply chains and food supplies.
• The past 12 months also saw a renewed and heightened focus on green and sustainability issues, in the lead up to COP26, which took place in November. The drive to net zero and other green commitments is yet another issue that government departments had to juggle alongside everyday activities, with little in the way of added financial or resource support to soften the challenge. We have witnessed much of this activity first-hand, including through our ground-breaking work to help one body measure – and reduce – its use of non-fleet cars and other vehicles, resulting in a reduction of its Scope 3 emissions. That project, which uses easily accessible data from within government departments, combines it with data held centrally at DVLA, and runs it through a specially designed data formula to produce an accurate picture, is one innovative way government departments are responding. But we know they face further net-zero challenges down the road.
• Many of these issues mean the need to digitalise and modernise has also become all the more urgent and pending over the past 12 months. Government departments are under great pressure to modernise their antiquated systems and processes, to drive cost savings and efficiencies – another challenge that needs to be handled alongside day-to-day delivery, and without creating disruption to services.
• Meanwhile, all these pressures sit alongside other ongoing challenges that departments, local and central, have long faced and that do not look likely to change soon – ongoing budget pressures; greater control over spending at central and local government level; and, in many cases, a real-terms reduction in spending capacity.

It’s clear that 2021 has been just as turbulent and difficult as the previous year. However, government departments have always shown, and continue to show, great resolve – and there is a clear desire among them to seek out new and innovative ways to meet these challenges and to emerge firm 2021 more fit for purpose.

Over the past 24 months, for example, we at SAP Concur have engaged with more government departments than ever before – and have seen many of them embarking on or accelerating their journeys to greater efficiency, greater optimisation of spend and a greater focus on making every penny count.

Departments across the UK – in central and local government – are now focused on implementing technology and systems to help them drive forward, saving money through tech, improving employees’ experiences through tech, spending more efficiently through tech, measuring spend and analysing value through tech, and delivering better services through tech.

This is the reason there remains great optimism for success in public sector finance teams moving into 2022 – despite the turbulent 24 months we have just witnessed – and we look forward to supporting those teams further on their journeys.