Staying at the forefront of counter fraud evolution

The Counter Fraud conference returns in February for its 12th iteration, bringing together fraud, finance and audit professionals from across the public sector. This awardwinning event fosters learning, discussion and collaboration across central and local government organisations to strengthen the UK’s resilience to fraud. This year we welcome the launch of the PSFA and the changes this will bring to the Fraud Profession, we look at upskilling across the sector to meet new challenges such as Cyber Fraud, and we discuss learnings from Covid-19 and how they can be applied to ensure the new cost of living support is protected.

“A relevant and rare opportunity for the fraud community to meet up and learn about the current issues and latest trends relating to fraud” - counter fraud officer, Home Office

The launch of PSFA

Summer 2022 saw the launch of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), eagerly awaited by the sector to help drive the fraud defence forward. As they continue to grow, fraud professionals are keen to understand this new layer of support and how they can use it within their organisations to strengthen fraud resilience. The event is produced by GovNet in close collaboration with the PSFA to ensure the content aligns with sector goals and that we’re providing attendees with the most up-to-date knowledge, resources and contacts to fight fraud effectively.

Mark Cheeseman, OBE, interim chief executive of PSFA returns to share his expertise as our keynote address, and chairman. His presentation will be one of the first given since the launch of PSFA and we’re excited for him to share the vision on modernising the fraud and error response. Another battle for fraud professionals, and a focus of the PSFA, is building capability; including career pathways and the new Counter Fraud Leaders Programme.

Laura Eshelby, deputy director, practice, standards and capability, PSFA, will cover the journey so far and the objectives for the counter fraud profession. Understanding what our international counterparts are achieving is becoming more and more important with evolving fraud types. Being able to work closely together to prevent fraud on a global level is a huge goal to work towards. Rob Malcomson, deputy director of policy, PSFA will share insight from working with the international teams. Alongside this we also have presentations covering Development of the National Counter Fraud Data Analytics Service and a workshop with the Digital Economy Act team, detailing how easy it can be for central government departments and local authorities to share data and collaborate on fraud cases, with the right knowledge of the system.

Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis

Unfortunately, we’re all too aware that we’ve been living through a series of unprecedented times, putting strain on the entire country. The UK government has continued to step in and support, but with this support it has opened the public purse to an increased level and a new diversity of fraud. We’re still looking to understand the impact of Covid-19 support loans, the fraud encountered as a result of the pandemic and associated levels of debt that arose; but the UK has continued to learn and increase our fraud defence which can now be applied during the cost-of-living crisis that we’re facing. It is with this accumulative and collaborative learning that we’ll continue to adapt and improve our defences, ready for any future crises that may arise.

We’ve invited experts across the public sector to join us for insightful discussion on what we can and are doing in this space. Hear from; Laura Higgins, deputy director counter fraud, BEIS, Rob Malcomson, deputy director of policy, PSFA, Rob Jones CBE, director general, National Economic Crime Centre, National Crime Agency and Simon York CBE, director, HMRC on how to ensure resilience within our fraud defence, and how both central and local government can best protect themselves from fraud and economic crime.

Prevention

Do we really know the extent of the threats and the costs associated with fraud in the UK? We’ve invited Joshua Reddaway, director of counter fraud and corruption, National Audit Office to give an update on the scale of fraud against the taxpayer, as well as practical advice about the changes that are needed by government departments to build their counter fraud capability, to modernise their approach and to adopt best practice.

It’s estimated the public sector loses £33bn a year to fraud and error. More and more we hear of a shift in focus to fraud prevention, to help us better protect the public purse. Creating a more proactive approach to fraud and risk will ensure that we lose less money; however it can be difficult to understand the true value of being proactive as we can’t accurately quantify how much money is NOT lost throughout the year. For this reason, we have invited Chris Keesing, counter fraud & investigations manager, City of London Corporation & Chair, London Borough Fraud Investigators Group, Lauren Ashdown FCCA, ACFS, audit manager, Internal Audit & Corporate Fraud Services, Ipswich Borough Council, Marc McAuley, senior counter fraud consultant, CIPFA and Mark Astley, head of NAFN Data and Intelligence Services, National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) to share their experiences of fraud prevention and their success stories in reducing or stopping high levels of fraud.

What are some key threats?

‘Fraud’ and ‘Cyber Security’ seem to be used hand-in-hand recently and Cyber Fraud is on the rise. We’re all keen to understand the associated risks of Cyber Fraud and how we can protect ourselves and our organisations against the number of threats and attacks the public sector receives. Luckily, the number of positive stories within the industry is fantastic and we’ll be sharing take-home tips on how to determine ‘real’ vs ‘fake’ cybercrimes, plus advice on encouraging IT teams to work closely with Fraud, Audit and Risk to understand the mitigations in place. Fraud doesn’t only come from outside threats either. How well are we protected from hiring fraudsters? It’s sometimes difficult to determine who may be trying to de-fraud your business, and a scary statistic is that fraud often comes from individuals within the organisation. Claire Maillet, head of financial crime operations, Ziglu shows us what steps can be taken to prevent insider fraud, especially in the modern world of remote working, which opened us up to more attacks of this sort than ever before.

Celebrating the successes

Given the scale of fraud and economic crime within the public sector, and the amazing work done across the industry, it’s well worth celebrating the success stories. We’ve chosen to highlight a case study on adult care fraud on the Counter Fraud 2023 conference agenda, with Nick Jennings, head of service, Shared Anti-Fraud Service, Hertfordshire County Council outlining how the case was investigated, and how they achieved prosecution in court. He’ll also be sharing lessons learnt, so that others can better protect their organisations in the future. As the curtains close on the conference for 2023, we’ll be putting success in the spotlight. The 3rd annual Public Sector Counter Fraud Awards reward the spirit of innovation, dedication and great teamwork that we’ve seen these past 12 months. We received a staggering number of entries this year and it’s both humbling and inspiring to see what the sector has achieved. Run in collaboration with the PSFA, winners in each of the eight categories will be announced at the Gala evening, hosted by Lyn McDonald OBE, director, Cabinet Office. Taking to the stage this year will be worthy winners from: Public-Private Partnership Excellence; Risk Prevention Initiative; Local Excellence; Apprentice or Newcomer of the Year; Diversity and Inclusion; GCFP Member of the Year; Team of the Year; Fraud Leadership. It will be an unrivalled day of collaboration, knowledge-sharing, celebration and partnership for the counter-fraud sector and we cordially invite Government Business readers to join us.

Join us on 22nd February at the QEII Centre, London for the Counter Fraud Conference

2023. Previous events have enjoyed great success, going on to win the Best Development of an Existing Conference award at the Conference & Events Awards 2022. You’ll be networking with 350+ attendees from senior roles, including thought leaders, decision makers and innovators across central and local government and the wider public sector. “A thoroughly well organised and important event for all counter fraud specialists” - Alex

Rothwell, CEO, NHSCFA

The event is followed by an evening of celebrating achievements at the Public Sector Counter Fraud Awards. These prestigious awards align with the new PSFA pillars and highlight some of the fantastic work done by our colleagues and peers in tackling fraud.

The day’s agenda is jam-packed with keynote sessions, interactive panels, thought-leadership seminars, and practical case studies. Our interactive session formats enable you to network with like-minded colleagues, share resources and collaborate to create sustainable fraud prevention and detection plans. Tickets are available now. Government Business readers from the public sector get an exclusive 30% discount, using code: FRAUDPSI30. Register your place today: https://hubs.la/Q01x26_p0 View the full agenda: https://hubs.la/Q01tXRDp0 L