In May the new government outlined how it will reduce spending by £6.2 billion to reduce the deficit. For Local Government this means findings savings of £1.165 billion during the period 2010-11, with further savings to be made after the Comprehensive Spending Review, which will be announced on 20 October. The scale of the savings that councils will have to find means that culture and sport can no longer be delivered in the same way.

This conference is being supported by the Cultural Improvement Partnership East Midlands and the West Midlands Sport and Culture Improvement Network. It comes a month after the Comprehensive Spending Review and brings together senior local authority officers and Elected Members from culture and sport across the East and West Midlands to share knowledge and learning about innovation and efficiency. It will provide delegates with an authoritative view of the challenge that lies ahead for local authorities in delivering better for less and not just less for less in the new economic landscape. The range of topics will be of interests to all tiers of local government in the Midlands.

There will be both national and regional speakers including Martyn Allison, National Adviser for Culture and Sport and Roy Clare, Chief Executive of MLA with contributions from Conference Chair, local authority Chief Executive Ian Fytche, and EMIEP Member Champion for Culture, Councillor Nick Worth, plus leading colleagues across local government culture and sport.

The conference will explore the challenges of:

• Dynamic efficiency finding and decommissioning of services
• Protecting the frontline while finding 25-40% budget cuts
• Shared service savings from integration
• Creating new delivery partnerships
• Decentralisation, localism and leaner government
• Meeting customers' changing expectations
• Transferring assets to local communities