“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama If you were to go by the headlines that have dominated the news for the past decade, the state of public sector finances would seem consistently bleak. The news agenda can feel both endless and unchanging – ‘councils under pressure’, ‘NHS in crisis’, ‘cuts for local services’. It makes for pretty grim reading. In October, it seemed some welcome change was ...
Join CIPFA and the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny at the House of Commons on 13 September for our inaugural councillors’ conference. Council finances are at the top of everyone’s agenda at the moment. Our focus on them is not just about the need to avoid high profile failures as has happened in Northamptonshire – the financial challenge affects us all, in different ways. We have all been dealing with increased financial constraints since 2010 (and in some cases before) but in the next couple of years, the pace of change will accelerate. Councillors need to be aware of – ...
This week will see even more talk of the financial challenges facing councils, if that’s actually possible. Looking at CfGS activities for the week, we’re talking financial resilience at the LGC Summit, it’s the inaugural CIPFA CfGS Councillor Conference and at our national health scrutiny and assurance conference on Friday we expect finance talk to be high on the agenda. This week will also see the publication of our report for Northamptonshire County Council with recommendations to overhaul their scrutiny model to better support their transformation programme. The ominous position of local government finances is well-rehearsed and well known within ...
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