Topic: Finance
The material in this section relates to councillors’ duties around the scrutiny of finances – the way that a council’s budget is delivered “in year”, and the way that budgets for future years are designed.
There is crossover between this material and other material that we have published under the “assurance” heading.
Financial scrutiny
New municipal year, new financial year – same pressures. We move into quarter 2 of 2021/22 still struggling to shake off the pandemic, and still facing unprecedented uncertainty about fundamental aspects of the way we do business. In our recent annual survey – full findings of which will published in the coming days – 78% […]
Audit committees and scrutiny committees: working together
A guide for councillors on audit committees and scrutiny committees on how member-level activity on audit, and councils’ scrutiny functions, can work more closely.
Financial scrutiny practice guide
Published in partnership with CIPFA. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on council finances, uncertainty regarding the delayed fair funding review and future operations for social care – on top of a decade of progressively more significant financial constraints – has placed local government in a hugely challenging position. For the foreseeable future, council budgeting […]
Commercialisation and scrutiny – a practical guide for councillors
Our commercialisation and scrutiny guide is a practical tool for councillors who are involved in scrutiny and wish to find out more about scrutiny can become involved or more involved in the increasing commercialisation of council services.
Guest blog by Rob Whiteman, CIPFA CEO: The Future of Financial Resilience in the Public Sector
“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 […]
Northamptonshire provides some sobering lessons on budget scrutiny
One of the immediate consequences of central Government intervention in councils – the kind of intervention that is expected imminently in Northamptonshire – is that commentators and journalists begin to crawl over the council, dissecting what went wrong and offering their own insights. These sorts of “noises off” are often precisely what the council involved […]
What is the best way for local authorities to use public money?
In fact, what is the best way for local authorities to understand what “the best way” even is? One method that CfGS have been interested in for a long time is Social Return on Investment, as advocated by Social Value UK. We believe both scrutiny and decision makers can use a SROI framework to judge the […]