Despite a torrid first five years, Police Scotland is well positioned to balance its books and deliver improved policing to the public, according to chief finance officer James Gray.
Councils should make the effort to pay suppliers early, as this can generate income and make their area attractive to business, chief executive of Oxygen Finance Ben Jackson says.
Local authorities are struggling to repay loans as a result of a “pernicious” rule change by the Public Works Loan Board, a financial risk analysis website has said.
Councils are increasingly looking to ‘in-house’ services that previously been outsourced. Finance directors intending to do this need better information about contracts, say David Walker and John...
Are public sector finance leaders ‘digital ready’? That was the question considered at a recent CIPFA-Eduserv round table. Debate chair Jos Creese reports back.
The Treasury’s estimate of the cost of the UK’s ‘divorce’ from the European Union is reasonable but liable to prove too low, the National Audit Office has said.
A second round of councils began piloting so-called 100% rates retention this month. Neil Amin-Smith and David Phillips from the Institute for Fiscal Studies look at the financial implications of the...
It’s not sustainable to keep setting stretching financial targets for the NHS. What the health service needs is some honest dialogue about the current state of play, says Adam Wright of NHS Providers.
The need for Scottish councils to find savings is “increasingly critical” against a backdrop of reduced funding and rising demand for services, the Scotland’s public spending watchdog has said.
With austerity likely to continue, organisations need to be strong enough to build savings and stay ambitious. So they must prepare, not just patch up the piggy bank, says CIPFA’S Don Peebles.
With Sajid Javid paving the way for a small number of local authority restructures, the debate on council mergers has arisen once more. Solace’s Piali Das Gupta here gives a few...
The governance, accountability and financial management of academy trusts running schools in England “fall short”, the Public Accounts Committee has said.
A diverse group of public service experts attended a CIPFA round table discussion to consider how outsourcing can be made to work better. Vivienne Russell reports.
