• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • LATIF
  • Conferences
  • Dashboard
  • Edit My Profile
  • Log In
  • Logout
  • Register
  • Edit this post

Room 151

  • 151 BRIEF

    What's New?

  • Soaring inflation and pay pressures to add £3.6bn to council budgets

    June 28, 2022

  • Underfunded social care reforms could ‘exacerbate workforce pressures’

    June 27, 2022

  • Nottingham City Council leader labels proposed intervention as “disappointing”

    June 27, 2022

  • Government preparing to intervene in Nottingham City Council

    June 23, 2022

  • Low earners at Surrey County Council receive 7.85% pay increase

    June 23, 2022

  • UK Infrastructure Bank launches plan to deploy £22bn of investment

    June 23, 2022

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews
  • Briefs

Review highlights ongoing financial management issues at Northamptonshire

0
  • by Colin Marrs
  • in 151 News · Technical
  • — 5 Dec, 2019

Northamptonshire County Council’s new section 151 officer should draw up plans to repatriate powers from government commissioners amid ongoing problems with financial management, according to an independent review.

In September, Barry Scarr became the fourth finance director at the council in four years, a period which saw the council issue two section 114 notices and have government commissioners imposed on it.

SAVE THE DATE – LATIF NORTH
March 25th, 2020, Manchester
Council treasury investment & borrowing

An independent review commissioned by the council last week said that the council is improving in a number of areas but problems still remain.

It said: “At all management levels there are different messages, attitudes and language evident when discussing financial management and budget pressures.

“There is a lack of collective ownership of the budget pressures, with some areas expressing resentment at having to ‘bail out’ areas of the council where budget and financial management is less developed, and others where there is a sense of inevitability of being unable to manage demand or costs.”

The report also said that some service managers “lack the financial acumen to manage budgets effectively, and are struggling to understand the information available to them”.

In some areas, service managers don’t see budget management as their responsibility, but think that the budget should be managed by finance, it continued.

“There is a tendency to see their ability to impact on the budget as limited, and a failure to connect decisions on expenditure with budget management,” the report added.

Later in the document, the independent reviewers said that “at all levels in the organisation there are people who still do not see it as their responsibility to find solutions to the problems, or who feel that overspends are inevitable and cannot be managed.”

Within the finance function itself, leadership below the section 151 is “weaker than desirable”, the report said.

The report said that the overall size of resources within the finance team “appears to be sufficient” but that reconfiguration is needed to drive improvements.

“There are high numbers of qualified finance staff and some of these should be spending more of their time on the more complex and strategic areas of work, where at present they often seem to be focused at an operational level and supporting work that should be undertaken by budget managers themselves, who could be supported by accounting technicians,” the report said.

It listed a number of recommended actions to be taken by Scarr in his new role, including:

  • Setting out and communicating the current financial position, his role and the role of the finance team, along with expectations of budget managers;
  • Improve training on financial management and control;
  • Build effective relationships with new external auditors;
  • Prepare a plan for the repatriation of work areas and improvements currently being driven by commissioners;
  • Review skills, configuration and capacity in the finance function.

The Room151 Weekly Newsletter covers local government treasury and pension investment, funding, development, resources and technical finance. Register here. 

The LGPS Quarterly Briefing focuses purely on pension fund investment. Register here.

Share

You may also like...

  • Audit improves but problems and uncertainties remain 4th Nov, 2021
  • Room151 launches survey on IFRS 9 override and MRP impact 9th May, 2022
  • PLSA: LGPS should examine ‘benefits of greater centralisation’ 14th Jun, 2022
  • Conrad Hall: ‘more sophisticated’ regulation needed for local government 24th Jun, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • 151 BRIEFS – WHAT’s NEW?

    • Underfunded social care reforms could ‘exacerbate workforce pressures’
    • Nottingham City Council leader labels proposed intervention as “disappointing”
    • Government preparing to intervene in Nottingham City Council
    • Low earners at Surrey County Council receive 7.85% pay increase
    • UK Infrastructure Bank launches plan to deploy £22bn of investment
  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    Valuations & Risk
    LGPS Women

  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    LGPS Women
    Valuations & Risk
  • Latest tweets

    Room151 4 days ago

    Conrad Hall: ‘more sophisticated’ regulation needed for local government: The chair of the CIPFA/LASAAC Code Board has questioned the sophistication of financial regulation in local government and the continuing focus of the Department for Levelling Up,… dlvr.it/SSnPBV pic.twitter.com/G5d7JCWF8c

    Room151 6 days ago

    Slough Council approves plans to restructure finance department: Slough Borough Council has approved plans to restructure its finance department to enhance capacity and capability and to address a “significant weakness” in the function. The local… dlvr.it/SSf8DG pic.twitter.com/l5lmyHmkBg

    Room151 1 week ago

    Job Alert: Various Finance Roles: lnkd.in/eRKRvhJb pic.twitter.com/KkBrjXxAYD

    Room151 1 week ago

    MRP on capital loans: a step in the right direction: David Green says the latest government proposals on Minimum Revenue Provision should be welcomed by local authorities. There are still some unintended consequences, but the suggested approach for… dlvr.it/SSZ7JK pic.twitter.com/M1W9qVgYWN

    Room151 1 week ago

    MRP U-turn welcomed but ‘unintended consequences remain’: Local authority finance directors and treasury advisers have welcomed the government’s revised Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) proposals, while pointing out that some unintended consequences still… dlvr.it/SSWvY0 pic.twitter.com/sGglpVNFs3

    Room151 1 week ago

    Mike O’Donnell: ‘progress on LGPS asset pooling needs to go further and faster’: The CEO at the London CIV pension pool has called for progress on pooling the assets of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) to accelerate. Mike O’Donnell told… dlvr.it/SSWvWV pic.twitter.com/rE1NjbMCCq

    Room151 1 week ago

    Mike O’Donnell: ‘progress on LGPS asset pooling needs to go further and faster’:The CEO at the London CIV pension pool has called for progress on pooling the assets of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) to accelerate. @London_CIV room151.co.uk/local-governme…

    Room151 1 week ago

    JOB ALERT: Watford Borough Council & Three Rivers District Council, various roles:       Technical Accountant Career Grade: We are looking for a motivated team player to join our Finance Department. The post holder will gain experience across these… dlvr.it/SSWN8f

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Previous story Doug McMurdo: LGPS, the Stewardship Code, good governance and protecting capital
  • Next story Council files £130m claim against PFI contractor for post-Grenfell estate costs

© Copyright 2022 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.

0 shares