Building financial resilience: managing financial stress in local authorities

Summary

Effective financial management in the public sector has always been built on planning for the long term, but organisations need the resilience to deliver savings while still providing services to their community. This report is based on CIPFA’s work with local authorities to develop resilience.

Format

PDF

Published

Jun

Author

CIPFA

FREE

Financial resilience describes the ability of local authorities to remain viable, stable and effective in the medium to long term in the face of pressures from growing demand, tightening funding and an increasingly complex and unpredictable financial environment. 

This CIPFA Insight looks at the four pillars of financial resilience – routine, benchmarking, having clear plans and reserves – and then considers the challenges facing those involved in an organisation’s financial management, good practice in making and managing plans and the routes to robust and effective reporting.