Ask the Experts on local government finance

If you have attended the LGIU's introductory training on local government finance or watched the LGIU's bite-size learning on local government finance and/or reviewing the big 3 financial reports LGIU is holding two follow-up drop-in sessions where we will discuss:

reviewing the big 3 finance reports that include:

The Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and Annual Budget
The latest budget monitoring report
The Statement of Accounts.

We will also discuss the tough political choices made when setting your Council's annual budget and how you, as a UNISON steward or rep, can influence the decision-making process. We will :

Appraise and evaluate how stewards can most effectively influence budget and spending decisions
The continued impacts of austerity, the pandemic and the cost of living crisis on Council budgets.
Look at the financial planning and control processes at a typical local council
Look at the policy-making and budget-setting cycle.

We will also have a short presentation on:

The LGIU's annual local government finance survey for England and Scotland
Compare how the UK controls and funds local government to other Western democracies
Discuss other possible solutions to the funding crisis.

This training session will also be an opportunity to find out more and to ask questions on all things on local government finance.

Trainers:

Ian Fifield, Ian is a CIPFA-qualified accountant with over 20 years of experience in designing and delivering financial management training for local authorities and other public service organisations.

Alan Waters, Alan as an ex-councillor and former Leader of Norwich City Council until May 2023 has extensive experience in dealing with the practical political issues that face elected members around budgets. Alan has delivered a wide range of training and development programmes for the LGIU. He is a Member Peer with the Local Government Group and has been a trainer for the National Councillor Mentoring Programme.

Greg Stride, Greg is a researcher at the Local Democracy Research Centre at the LGIU where he has led projects on local government finance and electoral administration. Before joining the LGIU, Greg completed a PhD at the University of Exeter on electoral administration in England, where he also taught social science research methods. Greg has an MRes in politics from Exeter and an MPhil in modern European history from Cambridge. Alongside his academic work, Greg has also worked in electoral services, written textbooks for A-level politics students and completed an internship at the Foreign Affairs Committee.

The online training will be hosted on Zoom.

Ask the Experts: Local Government Finance for UNISON