Measured resilience in English authorities

Summary

In July 2018, CIPFA developed a proposal to publish an index of resilience of English councils,
designed to support the local government sector as it faces continued financial challenge.

Format

PDF

Published

Dec

Author

CIPFA

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The consultation document outlined a proposed methodology, and illustrated how the results might be displayed in practice. The Beta Version of CIPFA’s Resilience Index, released to finance directors of English councils in December 2018, is a tool that enables authorities to view their positions, relative to others, on a range of measures linked to financial risk. This briefing note summarises key results from across the country, including a description of the measures chosen and their link to financial resilience.

The latest version of the Index follows a consultation which received over 180 responses. This tool is a test version and we will be running a series of development workshops with finance directors across the country in 2019 ahead of the release of a final version, when CIPFA also aims to publish a new Financial Management Code. Following official publication of local authority revenue and expenditure outturn data in November 2019, the Index will be made publicly available online. CIPFA believes that councils are best placed to make good judgements on their financial resilience through the provision of consistent indicators of resilience to be advised by their CFO in statutory statements that accompany the budget report. The boundaries used in this analysis should not be interpreted as a definitive judgement on a council’s financial position.