The WGA training series is designed to provide practical support to practitioners involved with the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) submission process for 2014-15.
In response to positive feedback from last year the training programme offered a choice of a full day ‘beginners’ session for those brand new to the WGA process, or a half-day update for those wanting to know what had changed for this year.
The events covered the key facts, figures and learning points from the latest published WGA and a summary of the key changes to this year’s Data Collection Tool (DCT), centred on a walk-through of the DCT by members of the HM Treasury WGA Team. Delegates were given the opportunity to ask questions of both Treasury and FAN and raise issues on an interactive basis during the events.
Key areas of change for this year included updated specific grant boxes, analysis of the various Business Rate transactions and the related Appeals Provision, more linked cells, visible validation checks and comments added to boxes to clarify what is required. Some additional cash-flow boxes have been included but there is no requirement to submit a full balanced Cash-flow Statement. Also changed for this year is a new Collection Fund sheet, an updated Highways Assets sheet, removal of the Academies form and some simplification of the investments analysis.
The half-day update events also included a feedback session, designed to identify how the DCT and the submission process might be improved to reduce the burden on practitioners and help speed up the production of WGA.
The slides from the series, along with a summary of the FAQs and key messages from the series, are available below.
All this year’s WGA guidance including an unlocked DCT pro-forma (for use as working papers or to review the data collection requirements for this year) as well as the DCT (when available) can be downloaded from the GOV.UK website.
Additional commentary on WGA can be found in the April 2015 edition of Network News.