Local Authority Financial Review

Client: North East Lincolnshire Council - Children's Services
Value: £40k
Duration: 3 months

Project Overview
The task was to complete a financial review of the Children’s Service Directorate to identify and recommend actions for securing a minimum of £1.5 million in “cashable” savings to be realised in 2009/10. The analysis was to deliver these savings without any reduction in services being delivered to NE Lincolnshire users

CPC’s Role
CPC consultants worked independently from the council’s finance function on behalf of the Directorate’s head of service to:
• Interview all budget holders to gain
• Model the service’s existing and historical budgets to identify irregular trends in expenditure (timing, value, sequence etc)
• Benchmark departmental and functional spend against comparable local authorities.
• Evaluate efficiency of existing procurement methods and third party arrangements.
• Identify duplication of internal functions, processes, roles and responsibilities.

Client Benefits
• CPC consultants developed a detailed report identifying over £1.5m of cashable savings.
• The report detailed the actions which would be required to secure these savings over the pre-agreed timeframe.
• The report identified significant sources of new revenue in additional to the +£1.5m cost savings.
• The report proposed a redesigned budget reporting and monitoring system to identify and capture underspent budgets on a quarterly basis.
• The report recommended the overhaul of the existing “cost-code” structure to unauthorised spend and reduced the quantity of codes by 40% to improve the visibility of all spend.
• Identified significant savings to be achieved through the merging of four departments in terms of both personnel and physical space required.
• Proposed a strategy for regional local authority cooperation, to reduce the incidence of expensive out of borough residential placements for special needs children and young adults.

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