The essential new training resource for councillors – featuring experienced councillors explaining finance in simple terms for fellow councillors.

The past 12 months have been especially challenging for local government finance and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Now more than ever councillors, both experienced and newly elected, need to be fully briefed and up to speed on all the issues facing local government finance and to enable authorities to act efficiently and effectively in this testing financial climate.

This new DVD from CIPFA will help councillors to continue to rise to the challenge of the times and to keep our local authorities on track to deliver financial security.

It will be particularly useful for new councillors, and also for experienced councillors that want to learn more about finance. Additionally it will be of interest to anyone that would like to understand better the current issues and the basics of local government finance. Local authorities will find it particularly useful as a means of briefing new councillors and providing ongoing access to a powerful training resource on local government finance.

This is a very flexible training tool that could save the average local authority thousands of pounds and many hours of effort in training and supporting their councillors.

The DVD can be used individually, for group training or can be made available for networking via a corporate intranet. It provides an introduction to local government financial management for councillors and comprises of four main elements:

• the introduction that sets the scene and introduces the main elements of local government finance

• current issues which groups current developments under three main themes:
• responding to the economic downturn
• changes to services
• changing structures

• the basics of local government finance which distils the important elements of finance into five simple segments:
• revenue expenditure
• capital expenditure
• scrutiny, audit, stewardship and governance
• partnership working
• efficiency

Plus, legal issues – summarising councillors’ legal responsibilities and liabilities, as an addition to these five finance segments

• three copies of the supporting hard copy documentation which provides an easy and ongoing reminder supplement covering both current issues and the key elements of local government finance. This will also be available as a pdf on the DVD so that you can download and print the file if extra copies are needed.

This training DVD, together with the book, and CD-ROM will be all you need to keep up to date with the changing face of local government finance.

The price includes a free licence giving purchasing local authorities copyright waiver so the information contained on the DVD can be shared with all bona fide employees and elected members. Details of licencing arrangements for other purchasers, including those local authorities operating shared service arrangements, are available from CIPFA's Publications Department.

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