- Request
-
As a concerned citizen, I am interested in gaining insight into the operational challenges faced by the council finance team in years:
2023/2024
2024/2025 (year to date) and expected to come up (if you are aware) from April 2025-March 2028.So would like to request a list of operational issues encountered and expected by the council's finance teams during these periods.
Specifically, I would appreciate information on the key operational challenges, obstacles, and concerns that have impacted the efficient functioning of the finance teams within the Council. This may include, but is not limited to, issues related to resource constraints, efficiency, data management, procurement, risk management, financial reporting, and stakeholder engagement.
If available, I would also be grateful for any documents, reports, or records that outline or discuss these operational issues in detail.
- Decision
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The risks and challenges for all services within the council are considered annually at the Audit committee in February. The link to the report presented to the committee on the 5 February 2024 is below, and challenges relating specifically to finance are included in the section for the Executive Director of Resources – Andrew Crookham.
Specific operation challenges which relate to 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 for finance include:
- Workforce – consistent with a national picture, Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) has a long-standing workforce and it is now seeing staff retire, taking a good deal of corporate knowledge and experience with them. Recruiting to these posts can be challenging, and it has introduced career roles, and training opportunities within the team to mitigate this.
- New Finance ERP system - LCC went live with a new ERP system in April 2024, and this has created additional work and challenges, as expected with the implementation of any new finance system.
- Insourcing of finance functions, previously outsourced. The outsourced contracts for finance exchequer functions, and Adult Social Care Assessments, came to a planned cessation on 31 March 2024 at the end of the contract. These functions and staff were insourced back into the council after being outsourced for over 20 years.
During this period LCC’s financial reporting and data management has remained accurate, and an up-to-date source of information for decision making. The team hasn’t suffered adverse impacts of resource constraints or reductions.
An independent review of the council’s compliance with the CIPFA Financial Management Code was undertaken during 2023/2024, and the findings from Grant Thornton were reported to the Audit Committee on 24 July 2023. Link below:-
- Reference number
- 9523814
- Date request received
- 1 May 2024
- Date of decision
- 31 May 2024