We have developed tailored solutions for local authorities, that support finance teams through financial statement production, audit preparation and to build back assurance. We work closely with you to understand your challenges and add value through our sector expertise. 

Delays in financial statements and audit completion are widespread. Restoring confidence is now a key priority. Over 50% of councils had a disclaimed position at the first backstop deadline of December 2024. MHCLG aim to restore full assurance by November 2027.  

Finance teams remain under strain from a combination of factors, including backstop impacts, tighter audit scrutiny and other competing priorities.

These pressures have reduced capacity, driven up audit fees linked to readiness and data quality, and eroded confidence in local government finances due to disclaimed opinions.

We understand these challenges and will work with you to design tailored, sustainable solutions for your finance team 

Accounting preparation

We can prepare your financial statements efficiently and enhance your processes and the quality of your financial reporting. 

 

Achieving audit readiness

We use our extensive experience as largest provider of public sector audit to streamline your audit response process, boost efficiency, ease pressure on finance teams, and help prevent audit overruns.

Building back assurance 

Help recover from disclaimed audits and rebuild assurance in line with Local Audit Reset and Recovery Implementation Guidance (LARRIG).  

Our approach is tailored to meet your needs. We work closely with you, your finance team and key stakeholders to deliver sustainable solutions. We have set out below our approach at a high level.  

We work closely with your finance team to understand the challenges they face when preparing your financial statements. We tailor our approach to meet your needs across a range of areas, such as:  

  • Technical accounting advice – where you have specific areas of challenge, we offer technical accounting advice to aide your finance team. We transfer the knowledge gained back to your finance team to support their development.
  • Financial statement preparation – where you have sections of the financial statements that require additional resource to complete, we can support you to prepare these.
  • Improving your financial statement accounts model – if your financial statement accounts model is not facilitating the efficient production of your financial statements, we can implement a new financial statement accounts model designed to improve efficiency and quality of your financial statements.
  • Generating efficiencies in your processes – we work with you to identify areas of inefficiency and support you to transform your processes to dive efficiency and quality. 

The benefits of this service are:

  • A more efficient financial statements preparation process
  • High quality financial statements
  • A sustainable long-term solution for your finance team 

We have developed a four-strand approach which can be tailored to meet your needs:  

  • Audit confidence – supporting your finance team to be ready for audit through insightful training and supporting the implementation of external audit recommendations.
  • Evidence excellence – developing your audit processes to produce greater quality working papers and audit evidence to streamline the audit process and reduce audit queries.
  • Accounts clarity – performing technical reviews of your financial statements prior to audit to deliver high quality financial statements.
  • Audit flow support – supporting your finance team through the audit process to allow your team the time to focus on their core responsibilities and improve the efficiency of the audit.

The benefits of this service are: 

  • Frees up finance teams to focus on core responsibilities
  • Enables a more efficient and timely audit process to meet November 30th deadlines,  
  • Reduces the risk of external audit fee overruns 

We acknowledge that your circumstances will be unique. We work closely with you and your auditor to understand the key risks which need to be addressed to build back assurance. This includes: 

  • Diagnostics and health check risk assessment – we support you to determine where the risk areas are and design and perform substantive tests to cover these risk areas.
  • Critical review of your reserve position – understanding the movements in your reserves and your reserve position are critical to building back assurance.
  • Review of your opening balances – we will review opening balances for risk areas to consider whether errors exist. This will provide you with insight on underlying issues in financial 

The benefits of this service are: 

  • Improves credibility of financial reports
  • Supports your authority to get back on track
  • Supports your LGR readiness 
Richard Thomas
Get in touch

Richard Thomas

Director, Head of Public Sector Financial Reporting and Accounting Support Services

Contact Richard Thomas Learn more about Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas
Contact Richard Thomas Learn more about Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas
Director, Head of Public Sector Financial Reporting and Accounting Support Services
Richard Thomas
+44 (0)7385 117425

Why Grant Thornton

We have a detailed understanding of the local government landscape. We’re the largest provider of audit services in local government and currently support over 170 authorities nationwide in tackling real challenges. Beyond our audit service, we have dedicated Advisory, Financial Reporting and Accounting teams providing support to Councils nationally. 
 
Our practical, tailored support includes financial reporting, accounting advice and advisory roles. Services are tailored these to fit your needs with a focus on achieving the outcomes you want. 

And we don’t just fix today’s problems. We build sustainable solutions and share knowledge with your team, so you boost capability and improve efficiency for the long term. 

Grant Thornton provided invaluable support during a critical period of transition in our financial reporting… In addition, their assistance with the preparation of our group financial statements and cash flow statement helped us overcome internal capacity challenges. Through regular engagement and knowledge sharing, Grant Thornton not only delivered high-quality outputs but also strengthened our internal capability for future reporting cycles.
Robert Mayes Head of Finance and Deputy S151, Norwich City Council
The approach Grant Thornton took to supporting the Council was highly collaborative and supportive, from start to finish. Time was invested time up front, to help the Council to initially scope and agree our overall requirement, while giving us the flexibility to refine it subsequently, to ensure we prioritised Grant Thornton’s input to the areas that would have the biggest impact or benefit. And the Grant Thornton team genuinely did feel like an extension of the Council’s own finance team during the delivery phase of our IFRS 16 implementation journey, with two-way discussion, information sharing and constructive challenge throughout, on all aspects of the implementation.
Christine Golding Chief Accountant - Essex County Council
Local audit reset: What comes after the backstop?

Local audit reset: What comes after the backstop?

Norwich City Council: IFRS 16 & account preparation

Norwich City Council: IFRS 16 & account preparation

Essex County Council: Setting the standard on IFRS 16

Essex County Council: Setting the standard on IFRS 16