Make better decisions by contextualising your performance with our online financial analysis tool

Councils are having to make change

Not only to save costs, but to provide high-quality services that meet the demands of the public.

CFO Insights provides a three-dimensional view of your income and spend by category; the outcomes of that spend, and the socio-economic context you’re operating in.

You can compare your performance against every other council in England, Scotland, and Wales, and see how it relates to your geographical and statistical neighbours.

The tool provides immediate:

  • identification of the authorities with the best service outcomes
  • sight of socio-economically similar authorities and their spend on services
  • clear visualisation through mapping, bar charts, spider profiles and league tables
  • segmentation by different authority types, region, core cities and key cities
  • aggregation of different authorities’ spend
  • reduction in the time to identify sources of information.
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Contextualise spend

Understand spend levels in the context of place and socio-economic dynamics to pinpoint areas for improvement

Identify best practices

See spend in context of outcomes, and in comparison to genuine statistical nearest neighbours; so you can locate peers with superior performance

Highlight outliers

Establish lines of financial enquiry to promote efficiency by generating clear evidence you can communicate effectively

“Analysis produced from CFO insights is valued across the council. The main benefit of CFO insights for me is the ability to focus upon outcomes as well as costs.”

Guy Lonsdale, Deputy S151 Officer, North East Lincolnshire Council

Get in contact with our experts

Claire-Hampson-image
Claire Hampson
Associate Director
London
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Chris Ilsley
Chris Ilsley
Assistant Manager
London
View full profile
    Green park
    Case study

    Empowering Vale of Glamorgan through rapid data insight

    Find out more
    The challenge:
    Vale of Glamorgan faces budget pressure, prompting the need for evidence-based savings and transformation strategies. They seek to understand best practices from other Welsh authorities for change initiatives.
    The solution:
    We provided benchmarking analysis for two council budget cycles, aligning insights to socio-economic context and key challenges.
    The result:
    The council has used the benchmarking analysis to shape its transformation programme, and to identify opportunities for both change and savings generation over the short and long term.
    Town river image
    Case study

    Outcomes based framework for budget setting

    Find out more
    The challenge:
    North East Lincolnshire Council needed to overcome hurdles to align with their new budget approach, prompting the need for evidence-based decision making to influence members to take informed key decisions.
    The solution:
    We provided CFO insights to the council which helped push considerations towards relative performance against multiple financial and outcome measures whilst still highlighting key characteristics.
    The result:
    The CFO insights used has offered the council the ability to focus upon outcomes as well as costs which have influenced internal communications positively.
    town centre image
    Case study

    Helping Wirral Council with their service reviews

    Find out more
    The challenge:
    Wirral Intelligence Services (WIS) looked to improve their understanding of the differentials in outcome measures of the council compared to other local authorities.
    The solution:
    Achieving multiple outcomes, through in-depth reviews of different internal and external services, our insights were used to understand constraints in decision and approval times, further understanding how to overcome barriers.
    The result:
    Valuable information was generated from the required evidence gathered from our CFO insights. Helping raise the profile of work being undertaken within planning.
    sea side town
    Case study

    Helping Blackpool Council build a new analysis framework

    Find out more
    The challenge:
    Blackpool Council needed a more robust performance management and strategic plan for services. Influencing the establishment of a suitable framework based around measurable dimensions to change culture.
    The solution:
    We provided analysis into the ‘cost’ aspect of their framework, further aligning this information with reported outcomes.
    The result:
    The council has been provided with data lenses whilst also adding measurable depth to analysis with a clear basis for stage 1 of their journey.
    town image
    Case study

    Helping Poole Borough Council understand their performance

    Find out more
    The challenge:
    Poole Borough Council were facing a reduction in core government funding. This results in the need to align spending with appropriate outcomes and data sources.
    The solution:
    We provided a bridge between the council’s financial and performance teams by providing relevant information. Further allowing the council more time to identify and analysis the trends they saw.
    The result:
    Services managers within the council have used the data generated to help run external comparisons with ease-influencing evidence-based decision making.

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