Helping public sector managers get value for money from their budgets
A blog about public financial management: the fine art of managing public money to deliver vital services to the public. It involves budgeting, accounting, controlling, auditing, reporting, policy-making and decision-taking.
Last year I authored a MOOC (massive open online course) about managing public money for the Open University. It was an interesting and enjoyable project to work on, and I learned an awful lot the production of online courses. Here are five of the lessons I learned.
Read MoreFor the last six months I’ve been writing a book about managing public money. The title won’t be confirmed until the manuscript is accepted by the publishers but for now it is International Public Financial Management: the Essentials. I’m writing it for [CIPFA], based on their international public financial management qualifications.
Read MoreMore or Less is a BBC radio programme (on Radio 4 and the BBC World Service) that "tries to make sense of the statistics around us." I subscribe to its podcast feed (subscribing to BBC radio programmes means you don't miss them wherever you are and whatever you're doing). This week there was a short edition of the show focusing on the drive by China to eradicate completely (rural) poverty in the whole country by 2020.
Read MoreA few years ago I was asked to give a presentation to some councillors to help them in their work of scrutinising their council's budget proposals. What I came up with were five questions that the councillors could ask ...
Read MoreI've written previously about creating a MOOC (massive open online course) about managing public money for the Open University. That's not my only experience of creating online training. In 2016 I put together a 5-module course about commissioning and procurement for a council to use on its internal training system.
I enjoyed the creative aspect of both of those. They both include text so it is a bit like writing a book; but the technology allows you to do more. It's possible to incorporate audio and video clips, have downloadable documents and discussion forums.
One of my plans for 2018 is to create my own online training courses. I have lots of ideas ...
Read MoreBack in 2012 I attended a national conference entitled Strategic Partnering in Policing. It was an interesting day where 35 of England's 43 police forces were represented and there were presentations from four different police forces, mainly from Lincolnshire Police, who had recently commenced a 10-year partnership with G4S. One of the speakers was Lincolnshire's then Chief Constable, Neil Rhodes, who had been the Deputy Chief Constable throughout the procurement process and was, therefore, very closely involved in the procurement. In his presentation he explained the twelve golden rules that he would have liked someone to share with him when Lincolnshire began the procurement process.
I wrote about these principles at the time. I share them again now because of the attention on public sector outsourcing caused by the collapse of Carillion.
Read More© Gary Bandy 2024
