Act now to make sure your local authority has the financial skills it needs to succeed, is the message from Steve Freer, chair of the Treasury's financial skills advisory panel. Mr Freer, who is also chief executive of the Charted Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), has stressed: ‘Good financial management is like fresh air, exercise and a healthy diet. Organisations need it ever day to stay fit and to live a full and active life.' The panel has published a report entitled Doing the business – embedding financial management skills in government which sets out a 10-step guide to success in developing a more confident and assured organisation. It calls for managers to work closely with senior politicians and finance staff, and says they should be ‘passionate about value for money and continuous improvement'. The guide also highlights a series of pointers to good practice, emphasising the importance of training and sharing advice and skills with financial professionals working in different organisations. ‘We should not make the mistake of regarding good financial management as the province of technocrats. We should see it as the toolkit of leaders and managers who want to improve their organisations,' said Mr Freer.
