It is the time of year again, when we start to look towards this year's ‘use of resources' assessment, and compiling and gathering evidence about how we allocate for, manage and monitor the council's activities. I recently attended a useful Society of London Treasurers ‘Compass' benchmarking event, sponsored by London Councils, where colleagues across London met to share good practice. There were some excellent and insightful presentations from Wandsworth, Lewisham and Lambeth LBCs. Last year, we carried out a further peer challenge with colleagues from Croydon. I cannot overstate the benefits of having a fresh pair of eyes to look at one's own performance. Part of Lambeth's recent journey has been rapid improvement and clarity in telling that story. And gauging which are the key pieces of evidence is also a real knack. It reminds me in fact of ‘1.2, external accountability', which sits within the financial reporting element of the inspection, and the subject of the benchmarking event we hosted. Last year, we moved up to four out of four for external accountability. I think this is due to us developing our understanding of making ourselves accountable, through consultation with residents, discussions with members and colleagues, and benchmarking. It all comes back to telling our story in a way that our audience can understand. Within Lambeth, this means making sure our diverse residents are provided with the information about local government finance, how resource allocation is linked to service delivery, and how well we perform against our targets and priorities. Research tells us that this is a real priority for our stakeholders. It means that us evidencing the way we use our resources is a key part of our core business, as well as an inspection regime. Mike Suarez is director of finance at Lambeth LBC
