Local authority treasury courses

The true starting point. What treasury management is, the three jobs it does, where it sits in the council, the golden rule (security, liquidity, yield), who runs it and the annual cycle, and how it connects to your budget and the wider economy. Plain English — start here if you're new.

The wider context: what councils are for, the must-do vs choose-to-do split, how local government is structured (unitary, two-tier, combined authorities), where it sits in the public sector and its relationship with central government, how it's funded, and how it's held to account. Plain English orientation for anyone new to the sector.

Spend a day in the chair. The morning cash-and-rates scan, the dealing routine and the controls around it, the rhythm of the treasury year, the people a treasurer works with, and the craft and career. Warm, plain-English, low-jargon — the human side of the job and a great place to start.

What SONIA is, how it replaced LIBOR, and the OIS swap curve. Six modules — from the overnight rate and the LIBOR transition, through compounding in arrears, to reading the OIS/forward curve and the fix-vs-float decision — with a live SONIA OIS curve and a link into the full live dashboard (AS-OF strip, KPIs, implied-MPC path, forward-rate matrix and Fix-vs-View tool).

What MMFs are, MMFR regulation, the three structural types and when each is appropriate. Live MMF yield league table and structure visualiser.

VNAVs and ultra-short bond funds in detail. The total-return view (income + capital), WAM/WAL distinctions, NAV mechanics, rating limits, when LAs use them for yield uplift over LVNAVs.

The LA-to-LA money market - brokers, direct deals, why rates often beat MMFs and DMADF. Live activity tracker, broker comparison, deal-confirm template.

Government-backed deposits via the DMO. Sovereign-grade safety, simple operations, the right use cases. Onboarding and daily operations covered.

The three primary fixed-rate sterling money market investments. Discount instruments, yield-to-maturity calculations, secondary markets, and a decision framework for picking the right tool.

Conventional gilts vs index-linked, modified duration, real yields, on-the-run / off-the-run. Driven by live gilt yield history.

Discount margin vs spread, reset profiles, when LAs use them as a SONIA-tracking treasury investment. With worked examples.

Property funds, multi-asset income funds, the CCLA range. Return profile, risk budget, total-return view, accounting under IFRS 9 statutory override.

Structure, the 2010s controversies, current state of the LOBO market. Trigger calendars, replacement strategy, option-value framing.

How OIS and IRS work, when LAs are permitted to use them, ISDA documentation basics, hedge accounting considerations. Includes the historical context of LA derivative usage.

Standard, Certainty, HRA and Local Infrastructure rates, who can borrow, gilt+spread mechanics, a live PWLB rate calculator, and the four daily PWLBtoday bulletins.

Maturity / EIP / Annuity / Variable — cashflow shapes, total-cost comparison, asset-life matching, and how loan structure interacts with MRP policy. Three illustrative council case studies pick a structure for each. Includes a live amortisation generator and revenue-impact visualiser.

Build intuition for the DMO premature-repayment formula from annuity-factor first principles, then run a validated calculator against ~16,000 real PWLB loans across every UK borrower. Pick your council, pick a loan, see today's break cost and its 12-month trajectory against the actual gilt curve.

When and how to restructure council debt — premature repayment + redraw, LOBO breaking, swap-based restructuring. Decision framework, NPV evaluation, IFRS 9 / 10% test accounting, governance and audit.

Fix-now vs delay decisions, maturity profile management, internal vs external borrowing, combining rate types within a programme.

What the implied-PWLB tracker shows, how accurate it is, and how to read the live screen — the rate tiles and the movement chart — to time borrowing windows. Includes the live predictor embedded as an interactive widget.

Seven years of real PWLB loans — who borrows, at what rates, in what shapes. Live activity dashboard, counterparty leaderboard, concession × WAL heatmap, plus the full latest monthly commentary as a worked example.

The actual mechanics of borrowing from PWLB: the November 2020 Lending Determination + S151 CAA confirmation; application-to-drawdown flow with rate windows and T+2 settlement; reading and archiving the Lending Circular; S151 sign-off, audit trail and common external-audit findings.

What the CFR actually is, how it's built up from capital expenditure, and how it links external borrowing, internal borrowing and reserves. The single most important balance-sheet number in council treasury.

Modelling external debt vs CFR, internal borrowing capacity, reserves run-down, and the borrowing-need profile over 30+ years.

An honest, CIPFA-grounded view of ESG in council treasury: where it sits in the codes (behind security/liquidity/yield, folded into TMP1), the limited investment levers (ESG MMFs, green deposits), the real momentum on the borrowing side (National Wealth Fund, local climate bonds) with an NWF-vs-PWLB savings calculator, the reporting trajectory (TCFD to UK SRS), and the boundary with the much larger LGPS pension arena. Current to 2026.

The borrowing routes beyond the PWLB: why councils consider them (cost, diversification, eligibility, structure), the main options (internal borrowing, UKMBA, private placements, own bonds, the National Wealth Fund, leasing, forward funding), how capital-markets borrowing works, leasing and IFRS 16, and a decision framework. The PWLB stays the workhorse; alternatives are for a specific, documented advantage.

What happens when a council can't balance its budget: the aftermath of a Section 114, capitalisation directions (treating revenue costs as capital), Exceptional Financial Support and the move towards direct debt help, the multi-year recovery journey (commissioners, disposals, debt reduction), and the treasury implications. Facts current to 2025-26.

What the 2024-26 devolution and local government reorganisation programme means for treasury: the two strands (mayoral strategic authorities vs merging councils into unitaries), what happens to debt and CFR when councils merge or split (aggregation, disaggregation, inheriting distressed debt), combining the treasury function, the new mayoral authorities, and how to navigate it. Current to 2026.

Start here. What a liability benchmark is and its three building blocks; the big idea that it's asset-liability management for councils; the borrowing decisions it drives; building the chart one layer at a time; and reading over- / under- / matched-borrowed at a glance. Plain-English beginner course — the foundation for the rest of the LB pathway.

The one judgement that moves the benchmark most — balance sheet resources. What counts and what secretly adds to the LB (the DSG deficit trap); how aggressive to be and how resources drift over 25 years; a single-lever sensitivity you can feel; and a full stress-lab sandbox to pressure-test your own council.

Turning the benchmark into decisions. The four strategic moves (borrow ahead, repay, restructure tenor, document deviation); reading the maturity ladder against the LB to spot bunching — now a clear graphical chart; and governance: TMSS positioning, the Prudential Indicators link, what audit should ask, and the full position-to-action matrix.

The Housing Revenue Account benchmark under one-pool. The HRA ring-fence — settlement debt, depreciation and the Major Repairs Reserve, voluntary MRP; one-pool consolidation and Item 8 pricing with its trade-offs; and computing the HRA Recharge (Item 8 debit + internal interest − credit) with a live calculator.

The Housing Revenue Account benchmark under two-pool. Ring-fenced GF and HRA pools with inter-pool lending at SONIA (including the notional-cash and forced-loan asymmetry); the four canonical patterns you'll see in practice; and the two-pool recharge — one symmetric SONIA line, with a live calculator.

Asset-life, annuity, EIP-equivalent, voluntary MRP. How each method profiles the revenue charge, when each makes sense, S151 sign-off and audit findings. Includes a draft policy-statement generator.

Stitching the Capital Programme, MRP policy, TMSS and Prudential indicators into a single coherent strategy for council approval.

The full funding toolkit for capital. The capital/revenue split and why it decides what you can fund; the pay-as-you-go sources (grants, S106/CIL, capital receipts, revenue contributions, reserves); borrowing and leasing and the ongoing MRP cost they bring; how the financing decision is made and where it lives (the capital strategy); and the time-limited flexible use of capital receipts.

Reserves as a council's shock-absorber and its clearest measure of resilience. The general vs earmarked split (and why the headline total misleads); how adequacy is judged against risk, not a percentage; the statutory S25 robustness opinion and the risk-assessed minimum level; reserve trajectory as a leading warning sign post-S114; and what a sound reserves strategy contains.

The Housing Revenue Account for treasurers. The ring-fence between the HRA and General Fund; the 2012 self-financing settlement and the HRA CFR; the 2018 debt-cap removal that reopened council house-building; the 30-year business plan and what drives its headroom (with an interactive calculator); and HRA treasury in practice — RTB receipts, debt/interest allocation, and today's rent-policy and building-safety pressures.

A guided tour of the canonical Model Treasury Management Strategy synthesised from 89 council TMSes. What each section is for, why it's there, and how the corpus settled the framing — with deep-links into the live Mirror.

LGA 1972, LGA 2003, the Capital Finance Regulations, the S151 officer role, statutory guidance and Codes, and Section 114 in detail. The legal foundations of LA treasury.

Annotated walk-through of the 2021 Code. The prudential indicators, the affordability tests, the commercial-investment restrictions, and what 'prudent and sustainable' actually means.

The 2021 Code in detail: the four key principles, the 12 TMPs, the new ESG and knowledge-and-skills requirements, and the line between treasury and non-treasury investments.

Each Treasury Management Practice walked through: scope, requirements, how to evidence compliance, common audit findings.

The maths and worked examples behind each PI. Calibrating Authorised Limit and Operational Boundary, gross-debt-vs-CFR mechanics, the financing-costs ratio, and local indicators.

The post-2020 hot topic. The line between service and commercial. PWLB certification, the ¶53 review, business-case framing, audit findings that stick.

The wave of councils borrowing to invest for yield, and the four landmark failures — Spelthorne and Warrington (no S114), Woking and Thurrock (S114 + commissioners). The scale (NAO's £6.6bn), the policy arc that ended it (the 2020 PWLB rule, the 2021 Prudential Code), and the durable lessons: concentration, repayability, due diligence and governance. Facts current to 2025-26.

The 2018 reclassification of councils from per-se professional to retail clients, what retail status restricts (pooled funds, advice), opting up to elective professional (the qualitative + local-authority quantitative tests, firm by firm), the practical impact on treasury, and the current FCA reform (CP25/36) which keeps the quantitative test specifically for local authorities. Current to 2026.

What goes in an outturn report, common variance pitfalls, how to present clearly to S151 and Audit Committee.

Statutory and best-practice cadence, what to include, the difference from outturn, integrating with monthly internal reporting.

The officer-side craft of treasury communication: know each member audience and the duty to report, translate technicals into councillor-grade language, structure a report that lands (with a self-check tool), and answer what audit committees actually ask.

Apply the 2020 VFM regime's three pillars (Financial Sustainability / Governance / 3 Es) to treasury. With a strategic deal sign-off template that operationalises the lens.

TMSS audit patterns vs the Model — anonymised case studies of TMSSes that sailed through, got pulled, or triggered audit findings, each cross-referenced to where the Model TMS anchors against the underlying issue. Patterns to copy and traps to avoid.

MHCLG's proposed early-warning screen for capital risk. The four metrics (debt leverage, investment-income dependency, non-government debt exposure, debt repayment adequacy) with an interactive calculator; the interquartile-range threshold (Q3 + 2.5×IQR); and the risk-mitigation directions under ss.12A-12D Local Government Act 2003. Live consultation — proposed, closing Aug 2026; framed accordingly.

Who watches local-authority finance and how. MHCLG as steward of the accountability framework; external audit and the backlog/reform (the backstop dates, the new Local Audit Office); Parliament's watchdogs (PAC, NAO, the Commons MHCLG committee); the other eyes (CIPFA, auditors' statutory powers, Best Value/commissioners, the closed OFLOG); and how to be oversight-ready.

The post-Brexit subsidy regime as it bites on treasury and lending. The shift from EU State aid; the four-limb subsidy test and treasury's market-rate escape route; the seven principles and self-assessment; Subsidies of Particular Interest and mandatory referral to the CMA Subsidy Advice Unit (£25m threshold from Aug 2025); and a practical lending checklist. Date-stamped; not legal advice.

Funding council companies (LATCos, housing companies, SPVs) safely. Why councils use companies; equity vs on-lending and how it flows through the CFR; the risks of lending to your own group (the 'triple hit', the objectivity trap, Robin Hood Energy); getting it right (market-rate pricing, security, ECL provisioning, separated roles); and the wider rules (PWLB debt-for-yield terms, group accounts).

Moody's / S&P / Fitch scales side-by-side, historical default rates, migration matrices, and how to use ratings as the foundation of your TMSS counterparty selection.

Assessing the safety of the banks and funds you deposit with, beyond the headline rating: the fundamentals (CET1 capital, LCR/NSFR liquidity, asset quality) with an interactive bank-health scorer, ratings and their limits, the live market signals (CDS, share price), the post-2008 bail-in / ring-fenced landscape, and turning it all into a counterparty policy. Completes the counterparty-risk trio with Credit Ratings and Concentration.

What CDS is, spread-to-PD conversion, market-implied vs rating-agency view, bond-CDS basis.

Institutional-quality credit analysis of UK Local Authorities — for insurance fixed-income teams, bond fund credit desks and bank lending desks. The thesis: LAs are effectively UK Government credit risk; S114 and EFS are credit-positive; the analyst's work is reputational-risk pricing, not default modelling. Statutory protections through to a worked credit memo.

Repricing gap, duration, sensitivity to ±100bps. How to measure your council's exposure and what the numbers mean.

In-year cashflow profiling, working capital cycles, when liquidity gaps appear. Build a forecast and stress-test it.

The Herfindahl Index, designing concentration limits across multiple dimensions, audit findings to avoid, and practical monitoring routines.

What an interest rate actually is. Why different tenors price differently. Yield curves. Credit spreads. Compound interest (the eighth wonder). Present value vs future value. The single most-foundational course in the catalogue — start here if you're new.

The big economic shocks of the last 20 years — the 2008 crash and the Icelandic-bank losses, the low-rate decade, the COVID dash-for-cash, the 2022 inflation surge and gilt/LDI crisis, and the 2023 bank failures — each told through the lens of what it meant for council treasury. Includes a 'what bad timing cost' calculator.

The inflation measures (RPI, CPI, CPIH and the formula effect), UK inflation history (the 1970s, 2022's 41-year high, and since), index-linked gilts and breakeven inflation with a calculator, the RPI->CPIH 2030 reform, and how inflation flows through Bank Rate and gilt yields into PWLB rates, budgets and indexed contracts. Figures current to 2026.

The plumbing beneath every rate. Repo vs unsecured, the BoE operating framework, where SONIA fits in the global picture, and what it all means for an LA treasurer.

ACT/365, ACT/360, 30/360, ACT/ACT, business-day adjustments. Same trade priced four ways — see the £ difference. Spot convention mismatches on confirmations in 30 seconds.

Spot, par, zero rates and forwards. Bootstrap mechanics. The four classic curve shapes and what each implies. Plus practical implications for borrowing and investment decisions.

How the MPC actually decides, QE/QT mechanics, DMO gilt-supply operations, and how all three cascade into PWLB rates. Plus an operational calendar and timing rules for treasury decisions.

What economic events move sterling rates, the UK + global indicators that matter, and how to integrate the calendar into borrowing-strategy decisions. Foundation course (4 modules) plus 2 advanced bonus modules on event dynamics and event-aware treasury strategy. Includes a live embedded TradingView calendar with UK and Global tabs.

An honest, current (2026) look at AI for council treasury: the genuine use cases (forecasting, fraud detection, reconciliation, drafting) with a maturity table, what's really shipping vs hype, the UK public-sector AI rulebook (the AI Playbook, ICO, LGA hub, CIPFA codes), the risks mapped to treasury controls, and how a cautious team gets started. Strictly vendor-neutral — AI advises, humans decide.

Cyber and payment-fraud risk applied to council treasury: the threats (BEC, mandate fraud, APP fraud, deepfakes, ransomware), real UK council casualties (Redcar, Hackney, the 2024-25 wave), the controls that stop it (segregation, dual authorisation, callback verification, payee checking), the 2024-26 regulatory shift (the public-sector ransomware payment ban, APP reimbursement, VoP), and governance + treasury continuity. Facts current to 2026.

The day-job craft: why the cash forecast is treasury's foundation and what poor forecasting costs, how to build a forecast from real inflows and outflows, managing the daily position (with a daily funding-decision calculator), seasonality and the lumpy flows, and how to forecast well and link it to liquidity and borrowing strategy.

The plumbing of council money: the bank account and contract, the payment rails (BACS, CHAPS, Faster Payments, direct debit) and when to use each, the bank mandate, signatories and payment controls (dual authorisation, Confirmation of Payee), reconciliation as a control, and what a resilient, well-controlled banking operation looks like.

Almost every council retains a treasury management adviser. What they actually do (credit lists, rate views, report drafting, benchmarking, training) and what they can't; the governing principle of 'advice in, decision out'; how over-reliance shows up and how to avoid it; procuring and reviewing the relationship; and the clean adviser / officer / S151 / member responsibility split. Vendor-neutral.

The practical craft of placing treasury deals safely. The daily dealing rhythm (position first, deal second); routes to market (direct, brokers, dealing portals, the DMADF) and what 'best execution' means for a council; dealing mandates and how authority flows from the TMSS to the desk; confirmation and settlement; and the front/middle/back-office segregation of duties that keeps it all safe.

The statutory chief finance officer in depth: the legal basis (s151 LGA 1972), the personal duties (the s25 robustness report, a balanced budget, code compliance, the fiduciary duty), the Section 114 power and the recent wave of notices, the golden triangle and the pressure on the role's independence, and the S151's personal ownership of the treasury strategy. A UK-specific explainer that doesn't exist for free elsewhere.

The skill of taking the treasury strategy to committee and Council — and finance report-writing generally. Why presentation is a governance issue, how to structure the paper, telling the story in plain English, handling the questions members always ask, presenting live in the committee room, and a practical report-writing checklist. The communicate-the-document companion to the build-the-document courses.

The transferable craft of making finance understood and acted on: why communication is a core finance skill (and the curse of knowledge), knowing your audience, making numbers meaningful (data storytelling), visuals that work, and influence + difficult conversations. Complements the TMSS-specific course with the general skill.

What council finance/treasury governance can borrow from the private sector — and where they legitimately differ. The shared failure pathology (Carillion and the council S114s), the private toolkit (the FRC Code's controls attestation, the Three Lines Model, risk appetite, independent challenge), the public-sector equivalents (Delivering Good Governance, the golden triangle, Nolan), the genuine differences, and a concrete adoption playbook. Current to 2026.

The language of the accounts for a treasury officer: accruals vs cash, the all-important statutory-vs-proper-accounting override machinery, usable vs unusable reserves, the statutory adjustments treasury owns (MRP, receipts, REFCUS, premia, the IFRS 9 override), and provisions / going concern. The conceptual backbone of the Accounting & Audit track.

What the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting is, its statutory 'have regard' status, the Code/SeRCOP/Prudential family, how it adapts IFRS, the Guidance Notes/Disclosure Checklist and bulletins, and the direction of travel (2026/27 rename to 'Financial Reporting', FReM-aligned structure, EFA removal, separate pension fund accounts, TCFD from 2027/28).

The accounting standard that touches treasury most: scope and identification, classification (business model + SPPI), measurement and the fair value hierarchy, expected credit loss, the pooled-fund statutory override unwind, and soft loans plus premia/discounts on early repayment (Reg 30C) — with an interactive spreading calculator.

The standard that put leases on the balance sheet for lessees (mandatory for LAs from 2024/25): the right-of-use asset and lease liability, subsequent measurement and exemptions (incl. peppercorn leases), and the crucial treasury link — a lease liability is a credit arrangement that adds to the CFR, attracts MRP and uses prudential headroom. Includes a lease calculator.

The closedown cycle and statutory timetable (and how the backlog/backstop regime reshaped it), the four statements and exactly where treasury sits, the deliverables treasury owns, accruals and cut-off in practice, and the year-round habits that make closedown fast and the audit smooth.

The local audit framework, the backlog and backstop regime, disclaimed and modified opinions (and why a disclaimer isn't 'the accounts are wrong'), the opinion vs the value-for-money commentary, and being audit-ready in treasury — the predictable challenges and how to answer them fast.

The IFRS 9 expected-credit-loss model for treasury. Why ECL replaced the old incurred-loss approach; the three stages and the significant-increase-in-credit-risk judgement; the EAD × PD × LGD calculation (with an interactive calculator); where ECL bites in a council (immaterial on top-rated deposits, very material on loans to council companies); and how it differs from the separate pooled-fund fair-value override.

The Bribery Act 2010's four offences and the 'adequate procedures' defence, applied to treasury: gifts and hospitality from brokers, advisers and counterparties, the declarations register, facilitation payments, and the corruption hotspots in procurement, planning and contracts.

How money laundering touches council finance, the Proceeds of Crime Act offences that bind every authority (even though LAs aren't usually 'relevant persons' under the 2017 Regulations), suspicious activity reports and tipping off, counterparty due diligence, and OFSI financial-sanctions screening before you place a deposit.

The new failure-to-prevent-fraud offence (ECCTA 2023, in force September 2025) and what 'reasonable procedures' means — plus the fraud that actually targets treasury: mandate and payment-diversion fraud, bank-detail-change scams on PWLB drawdowns and supplier payments, internal fraud, and the controls that stop each.

Everyday information-security hygiene for treasury teams and members: spotting phishing, passwords and MFA, locking devices and not leaving laptops or papers around, secure home and hybrid working, and what the public-sector ransomware-payment ban and 72-hour reporting mean in practice. Complements the deeper Cyber security in treasury course.

Handling personal and confidential data in treasury under the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the new Data (Use and Access) Act 2025: lawful bases, data minimisation, subject access requests, reporting a breach within 72 hours, and the FOI angle on commercially sensitive treasury information.

The Seven Principles of Public Life in practice: spotting and managing conflicts of interest with advisers, brokers and contractors; declaring interests and registering gifts and hospitality; the codes of conduct for officers and members; and how — and where — to speak up under the council's whistleblowing policy.

The Equality Act 2010, the nine protected characteristics and the forms of discrimination, reasonable adjustments, and the Public Sector Equality Duty — including why budget and service decisions need an Equality Impact Assessment and what 'due regard' actually requires.

Health, safety and wellbeing for office, finance and hybrid staff: the duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act, risk assessment basics, setting up your display-screen workstation at the office and at home, managing work-related stress, and reporting incidents and near misses.

What modern slavery is and how it reaches councils through their supply chains: the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the transparency-in-supply-chains duty, the higher-risk procurement categories, how to spot the signs in suppliers and contractors, and who to report concerns to.

For brand-new councillors with no finance background. Where a council's money comes from, the two pots (day-to-day vs build-things), the General Fund and HRA ring-fences, and reserves — all in plain English with no jargon. Interactive sorter and reserves-runway widgets.

What your council's treasury actually does, in plain English. The chain of accountability, the four main risks, how to read a TMSS, why scrutiny matters — five short modules.

Your job in one sentence, the line between members and officers, who approves what (Full Council vs Cabinet vs Audit Committee vs S151), the two legal safeguards (the S25 robustness report and the S114 emergency brake), declaring interests, and how to scrutinise well. Plain English.

Pick your own authority and see its real 2024-25 finances — net budget, council tax raised, reserves — each compared to councils like yours. Learn the single most useful scrutiny habit: never read a number alone. Real MHCLG data for 307 councils.

The LA Metrics dashboard, with its parts built right into the lesson (real data, dark-friendly): choose a fair peer set, read every headline number in plain English, read the peer ranking and percentiles, and understand the composite score factor by factor — including the weightings and what each of the eight factors means. Becomes a 10-minute pre-meeting scrutiny routine.

The reports you'll see every few months: how to read budget-vs-actual, what a variance and a RAG status mean, the year-end outturn story, and the plain questions to ask. Built for brand-new councillors — no jargon.

Section-by-section walk-through. The 30-minute scrutiny technique. Eight red flags. 12 specific questions to ask. Paragraph-by-paragraph reading. How to translate scrutiny into a vote.

The active-scrutiny follow-on to reading a TMSS: questions that get real answers, the deficiencies that recur, what isn't said, handling the response and escalation, and an interactive 10-minute pre-meeting checklist.

Reading mid-year and outturn reports. Tracking variance. Asking productive questions without being a nuisance.

Quick checks any councillor can do - bank exposure, maturity bunching, MMF concentration. Real warning signs.

Why borrowing is normal and often the fairest way to pay for big, long-lasting things. The golden rules (affordable, prudent, capital-only, never for yield), what the PWLB is, what a rate really costs, and the plain questions to ask. No jargon, no yield curves.

How strategic borrowing decisions cascade. The link to the Capital Programme. What you're approving when you approve a Capital Strategy.

Thurrock, Croydon, Slough, Woking, Birmingham, Nottingham. What treasury indicators flagged trouble before S114? Not political - instructive.

Every term you'll meet in budget, treasury and audit papers — in one or two plain sentences, with a live search and theme filters. Your reading companion. 50+ terms across money basics, borrowing, roles, reports and key documents.

Plain-English for councillors: what the statement of accounts is (and how it differs from the budget), the four statements decoded, reserves (why a big number is mostly unspendable), the treasury bridge — checking returns, costs and limits against the TMSS — and the audit opinion (clean / modified / disclaimed) with the questions an audit-committee member should ask.

Plain-English orientation for councillors who sit on or scrutinise a Local Government Pension Scheme fund. What the LGPS is (a funded, defined-benefit scheme); why being 'funded' puts investments on your agenda; who runs the fund (administering authority, pensions committee, local pension board); and the councillor's quasi-trustee role — your duty to scheme members, even over your own council's interests. Complements the free official LOLA training.

The numbers behind an LGPS fund, in plain English. The funding level (assets vs liabilities) and why one number isn't the whole story; the three-yearly actuarial valuation and what it sets; employer contributions and how a deficit is recovered sensibly; and a handful of sharp questions a committee member can bring to fund reports. Illustrative figures only — no live data.

How an LGPS fund invests, for councillors. Diversification across asset classes and the long-term horizon; responsible investment and ESG, and how the divestment debate sits against the fiduciary duty to members; asset pooling and the fast-moving 'Fit for the Future' reforms; and the committee's proper role — set the strategy, not the stocks. Complements the free official LOLA training.