Service Planning and Long Term Financial Planning (LTFP) is vital to assessing sustainability of Council

Are you prepared for 10-year Long Term Financial Plans (Local Government Act 2020)?

Financial sustainability is becoming more challenging as Councils adjust to rate capping thresholds and increasing cost of service delivery. Councils have to make choices around service priorities, reducing services, lowering service costs and capital investment.

With 40% costs (labour) rising above the rate cap threshold and revenue options constrained, strategic and prioritised expenditure management will drive the sustainability agenda.

Which Services, Which Projects – how does Council determine its priorities?

Service Planning – CT Management Group’s Service Planning provides a review of the range of services Council provides, defines the level of service provided, service demand and the cost of service. We then facilitate a review of the sustainability of the current service mix over the life of Council’s Long Term Financial Plan and answers the question, is the current range of services at their current level sustainable?

Are the range of services provided by Council aligned to Council’s strategic direction? Is the level of service sustainable and affordable in the long term?

If changes are required how will Council make the comparative choices between services or decisions around lowering or increasing service levels?

What are the financial implications of these decisions over the life of the current Long Term Financial Plan?

CT Management Group has a collaborative method supported by products to assist your Council assess its services and capital priorities.

Our a Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) product will ensure Council has a viable and visionary financial strategy 20 years into the future.

This product will assist your Council to manage its financial sustainability and ensure compliance with accounting standards, highlighting funding needs and outlining financial scenarios.

This analysis lays the foundation for community consultation and the important comparative choices that communities may need to make.

The LTFP includes a dashboard analysis feature for testing scenarios and creating presentations to Executive Management and Council.

Outputs include:
  • All financial statements out to 20 years.
  • 20-year capital works program with renewal, upgrade, expansion and new standard projects.
  • 20-year renewal figures extracted from Council’s Asset Management Plans
  • VAGO indicator ratios out to 20 years
  • Financial ratio graphs including Local Government Performance Reporting Framework
  • Financial Sustainability Ratios
  • Model Budget Outputs – LGV model compliant
  • Capital Expenditure Summary Outputs by asset class, asset type including funding splits across funding sources

Linking to the Long Term Financial Planning product are the following financial planning tools:

Service Cost Evaluation Model (SCEM) – which assists Councils to define the range and level of service, prepare costed 10 year service plans and then examine the sustainability of current services provided at their current level, using the LTFP. This then enables Council to make comparative choices between services.

Capital Works Evaluator Tool (CWE) – assists Councils prepare a 40 year Capital Works Program and includes fully calculated and escalated whole of life costs, and interfaces with the LTFP.

Financial Ratios Benchmarking – released annually, these Financial Ratios now provide 10 years of individual council history data for all benchmark ratios. Flexible benchmarking can also be provided for council groups.

CT Management Group is ready to assist you with this planning package by providing experienced Local Government Associates to support you during implementation and any upgrades. We are focused on assisting Councils achieve their goals by providing solutions supported by our years of experience, specialist skills and knowledge.

To arrange a demonstration of the features and benefits of our LTFP please contact Sonia Giofches on P: 1300 500 932 or via our Contact form below:

Get in touch with us today