CFO Insights is an online financial analysis tool that provides local authorities with a three-dimensional view of financial information, outcomes, and their socio-economic context.
Blackpool Council is a unitary authority in Lancashire - serving approx.140,000 residents
It's economy is built around tourism and infrastructure
The council has been under Labour majority control since 2023
The council's total service expenditure was £2,018 per head in 2023-24
CFO Insights provided key information and outcomes for expenditure across service lines that enabled the council to establish a new analysis framework to support decision making.
The council's existing approach was deliberately focused on narrative as opposed to measurement, but a 2015 peer review and 2017 internal audit recommended more robust performance management and strategic plans for services.
In response to these reports, the council needed to establish a suitable framework to change culture, based around three measurement dimensions:
The council used CFO insights to address the ‘cost’ aspect of their framework by easily extracting spend information for all service lines. This information was then aligned with reported outcomes.
Establishing a clear understanding of the extent performance was impacted by spend or other factors enabled informed funding decisions.
CFO insights has provided a clear basis for stage 1 of Blackpool Council's journey. The exploration of CFO Insights’ other data lenses (characteristics and outcomes) also adding measurable depth to the analysis.
