Technical resources

The moment of truth for public services across Europe

The EP Intergroup on public services and the influential daily Europolitics organised a high-level conference called 'Public services in Europe: the moment of truth', at the European Parliament in Brussels. ACCA, represented by Gillian Fawcett, head of public sector, was invited to speak at the roundtable chaired by MEP Francoise Castex, chair of the Intergroup.

Future of local audit – secondary legislation

Comments from ACCA to the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The ACCA international public sector conference 2013

Video presentations from the ACCA international public sector conference 2013 explore the theme of 'financial reporting for an open world'.

Strategic financial leadership in the UK public sector

This report investigates how well finance managers in public services are providing effective strategic financial leadership in testing times.

Introducing collaboration technology as a multi-dimensional solution to the handover process

Sharon Cannaby, October 2013. This report describes the progress of University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) in transforming clinical handover on the surgical wards from a disorganised and often frenzied process to one that complies with best clinical practice.

Public concern at work

Comments from ACCA to the Whistleblowing Commission, 21 June 2013.

Key health challenges for Zambia

Sharon Cannaby, April 2013. This paper provides an oversight into some of the key issues facing the health sector in Zambia and describes the role professionally qualified accountants can play in delivering the country’s health agenda.

Key health challenges in Ghana

Sharon Cannaby, April 2013. This report provides an oversight into some of the key issues facing the health sector in Ghana and describes the role professionally qualified accountants can play in achieving the country’s health goals.

Setting high professional standards for public services around the world

This paper sets out ACCA’s policy positions on a range of themes for public services for members, employers and a wide range of external stakeholders with an interest in public services.

Global perspectives on health challenges

Sharon Cannaby, August 2012. This paper brings together the views of senior ACCA members around the world on the key challenges facing healthcare systems globally. The discussions provide an interesting insight into some of the country-specific issues facing healthcare delivery around the world.

Parliamentary financial scrutiny in hard times

Gillian Rollason, December 2011. Parliamentary scrutiny of public spending is essential for holding governments to account for money spent. Case studies conducted in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the UK show that it is not taken seriously enough. The outdated ‘estimates supply votes’ process used in Westminster-style systems is a key barrier to effective parliamentary scrutiny of government finances. Governments may use the financial crisis to reduce scrutiny rather than enhance it. Parliamentarians, even those on select committees, are not trained for such scrutiny and their powers of intervention are limited or non-existent.

Sustainability reporting matters: what are national governments doing about it?

Hannah Jones, December 2010. This paper makes a number of recommendations for national governments and organisations that are responsible for developing guidelines and frameworks for sustainability reporting in the future.

Management consultants and public sector transformation

Gillian Fawcett, October 2010. This paper outlines the costs, roles and impacts of management consultants within the public sector, and examines the evidence about how effective management consultants are at adding value to the organisations within which they work,

Improving public sector financial management in developing countries and emerging economies

Gillian Fawcett, June 2010. This paper explores common issues, lessons learnt and effective practice through a number of case studies where ACCA has worked with a range of governments, regulators and stakeholders from Botswana, Pakistan, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Enhancing external audit: learning from the public sector

Gillian Fawcett, January 2010. This paper compares and contrasts public sector audit with the private sector audit of listed companies in the UK. It considers pricing, risks and audit liability across the public and private sectors, together with examining different practices for auditing the financial opinion, corporate governance, arrangements to prevent and detect fraud and corruption, value for money, and reporting. We draw conclusions on what, if anything, private sector audit can learn from public sector audit and set out some key future audit challenges.

Performance targets

Gillian Fawcett, January 2010. This paper examines the utility of technocratic techniques for addressing social objectives, with specific reference to examples of public service agreement targets (PSAs) set by the UK government for addressing inequalities. It also sets out to provide a better understanding of the relationship between resources committed and benefits achieved. It outlines how target setting, the quality of information, and cost-benefit analysis can be strengthened to support performance measures for addressing inequalities in the UK.

HFMA briefing: carbon reduction in the NHS

December 2009. HFMA briefing sponsored by ACCA.

Whole of Government Accounting in the UK

ACCA research report 101, by D. Chow, C. Humphrey and J. Moll.

ACCA PFI survey - summary results

ACCA, September 2002. A survey of ACCA members working in the UK public sector has shown that public sector accountants do not generally believe that the Public Finance Initiative (PFI) provides value for money for the public sector.