East of England case studies completed

Working with two local authorities, the project explored how the Toolkit can be adopted, implemented and used in real council settings. The case studies provided valuable insight into how local authorities can use the Toolkit to reflect on financial resilience, surface organisational strengths and weaknesses, and support better conversations across services, finance teams and senior leadership.

The findings show that the Toolkit can help councils move beyond financial indicators by bringing together staff perceptions across departments and levels of management. The case studies highlighted the importance of clear communication, senior leadership support, inclusive participation and structured follow-up. They also showed that the Toolkit is most valuable when used not as a one-off survey, but as a practical conversation tool that helps councils identify priorities, strengthen internal coordination and embed resilience thinking into planning and decision-making.

Early findings suggest that the Toolkit can support:

• earlier identification of financial and organisational risks;

• clearer ownership of risks and follow-up actions;

• stronger links between financial resilience, service planning and organisational learning;

• better cross-departmental dialogue;

• a shared language for discussing resilience across the council.

The final report from the case studies will be published soon. It will share the main findings, practical lessons and recommendations for other local authorities interested in using the Toolkit to strengthen their financial resilience.