Just like organisations outside of the public sector many local authorities have business partners. "At Cheshire East, we have business partners attached to each of their major departments," explains Adele Taylor, Director of Finance & Customer Services. “Although they are part of the finance team, they are fully embedded in our service teams, giving them specialist background knowledge, whether that’s adult social care, housing, or children's services. As a result, they have a really good understanding of what's happening in that area, what's driving costs, and what can be done differently.”

Ian Cosh, Chief Finance Officer and SIRO, Greater Manchester Police (GMP), wants finance professionals to be close to the action “so that they can support, influence, and advise around the day-to-day operational challenges of what is a big, busy police force with a lot of pressures". He says: "It means they can really understand the business. If you're just sitting looking at the numbers, it's very difficult to get a grasp of what’s happening on the ground.”

By better understanding operational needs and constraints, business partners can work with finance teams to maximise value for money.

“This is where business partners can add real value,” says Cosh. “For example, one of our business partners is currently heavily involved in looking at different options for tackling spend on managing dangerous dogs seized by GMP, working closely with the operational lead to explore innovative ways of managing an unsustainable budget pressure.”

Carol Culley, Commissioner at Woking Borough Council, cautions on the importance of maintaining an element of professional distance: “Business partners mustn’t get too sucked into the business that they are supporting or go too far to deliver an outcome that perhaps should not be delivered. A good business partner is someone who has got the skills and emotional intelligence to deliver that close support, while providing effective challenge, guiding people through decisions, but being able to take a step back and offer alternative solutions.”

Ensuring effective decision-making

Business partners also need to simplify complex financial concepts for non-finance professionals.

“The business partner needs to provide information that answers key questions for the decision maker: What decision needs to be made? What is the right choice based on the key objectives? What will the outcome be? What evidence supports this? What are the risks and financial implications?” says Taylor.

Culley stresses transparency when it comes to gaps in knowledge or evidence. “Business partners need to know when to ask for help. Nobody knows everything. Understanding when to get advice is an important part of effective decision-making, as is being clear about any elements that are simply unknown.”

When faced with conflicting points of view, Culley suggests documenting decisions: “Keep an audit trail to demonstrate you have taken the right legal and financial advice, understood the implications, evaluated the risks, and explored all alternatives.”

Building a culture of accountability

Culley also stresses the role of business partners in raising financial awareness and building a culture of accountability.

“Business partners should be an integral member of their division, or service area, monthly management team meetings,” explains Culley. “If they are just called in for budget monitoring, it signals that finance isn't woven into day-to-day decision making.”

It’s important that budget holders utilise information independently, too. “Budget holders should be able to ‘self-serve’, with the business partner adding value, checking people are using the information correctly and supporting them to do so,” she says.

“However, this shouldn’t all fall on finance teams. Senior leadership need to demonstrate collective ownership and accountability for financial management which cascades down through the organisation.”

The art of communication

Taylor stresses the importance of the language used by business partners. “You have to be confident enough to raise financial constraints otherwise you're not doing your job,” she says. “However, the strongest business partners in my team are the ones who start with the outcome, and not with the numbers. We don't want to be starting conversations with the cost savings we need to find. A social worker or somebody who works in housing has a passion for what they do. We need to be able to hook into that by talking about people and placements, the whys and wherefores, recognising the pressures they're under.”

“Let's be honest - budgeting and accounting don’t set people's worlds alight,” says Cosh. “The real skill lies in transforming financial data into easily understandable and more relatable insights. We train our team to not just present a spreadsheet and expect somebody to be able to understand what it means. They need to provide clear, concise summaries that highlight the key messages.”

A varied skillset

Business partners therefore require a diverse set of skills. “The business partnering role extends far beyond numbers,” Culley explains. “It requires a very broad skill set, with technical financial and data analysis skills alongside an understanding of governance and decision-making, strong communication abilities, emotional intelligence, ethics, and leadership.”

Taylor adds: “One day a business partner might be working through detailed figures with a budget holder. The next, they could be in a large multi-disciplinary, multi-organisational Towns Fund project meeting, or sitting in a public committee meeting, providing advice to members or answering questions from the public.”

“Effective business partners need to be influencers, enablers, negotiators. They also need to have integrity, knowing when to step in or not, being strong enough to say when they believe something isn't right,” she explains.

Finance leaders therefore need to carefully consider skills within their teams and how they support different roles. “You're never going to get a finance professional with all of those skills, or at least they are very rare. The most technically brilliant person might not be the best at communication, so they might not be best suited to a business partnering role,” says Culley.

There are a range of options for finance teams and business partners looking to build knowledge and skills. Culley says: “CIPFA and other bodies offer business partnering support and training, but I've always encouraged and stressed the importance of being outward looking, keeping up to date with good practice, and continually learning from others. A lot of information can be gained through reading publications. Good systems of continuing professional development, mentoring, peer support and industry networking can also help people grow these skills.”

Taylor agrees: “I urge my finance teams to be professionally curious, not just about finance and the latest legislation, but about the rest of the organisation, the partners that we work with, and the local area, because that's when we can ensure the best outcomes for our residents and businesses.”