Bonus: The Proper Practices Rewrite — What Changes for 27/28
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A short bonus episode. This is Claire Reed, Proper Practices Project Manager at NALC, speaking at the Digital AGAR webinar in July 2026 — lifted out of Episode 16 and published on its own while the consultation is open. If you've already heard Episode 16, you've heard this.
The Proper Practices — the Governance & Accountability guidance that sits behind the AGAR — are being rewritten by CIPFA for Category 2 authorities, meaning those with income or expenditure of £15 million or less. Claire works on that rewrite alongside the Smaller Authorities Proper Practices Panel. The guide has been shortened, de-jargoned and given a glossary, guidance is signposted by authority type with a separate appendix for parish meetings, and the roles and responsibilities of clerks, RFOs, members and auditors are spelled out. She's explicit that this is not just about getting through the audit — it's about being able to run the council properly.
Two changes are worth your attention. Assertion 6 becomes "governance", and with it a new requirement: internal and external audit reports must be reviewed in an open public meeting, published on your website, and backed by an action plan that somebody actually monitors. And there's a new CIPFA code of practice for internal audit — aimed, in Claire's words, squarely at the arrangement where somebody local has a quick glance over the accounts in exchange for a bottle of wine or an M&S voucher.
On the accounts themselves: borrowing is separated out, staff costs stop being a standalone line — a privacy fix for councils with a single employee — debtors and creditors move onto the form itself, and reserves are split between earmarked and general, so residents can see why a council is holding the money it holds.
The consultation runs through August and September. The new guidance is due in early 2027 and applies to the 27/28 financial year — so this is the point at which saying something still changes the outcome.
Claire uses a mock-up built in the new digital AGAR portal, which Lance Allan of SAAA demos in full in Episode 16. More from NALC and SAAA.
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