Assurance

The Government's ambitious reforms for public service provision, running in parallel with its generationally significant deficit reduction programme, mean that public service bodies are in even greater need of assurance that they are able to weather the turbulence that is now facing the sector.

This means that stakeholders – including service users, employees, funders, tax payers, elected members, trustees and governors - will need to be assured that public service bodies continue to deliver value for money services, are maximising the use of their physical assets and other resources, have appropriate strategies in place for managing the changes, have robust governance arrangements in place, and that they are financially resilient. In recognition of sound governance's impact on future public sector management, we are proud to be sponsoring the Corporate Governance category at the LGC Awards 2012.

As one of the leading firms in the public sector market, and the joint largest provider of audit and related services to the Audit Commission, we have a long-standing reputation in the market place for auditing PCTs, NHS trusts, foundation trusts and broad range of bodies including registered providers, further education institutions, universities, NDPBs and central government departments. Our work is national in breadth and we also have framework contracts with Audit Scotland, the Wales Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the National Audit Office.

In local government we audit a range of bodies across the UK. These include London boroughs, district councils, metropolitan boroughs, city councils and other unitary councils. This work encompasses the financial statements, VFM reviews, data quality and the audit of central government grant claims. A particular focus for us currently is an assessment of the financial resilience of local authority clients.

In England we operate from public sector centres of excellence in London, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol. We also provide audit services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Feedback from the Government audit agencies and audited bodies consistently commends the high quality of our work, the level of service we have provided over a number of years, and the overall value proposition we will provide in the future. This has recently been recognised by national awards from the Audit Commission for the greatest contribution to public sector performance audit (the Read Award 2009) and financial audit (the Cooksey Award 2010).