The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has published the Joint Panel on Accountability and Governance (JPAG) 2024 edition of the Practitioners' Guide.
The 2024 edition of the guide applies to Annual Governance and Accountability Returns (AGAR) regarding financial years commencing on or after 1 April 2024.
The most notable changes to the Practitioners' Guide this year are:
- Stronger encouragement for local (parish and town) councils to use gov.uk domains for websites and emails. The Parish Council Domains Helper Team recently blogged about the benefits of this approach.
- Recommendation that local councils publish their full internal audit report on their website alongside the AGAR. NALC's Smaller Councils Committee discussed the recommendation and agreed that this would support smaller councils in their work to be ever more open and accountable to their communities. It could also improve the quality of internal audit services to local councils.
JPAG is responsible for issuing proper practices about the governance and accounts of smaller authorities. Its membership comprises sector representatives from NALC, the Society of Local Council Clerks and the Association of Drainage Authorities. Together with stakeholder partners representing the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the National Audit Office, and a representative of the external audit firms appointed to smaller authorities.