This one day workshop is for staff within the public sector who have budgetary responsibility within their job function but who do not have specialised financial skills or knowledge. It provides a background to the budgetary process and at the end of the course delegates will be able to:

• Understand the importance of budgets
• Describe why budgets are important
• Outline sources of funds and describe how budgets are allocated
• Describe the responsibilities of budget holders
• Complete a simple budget statement
• Outline how budgets are controlled

The workshop will be in the form of discussion and practice with reference to setting personal budgets to put the process in context.

Format of the day is outlined below:

• Introductions
• What is a budget?
• Why do we have them?
• Where does the money come from?
• How is the money spent?



• The budget timetable
• What are the responsibilities of a budget holder?
• What can go wrong?



• A closer look at a budget statement
• Exercise - creating a budget
• Common problems with budgets



• How do you keep control?
• Quick quiz
• Summary and close

The handling of budgets will vary from organisation to organisation and to increase the relevance it is anticipated that a significant degree of customisation will be required. Whilst best practice can be discussed it is preferable to use local examples where these are available.