Authors: Jeffrey Matsu, Matheus Assução and Mara Airoldi
Organisations: Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab)
Location: United Kingdom
The Maximising Value for Money: Case Studies on Smarter Public Spending report examines two practical frameworks designed to strengthen financial decision-making in the public sector. The report draws on case studies from the London Borough of Redbridge and the Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). The research reveals how practitioners are adopting structured VfM frameworks to guide decision-making, ensuring greater transparency, accountability, and strategic resource alignment.
The London Borough of Redbridge case study highlights the effectiveness of the GO Lab-CIPFA VfM Toolkit. This framework combines structure with flexibility, helping to evaluate project costs and benefits while aligning initiatives with broader organisational goals. However, for the toolkit to be more widely adopted, it will require finance team support, ongoing improvements and integration into existing business case templates.
In contrast, the Thames Valley VRU case study explores the VfM life cycle approach, which integrates impact evaluation with financial assessments. This method helps tackle challenges related to baseline measurements, project planning and intervention effectiveness. It provides a clear, structured way to assess long-term cost-effectiveness through a pipeline of five key stages.
For VfM frameworks to be widely adopted across the public sector, CIPFA and GO Lab recommend that public sector organisations: