Briefly describe the initiative/ project/service; please include your aims and objectives

In 2020, the public sector faced extraordinary pressures. The pandemic created unprecedented opportunities for fraud, with billions of pounds distributed at pace through emergency support schemes. Local authorities were working to protect residents while managing limited capacity , fractured intelligence networks and rapidly evolving risks. At the same time, there was no up-to-date national picture of how councils were responding or what support they needed.

To address this gap, the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN), hosted by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, led the development of a new national fraud and resilience survey for 2025. Supported by the Chair of the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally (FFCL) Board, the aim was to capture the realities of fraud risk, resourcing and preparedness across local government. The survey was designed to be light touch, accessible and fully anonymised, encouraging councils to be open about the challenges they faced.

The objectives were clear:

• give local government a collective voice
• create an evidence base that had been missing since 2020
• identify capability gaps and pressures on counter fraud teams
• ensure local realities shape national policy and future fraud strategies

The initiative aligns directly with this award category by transforming how the sector understands risk, uses data and collaborates to improve outcomes for communities. It has created a shared foundation for better planning, investment and decision-making across local government.

What are the key achievements?

The survey has delivered significant and immediate benefits for councils, policymakers and national bodies. It created the first up-to-date national dataset of local authority fraud risks and responses since the pandemic, giving practitioners and decision makers a shared reference point for understanding pressures on the frontline. Councils can now benchmark themselves, make stronger cases for investment and identify priority areas for improvement.

The findings revealed the true extent of the challenges facing local counter fraud teams, including the lasting impact of resources lost to the Single Fraud Investigation Service, the operational pressures of hybrid working and the difficulties accessing national data sharing platforms. At the same time, the results highlighted how councils continue to adapt, often with limited means, to tackle high volume, low value fraud, insider risks and emerging identity threats.

The impact extends beyond local government. The results have been shared with the Local Government Association, the Public Sector Fraud Authority and central government, ensuring that councils’  experiences directly inform upcoming reforms, including those linked to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. The work has strengthened dialogue between local and central government, ensuring councils are included in the development of future fraud policy.

The initiative has also laid the foundations for lasting change. NAFN is committed to repeating and expanding the survey in future years, making it a permanent part of the sector ’s intelligence and planning cycle. Over time, this will help track progress, build resilience and foster a stronger culture of collaboration across the counter fraud community

How Innovative is your initiative?

The innovation lies in the creation of a national, sector-led intelligence tool that gives councils a collective voice and provides insight that had been missing for years. While surveys are not new, this initiative reimagined what a public sector intelligence exercise could achieve by making it light touch, fully anonymised and designed around the realities of local authority capacity .

The approach challenged the status quo. For years, councils had been working in isolation, with no shared evidence base to understand pressures or influence national policy . By designing a model that was simple, accessible and grounded in the lived experience of practitioners, NAFN created a mechanism that councils trusted and engaged with at scale.

Innovation is also evident in the way the survey was positioned and used. Rather than being a one-off exercise, it has become a strategic tool for shaping national fraud policy, informing investment decisions and strengthening the relationship between local and central government. It has created a unified picture of risk that did not previously exist and has given councils a platform to influence reforms that directly af fect them.

The initiative also demonstrated innovation in its timing and purpose. It responded to a moment of significant disruption, capturing how councils were adapting to hybrid working, resource pressures and new fraud threats. It provided clarity at a time when intelligence networks were fractured and local authorities were facing unprecedented operational demands.

By transforming a simple survey into a national intelligence asset, the initiative has pushed boundaries, challenged assumptions and created a new model for sector-wide insight.

What are the key learning points?

The initiative has generated valuable learning that can be applied across the public sector . The first lesson is the importance of designing intelligence tools that are proportionate, accessible and built around the needs of practitioners. The light touch, anonymised approach encouraged honest engagement and ensured that councils of all sizes could participate without additional burden.

A second lesson is the value of sector-led insight. Councils responded because the work was led by NAFN, a trusted public sector body with a clear understanding of local authority challenges. This trust was essential in securing high engagement and producing a dataset that genuinely reflects the realities of frontline practice.

The initiative also highlighted the importance of timing. By capturing data at a moment of significant change, the survey provided insight that would otherwise have been lost. It demonstrated that intelligence gathering must evolve with the sector and respond to emerging risks, rather than relying on outdated assumptions.

Sustainability has been another key learning point. By committing to repeat the survey annually, NAFN has ensured that the work will not be a one-of f exercise but a long-term asset for the sector . This will allow councils to track progress, identify trends and measure the impact of policy changes over time.

Finally , the initiative has shown that collaboration is essential. The involvement of the FFCL  Chair helped ensure alignment with national priorities, while engagement with the LGA, PSF A and central government ensured that the findings would be used to shape future policy . This model of shared insight and shared purpose can be replicated across other areas of public sector reform.