Report on the NHS summarised accounts 2006-07
Report on the NHS summarised accounts 2006-07

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2007-12-11

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 9780102951653

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In the last financial year the Department of Health made financial recovery priority and managed to turn the deficits of 2005-06 to a surplus of £505 million in 2006-07. The Comptroller and Auditor General is the statutory auditor of the financial accounts of the NHS and has the duty to certify and report to Parliament on them. This report is published alongside in the NHS Summarised Accounts to provide more detail on the financial performance of the NHS, how it moved into balance and the challenges that face it in the future.

Report on the NHS Summarised Accounts, 2006-07
Report on the NHS Summarised Accounts, 2006-07

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9780215520814

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The Department of Health (the 'Department') and the NHS achieved a surplus of £515 million in 2006-07, representing 0.6 per cent of total available resources. This followed two years of rising deficits, and the Department, working with the NHS, has done well in restoring overall financial balance. While the national picture is one of financial surplus there remain variations in financial performance. The surplus is concentrated in Strategic Health Authorities, whilst overall Primary Care Trusts and NHS Trusts remain in deficit Of the 372 NHS organisations, 82 recorded a deficit of £917 million, with 80 per cent of this being reported by just 10 per cent of NHS organisations. There are also regional variations, with the East of England Strategic Health Authority area having a deficit of £153 million and the North West achieving a £189 million surplus. Financial recovery is therefore inconsistent and more needs to be done so that all parts of the NHS achieve financial balance. The Committee concludes that the return to financial balance is the result of the Department's tighter performance management of NHS finances in the way funding flowed through the NHS together with a programme of support for local organisations with particular financial difficulties. In the short term, this largely centralist approach was appropriate. For the future if the NHS is to remain in financial balance more health organisations locally need to improve their financial management. Failure to keep a tight grip on financial performance will undermine health care for patients.

NHS pay modernisation in England
NHS pay modernisation in England

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009-06-18

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780215532268

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Agenda for Change, the pay modernisation programme for 1.1 million NHS staff in England, representing a pay bill of £28 billion in 2007-08, was implemented between December 2004 and December 2006. It covered all NHS staff, except doctors, dentists and senior managers. Agenda for Change introduced a job evaluation scheme and harmonised employment terms and conditions for the multitude of jobs within the NHS. A key part of the programme is a process for encouraging staff development and improving staff performance known as the Knowledge and Skills Framework. Agenda for Change was expected to bring about new ways of working which would contribute to improved patient care and to more efficient delivery of services. Total savings of £1.3 billion over the first five years were predicted. These were to come from improvements in productivity of 1.1 to 1.5 per cent a year, reductions in equal pay claims, reduced use of agency staff and more controllable pay costs. The Department and NHS Trusts did not establish ways of measuring the effects of Agenda for Change and there is no active benefits realisation plan. The NHS pay bill for the staff covered by Agenda for Change has risen by 5.2 per cent a year on average since 2004-05 while productivity fell by 2.5 per cent a year on average between 2001 and 2005. By autumn 2008 (nearly two years after Trusts had completed transferring staff to Agenda for Change terms and conditions and pay rates) only 54 per cent of staff had had a knowledge and skills review.

Financial Management in the NHS
Financial Management in the NHS

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2006-06-07

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 0102938156

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This report examines in detail the 2004-05 revenue situation of NHS organisations and considers key financial management and reporting issues facing the NHS both currently and in the future. Jointly prepared by the National Audit Office and the Audit Commission, the report incorporates the findings of their audit work on the NHS summarised accounts, the consolidated account of NHS foundation trusts, the Department of Health's resource account and the accounts of individual NHS organisations, as well as the unaudited NHS revenue out-turn for 2005-06 as reported by the Department of Health and Monitor. Findings include that in 2004-05, the Department reported a deficit across the NHS as a whole for the first time since 1999-2000, with an aggregate overspend for all NHS bodies of £251.2 million, with 171 out of 615 bodies recording a deficit or overspend, with 68 out of 259 NHS trusts failing to break even, and with 90 out of 303 primary care trusts exceeding their revenue resource limits.

Follow the Money
Follow the Money

Author: Duncan Campbell-Smith

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2008-03-27

Total Pages: 629

ISBN-13: 0141918179

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Most books on politics and government take a view from the top down. They focus on the individuals and institutions that set policies in place and make the laws. But how are these policies and laws translated into action on the ground, where their success or failure helps determine the day to day running of schools and hospitals, police forces and councils? This is the much less familiar territory explored by Follow The Money. It tells the story of the men and women responsible for keeping track of the money spent locally on public services since the early 1980s. What emerges is a rare behind-the-scenes account of the political world in which central government edicts come up against the reality of how things are made to happen at the grass roots. Follow The Money shows how the Commission has helped over 25 years to transform the management of public services, including the NHS, while mediating in an often tense relationship between central and local government from the Thatcher era to the years of New Labour. The result, encompassing a string of scandals and battles between town hall and Whitehall, is a compelling narrative for which an accounting qualification is most certainly not required.

Private finance projects and off-balance sheet debt
Private finance projects and off-balance sheet debt

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Select Committee on Economic Affairs

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-03-17

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780108459634

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A report that recommends a reform of the way, financial liabilities arising from private finance projects (PFPs) are treated in public accounts. It also deals with the growth in the secondary market for PFPs where investors sell on their stake in a project, in many cases once the construction period of that project has been completed.