News / Early closing ‘challenging’

NHS organisations in England face a tough timetable for the early closure of their 2008/09 accounts.

The Department of Health said there should be a month nine hard close on 22 January 2009, with draft accounts in by 23 April. Audited accounts will be in on 12 June and laid before Parliament the next week.

Andy McKeon, managing director for health at the Audit Commission, said the timetable was challenging, as it will run alongside preparations for the introduction of international financial reporting standards.

But he added: ‘It is achievable. Trusts and PCTs that scored threes and fours for financial reporting in the latest round of the Auditors’ Local Evaluation should be well placed to achieve the requirements. NHS bodies, auditors and the Department must work together and make sure all guidance and advice is out in good time.’

The commission has also set out proposals for its new use of resources assessment for primary care trusts in 2008/09.  PCTs that do not meet their annual resource limit will be given a score of one in the managing finances theme.

The commission said this would be the only rule limiting PCTs’ scores in this theme, which will be used by the Healthcare Commission and its successor the Care Quality Commission in their annual healthcheck. Initially the Audit Commission was minded to cap the overall score if a PCT scored one for any of the three themes.

Other changes were proposed. Some themes had even numbers of key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), so organisations could have a ‘split score’, where combinations of scores for individual KLOE result in an average score of 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5. In these cases, the commission proposed using rankings for the KLOEs. The score of the highest ranked KLOE would determine whether scores were rounded up  or down.

The Audit Commission said it was consulting on whether to have an overall use of resources score or to report results separately. The consultation closes on 24 October.