Technical review - December 2017

Some recommendations are not applicable for NHS bodies, but others are:

• The requirement to make detailed, quantitative disclosures, explaining the expected impact of the three new reporting standards (IFRSs 9, 15 and 16) and their likely impact. For NHS bodies, it is not expected that IFRSs 9 and 15 (covering respectively financial instruments and revenue from contracts with customers) will have a material impact unless they are party to material longer term or unusual contracts for income.  Research contracts and long-term contracts for new models of care might be impacted by IFRS 9.  IFRS 16 (leases) will have a material impact on the accounts and should be discussed at more length

• Improvements to disclosures in relation to critical judgements and estimates and accounting policies.  For NHS bodies, one of the areas of judgement that has a material impact on the accounts is the valuation of non-current assets.  Other areas of judgment include income recognition and whether or not provisions are established.

A glossary for NHS and local government finance and governance has been published by the Integration Finance Network – a partnership between the HFMA and CIPFA. With the two sectors increasingly working together to deliver public services integrated around the needs of users, practitioners on both sides need to understand the terminology being used by their partner organisations. The briefing, updating an earlier version, begins by outlining ‘who does what’ in the NHS and local government and then explains frequently used terms used for finance and governance.

NHS Improvement and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are conducting a consultation on how the new use of resources assessment will rate trusts and how the ratings will be reported. The move follows the publication of the use of resources framework and methodology in August. Feedback is being sought on how the CQC will turn the proposed use of resources ratings into the final CQC rating; and how this rating will be combined with the CQC’s quality ratings (safety, caring, effective, responsive and well-led) to produce an overall trust rating. The consultation closes early in January. Use of resources assessments are already under way in non-specialist acute trusts – with all acute trusts due to have been assessed by the end of 2019. The assessments take place alongside, but not on the same day as, core service and well-led inspections.

The Northern Ireland Audit Office has published a good practice guide on preventing bribery and corruption in the public sector. The guide aims to help officials and public sector bodies identify how bribery and corruption can occur, highlight key risk areas and gives advice on how these can be mitigated. The guide includes a self-assessment checklist. NIAO comptroller and auditor general Kieran Donnelly said the risk in Northern Ireland was low, but bribery and corruption were still present, and complacency carried its own dangers.

Initial results from an HFMA survey on use of the new apprenticeship levy in England suggests most organisations expect to get back less than 25% of the amount they have paid into the levy this year. Organisations can access the amounts they have paid, plus a government top-up, through their own digital accounts. They have two years to access the funds. Only a few of organisations taking part believed they would ever be able to use more than 75% of the levy. The finding follows wider national figures showing a 60% reduction in the numbers starting apprenticeships across all sectors in the first quarter following the introduction of the levy. However, the HFMA survey also found that about half the respondents had taken on apprentices as a result of the levy, covering wide-ranging areas, from finance and catering to nursing and biomedical sciences.