Technical Review - November 2019

NHS England and NHS Improvement will undertake a three-week review and feedback process on the 2019/20 approved costing guidance this month. Updates to the costing standards, technical documents and collection guidance will be uploaded to the open learning platform on 11 November. The national bodies have also launched a survey on the timeframe for issuing costing standards. Under current guidance, the standards are formally issued in the January before the start of the financial year to which they apply – some trusts have raised this as an issue as it means updated standards are not applied until 18 months after they are published. The survey seeks views on changing the issue date of standards so that they are issued in the January of the year to which they apply.

The HFMA has said it is ‘broadly supportive’ of changes to the format of the Financial reporting manual 2020/21 (FReM). The Treasury has been consulting on the manual, including a revised structure. Although NHS bodies do not follow the FReM itself, it provides the framework for the manuals they do use, such as the Department of Health and Social Care’s Group accounting manual. In its response, the association said the FReM overall was improved by the proposed changes, although it highlighted some areas where clarity or consistency of language could be enhanced.

A survey has been launched to understand the impact of the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations 2018, which have now been in place for over a year. The questions have been set centrally by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport and the online survey should take around 30-40 minutes to complete. Details of the cyber security survey were sent directly to the senior information risk owner (SIRO) in all NHS trusts and foundation trusts. NHSX has asked SIROs – around half are finance directors – to ensure their trust completes the survey by 15 November as this will help to shape how the regulations work in the future.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have published community and mental health costing assessment tools (CATs). Part of the costing assurance programme, the tools assess the quality of costing at each trust and the degree to which costing standards have been implemented. community and mental health costing assessments should be submitted to NHS England and NHS Improvement by 20 December. (Ambulance trusts face a deadline of the end of November using an earlier issued CAT).

The HFMA has updated its briefing on going concern. Going concern – assessment and reporting in difficult times summarises the interpretation of the IAS 1 requirements for the public sector and examines reporting requirements for NHS bodies. The auditor’s role is also summarised – the updated briefing reflects changes in the auditor reporting requirements, as well as the publication of the 2018/19 annual reports and accounts.

NHS Improvement published a frequently asked questions document on the implementation of IFRS 16 at the beginning of October. This followed the issue of implementation guidance at the end of September. The new standard, which will apply for NHS bodies from April 2020 changes how lessees account for leases, removing the distinction between operating and finance leases. The guidance includes an implementation plan with milestones.