Feature / Technical round-up

Audit fees – data returns – balance agreement – quality governance

The Audit Commission has proposed a 10% reduction on its 2011/12 scale fees for health bodies in 2012/13. In Proposed work programme and scale of fees 2012/13, which was published today, the commission said it hoped to reduce fees even further following the current procurement exercise. The exercise will outsource its audit practice work from the 2012/13 audits. In 2012/13 the commission plans to focus local value for money work in trusts on securing financial resilience and prioritising resources. ?

The Department of Health has launched a consultation on reducing the number of data returns by 25%. It said this would save the NHS around £10m. The consultation closes on 22 November.  

The Q2 agreement of balances timetable (receivables and payables), contacts spreadsheet hosted, services information, instructions and forms have now been posted on the NHS finance manual website. NHS foundation trusts are not expected to participate at Q2, but agreement forms have been posted to FT pigeonholes for those who wish to take part. Foundations will participate from Q3 onwards, when the exercise will be for both receivables / payables and revenue/expenditure. ? 
  
Northern Ireland’s Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has published its resource accounts for 2010/11. The accounts cover overall spending of £3.88m against estimate cover of just over £4bn. Health and social care trusts recorded an overall surplus of £400,000 
  
Monitor has set out its requirements for quality governance assurance in transactions. The regulator introduced the Quality governance framework into its assessment process in 2010, which was subsequently brought into its compliance framework. The document sets out changes to the compliance framework following a consultation on using the quality governance framework in risk assessment in transactions. These include different requirements for material and significant transactions, as well as those where a trust acquires a provider of substantially different care services than it currently offers. ?
 
A ‘ready reckoner’ tool issued by the Department of Health aims to help clinical commissioning groups work through the financial implications of different commissioning support arrangements and delivery models. The tool has been designed to help organisations understand the potential impact that different populations could have on resources and the potential costs for different internal staffing structures.  
  
The Department of Health underspent its revenue departmental expenditure limit by £968m in 2010/11, according to its annual report and accounts for 2010/11. The underspend was largely attributable to underspending by NHS bodies. It also underspent its annually managed expenditure (AME) budget by £2bn, which includes spending on certain impairments, provisions and other demand-led or exceptionally volatile spending. The Department said this was mainly due to reduced spending on reform transition costs following the listening exercise. ? 
     
Monitor has updated its Compliance framework 2011/12 to reflect changes in its regulatory approach since the document was published in March. The changes include revisions to definitions of mental health indicators and changes to A&E clinical quality indicators. There are also a number of clarifications to the framework’s frequently asked questions.