Feature / Technical round-up

Finalising accounts – quality premium – PBR pilots – assurance

The Department of Health will have responsibility for finalising primary care trust and strategic health authority 2012/13 annual reports and accounts, according to a document published on the NHS finance manual website. The circular said SHAs and London PCT accounts will be signed off by a designated Department official, while non-London PCTs would be signed off by an NHS England area team director seconded to the Department.

NHS England has drawn clinical commissioning group (CCG) attention to an error in its quality premium guidance. It said a section implied measures are focused on adults, when it should include all ages.

The Department of Health has published an update on the performance of the drugs and alcohol recovery payment by results (PBR) pilots. The report covers 11 months from the start of the pilots in April 2012 and measures performance against five outcomes. It concludes that while it is too early to make an assessment, so far their performance is mixed.

The interim assurance framework for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for 2013/14 has been published by NHS England. Generally, assurance will examine delivery against plan through a series of quarterly checkpoints. Assessment will be based on five domains:

• Quality of care
• Promotion of patient rights
• Improvements in health outcomes?
• Remaining within their financial allocations?
• Whether CCG authorization conditions are being addressed.

An urgent FAQ for NHS trusts, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities on completing the consolidated statement of cash flows on TRU26/ PCT26/ SHA26 has been issued by the Department of Health. It said a significant number of bodies had not completed the forms correctly and it was essential that the forms agree to the cash and equivalents closing balance.

NHS Scotland has launched a bed-planning tool to ensure that hospitals and communities have the right number of beds in place as the population ages. It said the tool would be used by all health boards and would help them meet the challenge of ageing – the population of over-75s is set to rise by around 80% over the next 20 years, according to projections.

The Department of Health has issued an FAQ for the 2013 reference cost collection after receiving a number of questions from the service. The collection runs from 24 June to 25 July and the FAQ will be updated on a weekly basis until the collection is complete.