Feature / Technical round-up

M7 balances – education – accounts manual update – fraud risk

• The Department of Health has asked all NHS bodies to note that legacy balances are excluded from the month seven agreement of balances exercise. The Department, along with Monitor, NHS England and the NHS Trust Development Authority, decided to remove the requirement to agree legacy balances as part of the wider month seven exercise following delays in the process to complete the transfer of legacy balances to receiver organisations. The month seven exercise will focus solely on payables and receivables agreements in respect of non-legacy balances.
• Provider trusts have been given advance warning of mandatory collections of the costs of education and training activity. In a letter to finance directors Health Education England said the submissions would be required by 31 January 2014 (half-year costs) and June/July (full-year costs). The collections will inform the new tariff-based system for all areas of education and training. Transitional tariffs for non- medical placements and undergraduate medical placements in secondary care were introduced in 2013/14, while a similar tariff for postgraduate/ medical trainees will come into effect on 1 April 2014. To help trusts undertake the costing exercise, HEE is running four roadshows in November.
• The Department of Health has issued the Manual for accounts 2013/14, revised extensively to define group accounting policies and applications. Detailed guidance in a number of areas has been removed and will instead be issued by the Department, NHS England or Monitor.
• The Department of Health has posted accounts payable and accounts receivable addresses ?for successor organisations to primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. The Department said it was publishing the addresses to facilitate the transfer of outstanding invoices.
• NHS England has set out its commissioning intentions for specialised services for 2014/15 and 2015/16. It said the document would serve as the basis for engagement between area teams and providers of specialised services, driving improvements in outcomes and transformation of the design and delivery of care within the resources available.
• Northern Ireland’s Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has warned of a serious fraud risk where false requests have been made to change suppliers’ bank details. This is a reissue of a previous warning following two recent cases.
• The trusts developing a proton beam service for the UK have published their outline business cases. The Treasury approved University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust business cases for the cancer treatment in July. Earlier this year the government pledged £250m to fund the service. Currently, the NHS sends patients abroad, principally to the US, but the two centres hope to treat up to a total of 1,500 patients a year from 2018.
• Monitor has updated its guide for trusts applying for foundation status to take account of the introduction of its new risk assessment framework. The framework, which applies to all providers of NHS-funded services, replaces the Compliance framework.