Briefing / NHS financial temperature check – briefing November 2017

This is the eighth in the HFMA’s series of briefings setting out finance directors’ views on the financial issues facing the NHS in England. The briefing draws on the responses of 80 finance directors of trusts and foundation trusts and chief finance officers of 56 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

The NHS financial temperature check provides a national picture of finance directors’ views of the financial outlook and the challenges NHS finance staff are facing.

2017/18 is proving to be another very challenging financial year for NHS organisations. For the first six months of 2017/18, NHS trusts collectively reported a combined £1.15bn deficit (after receiving £630m from the sustainability and transformation fund) and CCGs collectively reported a £186m overspend against plan. The financial challenges will continue.

Savings requirements are exceptionally demanding. National bodies recognise that they are high risk, with fewer non-recurrent solutions available and a greater proportion of cost improvement savings weighted in the second half of the financial year.

Access to capital and the separate regulatory arrangements for trusts and CCGs are highlighted as barriers to effective working of sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs).

Finance directors are most concerned about delivering the high level of efficiency savings required, workforce gaps and realism over what can be delivered with the existing funding envelope. The pressures continue.