The franchising of Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust
Published on:The first private company awarded a franchise to run an NHS hospital has made improvements in some clinical areas, but big financial challenges remain.
The first private company awarded a franchise to run an NHS hospital has made improvements in some clinical areas, but big financial challenges remain.
Two government programmes aiming to help families with multiple challenges, such as unemployment and anti-social behaviour, are starting to provide benefits but considerable challenges remain.
Despite some welcome improvements, HMRC’s performance in answering calls from the public is poor value for money.
This guide provides practical advice on how to plan for and manage the decommissioning of public services delivered by civil society organisations (CSOs) and maintain value for money while doing so.
This paper highlights key issues for public bodies to consider in closing and merging arm’s length bodies.
The MOD acted promptly to revert to the decision to buy the vertical take-off version of the Joint Strike Fighter but will have to manage significant risks.
The BBC has reduced its spending on support functions but in future it should plan for cuts by clearly defining the level of service it requires and what that should cost.
PaceSetter has led to productivity improvements and may have contributed to greater staff engagement. However, the extent to which overall efficiency has improved is not clear; and some key principles of process improvement are not yet being applied strategically across the entire organisation.
The competition to let this franchise lacked oversight. The full cost to the taxpayer is unknown, but likely to be significant.
The NAO has reported on the 2012-22 Equipment Plan of the Ministry of Defence.
The Highways Agency’s PFI contract to widen the M25 could have been better value for money. The slowness with which it was taken forward resulted in higher financing costs, and the Agency was slow to investigate a potentially cheaper alternative to widening.
This paper highlights key issues for public bodies to consider in facing the challenge of adopting a more structured approach to cost reduction.
By setting up an Infrastructure Financing Unit, Treasury helped reactivate the lending market for private finance projects. While the costs for projects in 2009 represented value for money, Treasury should not presume that continuing the use of private finance at current rates will be value for money.
The HS1 project has delivered a high performing line, which was subsequently sold in a well-managed way. But international passenger numbers are falling far short of forecasts and the project costs exceed the value of journey time saving benefits.
Lessons from the large body of experience of using PFI can be applied to improve other forms of procurement. Government should also do more to act as an ‘intelligent customer’ in the procurement and management of projects.
This paper sets out a framework for effective management of staff costs in a challenging environment of cost reduction in public services. It builds on the high level principles set out in the NAO’s short guide to structured cost reduction.
We have published this model to provide guidance to Departments on HMT’s and NAO’s expectations of how they should manage their programmes involving PPP and PFI projects.
The scale of the support currently provided to UK banks has fallen from a peak of £955 billion to £512 billion, but the amount of cash currently borrowed by the Government to support banks has risen by £7 billion since December 2009. It is likely the taxpayer will be providing support for years to come.
This report examines how PFI performs to contracted timetable and to price.
Good financial management is at the core of good management in government. It supports decision making and the effective running of organisations.