Finance and Sustainability Committee Assurance Report - February 2025
Meeting: Public Meeting
Date: 12 February 2025
Report Title: Finance and Sustainability Committee Assurance Report
Agenda Item: PUB25/02/6.1
Committee Date: 27 November 2024
Meeting Chair: Julie Thallon, Non-Executive Director
Meeting Quorate: YES
Purpose: Assurance
Recommendation: The Board is asked to receive assurance from the business discussed at the meeting and to review the matters for escalation and referral.
Link to Strategic Objective:
- Provide outstanding quality of care and performance
- Be excellent collaborators and innovators as system partners
Summary of Items Considered at the Meeting
| Issue | Consideration | Resolution/Outcome | Assurance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance report | The current financial position was discussed – improved variance to plan. A more detailed plan around capital forecasting was being developed for the Board. | More detailed work around longer-term forecasting and planning around capital spend to be completed and reported to the Board. A regular paper will be brought to the committee on the risks and opportunities. Further work was needed on the Patient Transport Service to get back to financial balance. More detailed paper to be submitted to the next meeting. | Good |
| Quality Cost Improvement Programme report | The committee considered the QCIP position in 2024/25 and planning for 2025/26. Discussed alignment with Business Planning but also in context of opportunities in the PA Consulting and benchmarking reports. There was a high level of frustration about the ability to approach this differently to deliver the efficiencies and productivity. | Work was underway with the leadership team to develop plans which could inform discussions with commissioners and at Board about the tensions between financial delivery and performance in the context of higher than expected activity growth. A more detailed paper would be submitted to the committee in February. The introduction of a more programme management approach was expected to provide better traction. | Limited |
| Benchmarking report | The committee reviewed the NHS England annual report comparing all ambulance Trusts against some clinical and a number of corporate areas. It considered the applicability and how this could influence the business planning and QCIP opportunities in 2025/26. | The committee agreed that the Trust should not just assume that getting to lower levels or median was necessarily the best approach – it should be reviewed in more detail to determine where opportunities may lie that did not negatively impact on services and care. | Good |
| PA Diagnostic recommendations | The committee discussed the report and the Executive response to the recommendations. | The recommendations will be pulled into the planned discussions around the transformation programmes and business planning discussions. These will be brought back to the Committee for further review as part of the business planning updates. | Moderate |
| Sustainability Strategy and Green Plan | This was the first time this has been discussed at Committee as a result of the change in the governance arrangement. The committee was reminded of the statutory requirements to deliver against the green agenda. | Further work to be carried out on the best form of the report to committee to provide assurance to Board. Clarify the route to committee for the Sustainability Working Group. Explore ecosystems and partners to see how we can maximise opportunities to help with this agenda. | Moderate |
| Transformation Programme Group Update | The committee discussed the need to consolidate a number of programmes and projects across the Trust. There was scope for duplication and overlap, and clarity was needed. | Work was underway to review the totality of the change and development programmes across the Trust. Work to be undertaken to ensure that what was reported to committee was at the right level for information and action and for onward assurance to the Board. | Moderate |
| Committee Integrated Performance Report (IPR) | The committee received a verbal update on the development of the Analytics team and the development of the IPR. Investment in the team had resulted in more capacity to deliver. | Further capacity and capability review was underway and work to look at how to enable local access to and interpretation of data and information. Review of scope with colleagues to see if other areas should be included such as digital and commercial. Update proposal to be presented to committee chairs to ensure it met the needs of the committees. | Moderate |
| Board Assurance Framework | The committee discussed the current SO4 risk around financial delivery. The current scoring, controls and mitigations need to be reviewed since they may not be indicative of the success of the controls that are in place. | Risks to be reviewed and brought back for the committee to discuss in February. To be reviewed in the context of business planning for 2025/26. There were no proposed changes to current risks or their rating. | Moderate |
| Sub-group Assurance Reports | As discussed at other committee meetings, this report did not meet the needs of the committee. The format and content needed to be reviewed and to determine if all groups were appropriately reporting to the Finance and Sustainability Committee. | A review of all sub-groups was being carried out by the Governance team. | Limited |
Matters for Escalation or Referral
None
