‘The Internal Audit Network’ (TIAN) comprises the seven NHS internal audit consortiums and in-house teams operating across England. These organisations collaborate across a number of areas to leverage their collective knowledge and expertise and drive efficiency and effectiveness. This monthly insight report produced by TIAN highlights key publications and is intended as a useful update and reference tool for our clients.

Department of Health and Social Care - Leading the NHS: proposals to regulate NHS managers

This public consultation seeks views on government proposals to regulate health service managers, ensuring that they follow professional standards and are held to account. The DH&SC is also consulting on whether to introduce a new professional duty of candour on managers and, in addition, whether to make managers accountable for responding to patient safety concerns. This consultation closes on 18/2/25.

Consultation - for information and engagement by individuals and organisations

HM Treasury - Government financial reporting review: Best practice examples from 2022-23

HM Treasury has published extracts from government departments' annual report and accounts 2022/23 that demonstrate best practice reporting. The extracts provide examples of enhanced transparency and accountability, as well as good accessibility and clear presentation of information. The focus is on the performance report and the accountability report with examples showing good use of trend data, graphics to illustrate financial information and balanced reporting of performance against performance metrics. The main report is supplemented with an annex that includes further examples.

For information

NHS England - Statutory and mandatory training 

A letter to trusts provides an update on NHSE’s work to optimise, rationalise and redesign statutory and mandatory training. It includes actions for trusts, including to establish a committee to oversee nationally mandated training by Friday 31 January.

For information and action as necessary by Trusts

NHS England - Evolution of our operating model 

A letter to ICB and trust CEOs and chairs about the NHS operating model details plans for the updated NHS oversight and assessment framework and a new NHS performance, improvement and regulation framework. It includes 4 actions to support system development that will:  

• Simplify and reduce duplication 
• Shift resources, time and energy to neighbourhood health 
• Devolve decision-making to those best placed to make changes
• Enable leaders to manage complexity at a local level 

For information

NHS England - The Insightful Board

NHSE has published guidance to help ICB and provider Boards to assess the effectiveness of the information they collect and use. Using information insightfully – supported by robust corporate governance arrangements.  The ICB guide will help enable the ICB board to:

• Be assured the organisation is meeting its statutory duties
• Spot early warning signs of quality, performance or financial issues across the system
• Ensure that care provided across the system is continuously improving and services meet the population’s Current and future needs
• Stand back and consider whether the ICB’s leadership, culture, systems and processes are getting the right results

This guide is built around the 6 functional areas which underpin how ICBs deliver their purpose. It suggests, within each functional area, a range of indicators, information and lines of enquiry to help ICBs – it does not mean that ICBs need to structure their board reporting in this way. It is not a checklist of data and behaviours; it is a starting point that ICB boards can adapt and develop in line with their needs, reflecting the scale and complexity of their systems. There is also similar guidance for the boards of NHS providers.

For information and action as necessary by both ICB and Provider Boards

NHS England - Right Care, Right Person

Our Right Care, Right Person - National Partnership Agreement guidance includes information on a phased implementation process and best practice multi-agency working. It is aimed at ICBs, mental health, ambulance and acute service providers. This initiative is designed to help avoid unwarranted police involvement in mental health care by improving access to personalised mental health support.

For information

House of Commons Library - The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024–25

The Bill passed its second reading on 29 November 2024, and this briefing provides an overview of the Bill and key areas of debate.

For information

Health Services Safety Investigations Body - Mental health inpatient settings: out-of-area placements

This report finds that patients experience harm with the continued use of out-of-area placements for their mental health inpatient care. It explores what drives the need for out-of-area placements, and the impact on patients and families when they are placed far from their homes.

For information and action by providers of Mental Health services

Kings Fund - NHS and life sciences industry partnerships: collaborating to improve care

This report examines how the NHS can collaborate with industry partners in the life sciences sector by exploring four case studies of collaborative working projects between NHS organisations and pharmaceutical companies.

For information

NHS Providers - Providers deliver: shifting care upstream

This report shows how, in the face of a very challenging environment, trusts are innovating and adapting to deliver the three key shifts called for by the government:

• Hospital to community,
• Analogue to digital, and
• Treatment to prevention.

For information

NHS Providers - State of the provider sector 2024

This survey shares trust leaders' responses to current pressures across the health care sector. The findings show how years of squeezed funding, major workforce challenges, and rising demand on hospitals and ambulance services have taken their toll, with overstretched community and mental health teams also coming under increasing strain.

For information

NHS Providers - Digital transformation survey 2024: challenges, opportunities and priorities for trust leaders

This report finds that NHS trusts are being held back from further and faster digital transformation of services by limited budgets, day-to-day pressures and inadequate IT infrastructure. NHS leaders are calling for a step-change in support to drive the digital revolution, including long-term, sustainable, strategic investment so that they can make the most of new technology.

For information

NHS Confederation - Greater than the sum of its parts? Sharing board leadership between NHS trusts

This report explores the learning from shared leadership models in provider trusts in England. Despite the absence of a national policy to support shared leadership arrangements, many regions, systems and organisations in England regard them as beneficial in addressing the challenges faced by the NHS provider sector. The reasons for this are explored in detail in this report. It also makes recommendations for those considering similar arrangements.

For information

NHS Confederation - Unlocking prevention in integrated care systems

This report establishes: what prevention means to people working within integrated care systems (ICSs); the barriers, enablers and opportunities for prevention within systems; best practice on overcoming those barriers; and the support needed at the national level to progress the prevention agenda through ICSs.

An accompanying guide explores practical considerations for leaders looking to move forward decisively with the delivery of their strategic prevention agenda by demonstrating impact in the short term. It includes emerging thinking and prompt questions to support leaders in system-level discussions, together with case studies of how system partners are driving forward progress in practice.   

For information

NHS Confederation - The state of integration at place: exploring how and why place is the 'engine room' of integration

This report details how integration through the places that matter to people can shift the government’s ambitions to prioritise community-centred design and delivery of services into a working reality. It draws on the insights of more than 60 leaders across integrated care boards, integrated care partnerships, local NHS services (including acute and primary care), local government, and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, and two roundtables with local leaders focused specifically on how the new Labour government can best enable integration at place.

For information

University of York Centre for Health Economics - Costs and activity for mental health services provided by NHS mental health trusts in England: sociodemographic and regional trends

This study, supported by the Health Foundation, showed that between 2016 and 2019, total costs of secondary mental health services increased by 13%, outpacing the average inflation rate of 2.3%. The number of individuals needing to use NHS secondary mental health services also rose by 8%. The highest costs were seen among working-age men and residents of England’s most deprived areas.

For information of Mental Health providers

HFMA/NHS Shared Business Services - The NHS productivity challenge

This joint briefing between the HFMA and SBS explores the impact of finance transformation on productivity, noting the opportunity for efficiencies and changes in job roles.

For information 

HFMA - The value of Internal Audit

This report sets out key considerations to ensure an internal audit provides effective assurance and value. The key role of internal audit is assurance, however internal audit can also provide valuable insight and foresight. This paper sets out: 

• The key elements of the internal audit plan and head of internal audit (HoIA) opinion
• Why they are important
• Key questions organisations should consider to ensure they have in place an internal audit function that provides effective assurance and value. 

Further detail on the roles and requirements of internal audit are set out in chapter nine of the HFMA's NHS audit committee handbook.

For information

HFMA/NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) – Using data to monitor and manage counter fraud work

The NHSCFA is a special health authority charged with identifying, investigating and preventing fraud within the NHS and wider health group. One of the goals of its Fraud Hub is to reduce and prevent fraud by utilising counter fraud statistics and data and to share information and good practice across all parts of the NHS.

The NHSCFA launched its external reporting tool in January 2024. The tool provides key information on counter fraud activity and useful benchmarking and insights on return on investment for counter fraud provision, best practice in counter fraud activity, and identification of emerging fraud risks. Quarterly updates support NHS organisations to monitor and manage their counter fraud work. 

This briefing sets out the purpose, functionality, and how to navigate through the suite of reports (supported by a short navigational video), as well as examples of how they can be used to provide actionable insights.

For information

Disclaimer: This briefing paper is intended to highlight recent developments and issues within the NHS that may be of interest to non-executive directors, lay members and NHS managers. It is not exhaustive and TIAN cannot be held responsible for any omission.