Miaa

TIAN News - Winter 2024

Introduction

I am delighted to welcome you to our seventh edition of TIAN News. This edition spans another wide range of articles on important risk and governance issues, including:

Results of a recent TIAN comparison of 88 NHS Board Assurance Frameworks which identified several areas requiring further focus.
Enforcement action taken by the ICO against a hospital in Scotland due to inadequate security arrangements over patients’ records.
Some key questions to ask when considering the results of feedback from the Friends & Family Test.
Details of recent and upcoming events provided to help support Board members at our NHS clients to keep abreast of new developments.

On behalf of all TIAN members, Happy New Year and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2024!

Louise Cobain, Executive Director of Assurance, MIAA.

Read the full newsletter here

Headlines

Benchmarking of NHS Board Assurance Frameworks (BAF)

TIAN recently undertook a benchmarking exercise comparing the BAFs and Head of Internal Audit Opinions of 75 Provider Trusts (52 Foundation Trusts and 23 NHS Trusts) and 13 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). The result of this were published in a briefing for clients issued at the end of October.

Patient Experience - Friends and Family Test (FFT)

Audit Yorkshire recently undertook an audit specially reviewing FFT at one of its clients and found a considerable number of improvements could be made to provide better insights which are relevant to current concerns and pressures facing all NHS providers.

Update on New Technology Risks

MIAA recently issued an Audit Committee Insight briefing giving an update on some key technology risks for Audit Committees to consider. Areas highlighted within the briefing covered the new and emerging risks.

How securely do your staff treat patient data?

What assurance do you have that basic security standards are being observed across your organisation? The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently urged hospitals to improve data protection standards following an incident at NHS Fife. The organisation was issued with a reprimand in November after an unauthorised person was able to enter a ward and access the personal information of 14 patients.

Developing the Auditors of the Future

TIAN members appreciate that capacity constraints impacting on audit providers can cause significant problems for clients – either through delays in work, reduced competition for contracts and/or increased rates. Across the public sector this problem has been most evident over recent years in the external audit market.

Events Round Up

TIAN members organise and facilitate a number of groups and forums across the country to support and develop NHS governance. e.g. Regional Audit Committee Chair meetings. A wide range of other education, training and networking events are also run, with many of these sessions now held virtually and being accessible to all TIAN members’ NHS clients.

Watch Back

You can watch back recordings of MIAA NW Collaborative Masterclasses or read about all the previous sessions by visiting the North West Collaborative YouTube channel. This includes a recording of the latest webinar on 7th of December 2023 which covered “Transforming the delivery of public services using Human Learning Systems Approach”. This exciting masterclass introduced the human-learning systems approach and explains what this approach means for public services and how it supports the empowerment of all those in our communities.

Similarly, details of past events organised by Audit Yorkshire are available here and 360 Assurance are available here , including a recent half-day virtual session which considered the progress made in Provider Collaboratives, and some of the key areas for consideration – such as governance, measuring success, and involvement of non-NHS organisations.

And Finally….. Public Finance Awards 2023

Members of TIAN were delighted to represent the NHS audit community at CIPFA’s 2023 Public Finance Awards in London on 28th November, having been shortlisted within the “Excellence in Public Sector Audit” category. The standard of entries was as high as ever, with stiff competition and innovation on display across all categories. It was a great evening despite the National Audit Office taking the win in the Audit category, with particular congratulations due to the London Borough of Hillingdon’s Fraud Team - who took the award for Anti-Fraud work and were also named as overall “Grand Prix” winners.