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This Draft Local Audit Bill, sets out the government's vision for the future of local audit. It has been designed to implement the government's commitment to disband the Audit Commission and re-focus audit on helping local people hold their councils and other local public bodies to account for local spending decisions. The aim of this new draft bill is to develop a locally focused audit regime, but one still retaining a high quality of audit of local government spending. The government views the current audit arrangements for local public bodies as inefficient and unnecessarily centralised, which has created a system of weak cost incentives and therefore become too focused on reporting to central government and not local people. The new audit framework will also allow bodies to appoint their own auditors from an open and competitive market. The Bill also gives new responsibilities to the Financial Reporting Council, which will act as the overall regulator for auditors; the National Audit Office, which will set the code of audit practice; and the professional audit bodies will also have a role in regulating and monitoring audits.
Clinical audit is at the heart of clinical governance. Provides the mechanisms for reviewing the quality of everyday care provided to patients with common conditions like asthma or diabetes. Builds on a long history of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals reviewing case notes and seeking ways to serve their patients better. Addresses the quality issues systematically and explicitly, providing reliable information. Can confirm the quality of clinical services and highlight the need for improvement. Provides clear statements of principle about clinical audit in the NHS.
With unrivalled political savvy and a keen sense of irony, distinguished political scientists Anthony King and Ivor Crewe open our eyes to the worst government horror stories and explain why the British political system is quite so prone to appalling mistakes.
Care for patients who have suffered major trauma, for example following a road accident or a fall, has not significantly improved in the last 20 years despite numerous reports identifying poor practice, and services are not being delivered efficiently or effectively. Survival rates vary significantly, with a range from five unexpected survivors to eight unexpected deaths per 100 trauma patients, reflecting the variable quality of care. 450 to 600 lives could be saved each year in England if major trauma care was managed more effectively. For best outcomes care should be led by consultants experienced in major trauma; but major trauma is most likely to occur at night and at weekends, when con...
This report highlights key trends and variations in the delivery of healthcare across the four nations of the UK. Life expectancy varies significantly across the UK - from 75.9 in Scotland to 78.6 in England for men, and from 80.4 in Scotland to 82.6 in England for women. Spending on health services in the UK more than doubled in cash terms in the last decade. In 2010-11, despite devoting a higher proportion of total public spending to health, England spent the least on health per person. NHS staff has also increased over the last decade. Scotland has the most GPs per person (80 per 100,000 people in 2009 compared with 70 in England and 65 per 100,000 in both Wales and Northern Ireland). Sco...
What are public health services? Countries across Europe understand what they are or what they should include differently. This study describes the experiences of nine countries detailing the ways they have opted to organize and finance public health services and train and employ their public health workforce. It covers England France Germany Italy the Netherlands Slovenia Sweden Poland and the Republic of Moldova and aims to give insights into current practice that will support decision-makers in their efforts to strengthen public health capacities and services. Each country chapter captures the historical background of public health services and the context in which they operate; sets out ...
This new edition incorporates revised guidance from H.M Treasury which is designed to promote efficient policy development and resource allocation across government through the use of a thorough, long-term and analytically robust approach to the appraisal and evaluation of public service projects before significant funds are committed. It is the first edition to have been aided by a consultation process in order to ensure the guidance is clearer and more closely tailored to suit the needs of users.
The Government's first sale of shares in Lloyds Banking Group in September 2013 was managed effectively and provided value for money. United Kingdom Financial Investments (UKFI) thoroughly reviewed available options for a sale. It chose a process that maintained flexibility and allowed the sale to take place quickly, once a decision to sell had been taken. Taking account of market conditions and the fact that this was the first of a series of sales, UKFI decided to minimise risk by selling the shares only to institutional investors. Ahead of the sale, UKFI commissioned an extensive analysis of the value of the shares and priced the sale at 75p a share, a 3 per cent discount to the closing ma...
While arrangements for identifying and testing for risks to food safety are relatively mature and effective, similar arrangements for the authenticity of food are not. Government has failed to identify the possibility of adulteration of beef products with horsemeat despite indications of heightened risk. A split in responsibilities for food policy between the Food Standards Agency and two Whitehall departments in 2010 has led to confusion among stakeholders about the role of the Agency and Defra in responding to food authenticity incidents. Local authorities said they continue to be unclear on whom to contact in certain areas of food policy. Local authorities reported 1,380 cases of food fra...