NHS Tayside financial governance arrangements: independent review

Introduction

Introduction

Following on from the two reviews undertaken in March 2018:

1. The Grant Thornton UK LLP independent review of the allocation of Scottish Government e-Health monies to NHS Tayside; and

2. the NHS Tayside's management review of e-Health funding transferred to NHS Tayside

The Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate (" SGHSCD") asked Grant Thornton UK LLP to undertake a follow up review of certain NHS Tayside arrangements, specifically as they relate to:

• Review of the controls that will be implemented by NHS Tayside in response to the review into the allocation of e-Health monies.
• Undertake a review of Board reserves and Deferred Expenditure following on from NHS Tayside's internal review of controls and reporting
• Form an independent view on the level of transparency and the effectiveness of financial governance at NHS Tayside between the financial years 2012/13 and 2017/18 with specific reference to:

I. The scale and use of deferred expenditure by NHS Tayside between 2012 -2018 to manage its financial position;

II. The extent to which the NHS Tayside Board, Finance and Resources Committee and Audit Committee were engaged in decisions regarding the year-end financial position and use of endowment fund retrospectively in 2013/14; and

III. The review will also take into consideration the findings and recommendations noted in relevant internal and external audit reports

We note that the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator ( OSCR) are currently undertaking an independent review in respect of the use of endowments in 2013/14 and the role of the Endowment Trustees and Endowment Fund External Auditors. Our review will not duplicate this work although they will be aligned.

Scope

In accordance with our engagement letter dated 15 April 2018, the scope of our work was set out in a scoping document which is referenced in Appendix 1 of this report for information.

Limitations of scope

This report sets out our findings based on the work performed up to 18 May 2018. Should further information become available subsequent to the date of this report, we reserve the right to reconsider our conclusions in light of such additional information.

Our conclusions are based on documentation provided to us by NHS Tayside, interviews with members of the current NHS Tayside Finance team and the NHS Tayside Head of Internal Audit.

Recognising the period of time involved certain members of the senior leadership team and the finance team are no longer employees of NHS Tayside and therefore we could not undertake interviews with those staff and are reliant on emails, committee papers and supporting documentation to support our conclusions.