Despite funding and staffing levels for mental health services increasing, and more patients being treated, millions of people with mental health needs are still not accessing services, with some facing lengthy waits for treatment, according to a new National Audit Office report.
This page is part of our decommissioning toolkit. There can be many technical aspects to carrying out decommissioning include workforce considerations, ending of contracts, finances etc. It is important to get professional advice early on in the process, especially because the process of decommissioning can take place very quickly and there may not be time […]
This is our second report on backlogs for elective and cancer care. It examines the design of NHSE’s recovery plan, how the NHS has been implementing the plan and the ongoing risks NHSE has to manage.
Better access to public information can improve accountability and service delivery. Government needs a firm grasp of whether that potential is being realised.
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. Using grant While grant making is less regulated than procurement, there remain important rules you need to follow if you choose this approach as the basis for a financial relationship. Elsewhere, we discuss the need for a power to pay a grant, and for the need to […]
The Drug Treatment and Testing Order can be a successful community sentence for some drug misusing offenders who would otherwise have been considered for a prison sentence, according to a report to Parliament today by the National Audit Office. However, only 28 per cent of Orders terminated in 2003 were completed in full or were […]
This page is part of our decommissioning toolkit. The table outlines what good practice should look like in some of the key areas relating to carrying out decommissioning. It then identifies the risks of not following this good practice and looks at how these risks might be mitigated or what actions commissioners can take when […]
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. The rules on when you can use grant and when you can use procurement mean there are many situations when a public body could use either. You need to decide which one is more suitable for your programme, service or intended outcome and is likely to provide the […]
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. What are third sector organisations? ‘Third sector organisations’ is a term used to describe the range of organisations that are neither public sector nor private sector. It includes voluntary and community organisations (both registered charities and other organisations such as associations, self-help groups and community groups), social enterprises, mutuals and […]
This sets out the role, costs and performance of CCGs, the changing commissioning landscape and the future of CCGs.
Explore the broad trends identified by our report Homelessness and build a richer understanding of what they mean for different parts of the country.
This report examines the financial sustainability of mainstream schools in England.
The introduction of new arrangements in 2000 for the funding of civil legal aid has led to better scrutiny by the Legal Services Commission of the work of its suppliers and a greater degree of control over the civil legal aid budget, according to Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office. As the […]
Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that good progress has been made in recent years in increasing the overall employment rate for older people. The gap between the proportion of older people in work compared to the general working population has also narrowed by 1 per cent over […]
Following reforms to decision-making and the appeal process in social security benefits, introduced in 1999 by the Department for Work and Pensions, the number of appeals against decisions has fallen overall by around 15 per cent and waiting times for appeal hearings have been cut. Since the reforms, decision-making performance for some benefits, but not […]
This page is part of our decommissioning toolkit. The table outlines what good practice should look like in some of the key areas relating to understanding needs and making a decision to decommission. It identifies the risks of not following good practice and looks at how these risks might be mitigated and what actions commissioners […]
The National Probation Service Information Systems Strategy (NPSISS) network is operating in 38 out of the 42 new local probation areas in England and Wales. Nevertheless, there were serious problems in the development of a case recording and management system, known as CRAMS, leading to its use by a minority of probation service areas. During […]
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. Constructing and maintaining good financial relationships between public bodies and third sector organisations (TSOs) has never been straightforward. If anything, achieving this has become more difficult as more and more financial relationships are made through public sector commissioning processes. But good financial relationships are important – to help achieve […]
The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) are the very first audited set of accounts showing in one place the financial position of the whole public sector. However, the NAO considers that the picture is incomplete.
The NHS delivered a £2.1bn surplus in 2011-12 but there is some financial distress in NHS trusts with some very large deficits.