Capita on behalf on Department of Health, 12 June 2014
- An audit of the 2013/14 costing arrangements and the 2012/13 reference costs submissions of 50 acute trusts found that improvements are needed in the quality of cost information at the majority of trusts audited. Reference cost submissions at one third of trusts audited were materially inaccurate, with ‘at risk’ trusts in particular struggling to cost accurately. Just 12 per cent of trusts had good quality costing across all services.
- Trusts who had poor costing arrangements and inaccurate cost submissions exhibited poor processes and a lack of organisational understanding of the importance and benefits of costing.
- Trusts with visible senior leadership, encouraging the organisation to use cost data, were more likely to have accurate costing.
- The report includes a checklist of 10 areas designed to enable senior managers and board members to improve the quality and utilisation of cost information, based on the key messages presented in this briefing.
