Non-pay discretionary spend controls
As we continue to navigate through one of the most financially challenging periods the NHS has faced, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge your collective commitment, support and resilience in ensuring we continue to provide safe high quality care for our service users and patients.
In response to the ongoing financial pressures across the region, NHS Cheshire & Merseyside ICB established a System Financial Control Oversight Group (FCOG) to undertake a review of current non-pay expenditure.
As part of this review, the FCOG has recommended the implementation of more robust controls on discretionary spending to make sure resources are managed responsibly and directed to where they are needed most.
Discretionary spend refers to an expense that is not necessary and can either be reduced, stopped, or postponed by the Trust without undermining patient care.
This includes:
- Advertising for staff recruitment
- Books, journals and subscriptions (non-mandatory)
- Conferences and seminars
- Computer hardware purchases
- Design costs (except essential to progress capital projects)
- External consultancy fees
- External contracts: catering
- Furniture and fittings
- Hospitality
- Mobile phones (except essential staff requirement)
- Office equipment and materials: purchase/hire/repairs
- Non essential printing
- Professional fees
- Stationery
- Taxi and other vehicle hire (except patient flow/internal transport service)
- Travel costs (except essential staff travel).
Spending in any of these areas that directly impacts on patient care may be allowed, but will be subject to appropriate approval from a senior level.
This will now be replaced by a new process where requests for discretionary products or services are submitted via a dedicated online form.
You can also access this from the Fin & Proc Self Service desktop icon on your device (pictured below).
Procurement
We provide specialist procurement advice, achieving excellent value for money through strong and effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Order to pay
Providing excellent, efficient, and effective purchase to pay services, which are customer focused and an essential function supporting the delivery of perfect care.
Submit a new enquiry
To access the Finance and Procurement Self Service Portal go to: http://selfservice.xmerseyhc.nhs.uk or select the Fin & Proc Self Service desktop icon on your device (available from 3 November).
To submit a new enquiry, select Add Enquiry.
Choose the relevant Name, Type, Category, and Urgency for your enquiry from the Description panel, then enter the details in the Description text box. You should also complete the mandatory questions in the panel on the right.
To add supporting documents to your enquiry, go to the Attachments panel, select the desired file(s), and select Open to attach it. Your document(s) will appear in the Attachments panel.
Select the Submit button after inputting all the required information to submit your enquiry to the Finance and Procurement Team.
Your enquiry will be logged as an incident with the Finance and Procurement Team and will appear as a recorded incident on the Summary Page. You will be notified by email each time there is an update on the status of your enquiry until the incident is closed.
Access support
If you have any problems accessing the Finance and Procurement Self Service Portal, please request support through the IM Digital Portal.
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P2P Team |
Phone |
Dial 01925 972 767, Option 1 for Finance, then 1 for invoice/payment queries or
Option 2 for Procurement, then 1 for Purchase Order Query, 2 for Supply chain query |
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Escalation contacts: |
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Procurement queries |
Lyn Stanton |
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P2P supervisor |
Jill Roberts |
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P2P manager |
Natalie Hooper |
Customers
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Invoice Queries |
Self-Service |
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Procurement Queries |
Self-Service |
Suppliers
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Invoice Queries |
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Procurement Queries |
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Formal Commercial Contracts/Agreements
The Procurement team is currently updating its contracts register to ensure that it is up to date and contains details of all commercial contracts currently in effect within the Trust.
Commercial contracts are legally binding agreements made between the Trust and third party suppliers; typical examples include any contracts/agreements for the provision of services, including consultancy/clinical supervision agreements, as well as equipment rent/lease/loan agreements.
To ensure that we capture such contracts, please send over details of any known commercial contract(s) applicable to your team to holly
Please note that agreements made directly with commercial suppliers that are not covered with an official purchase order, or do not have a formal contract in place via the Procurement Department may leave the Trust open to risk.
If you have any queries please contact either Paul.Harrison2@merseycare.nhs.uk or Colin.Todd@merseycare.nhs.uk
If you have any issues accessing the Finance and Procurement Enquiries module, contact the IT Service Desk: http://selfservice.xmerseyhc.nhs.uk.
The below graphics show good practice when ordering goods or services and where this sometimes falls down.
Please note that while these diagrams reference older terminology (P2P) the process remains the same for Finance and Procurement Enquiries.
