Pooled Fund Management Notes, Guidance and Responsibilities of Role

POOLED FUND MANAGEMENT ROLE– Notes, guidance and responsibilities

The section 33 pool fund manager is a key role to ensure a successful community equipment service partnership.

There is quite a lot of ambiguity around who should take on the responsibility of this role; this is mainly due to the different set up arrangements of the various services. There is no one answer to this, although quite simply the role should be undertaken by someone with a working knowledge of the equipment service, and with a high level of competency in managing budgets and financial information.

The ICES guidance suggested that the pooled funding responsibility could be incorporated into the single operational manager role. This view was also endorsed by the Audit Commission. This is acceptable as long as there is no conflict of interest.

It is most important the individual/s appointed to the role possess a good understanding of the operational components of the equipment service together with financial management skills. This is particularly important should there be a decision to reduce expenditure - in the event of a potential overspend, as they will need to be aware of the impact such decisions may have upon service users.

Another factor to consider when creating the role is the time commitment required to satisfactorily fulfil the role. As a general guide the role should ideally be a half time position for an average size service e.g. population 300,000 – 600,000. Should the population be in excess of 1 million, or the service very complex with multiple partners,further consideration should be given to the hours required to fulfil the role. It is recommended to review the role at regular intervals.

Key tasks and responsibilities

The following tasks and responsibilities have been compiled in order to provide some thought relating to the scope and complexity of the role. Once considered Partnerships should then identify an individual who is best suited to meet these requirements.

The Pool Manager shall be accountable directly to the Chair of the partnership board.

The Pool Manager shall be responsible for authorising expenditure and the host organisation shall make payments from the Pooled Fund in accordance with the Service description, as set out in the Schedules.

The Pool Manager shall be responsible for managing the budget of the Pooled Fund and forecasting and reporting to the partnership board upon the targets and information in accordance with Schedules 4 and 5 of the agreement and any further targets or performance measures that may be set by the board from time to time.

The Pool Manager shall arrange for the audit of the Pooled Fund and report to the Authorised Officers on behalf of the host organisation in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations.

The Pool Manager shall submit to the Partners quarterly reports, an annual return regarding the income of and expenditure from the Pooled Fund, reports on performance against budget and targets and other information by which the Partners can monitor the effectiveness of the Pooled Fund arrangements.

The Pool Manager shall maintain and provide information in the form and manner set out in Schedule 5 for so long as any part of the Service is being provided to Clients.

The Pool Manager shall report monthly on the financial and budgetary information listed in Schedule 5 and in the format specified in the schedule.

The Pool Manager shall ensure that action is taken to correct any projected variation from the Pooled Fund, reporting on the variation and the action taken or proposed to the partnership board.

The Pool Manager shall also ensure that any matters relating to the Pooled Fund that might have a material impact on expenditure or income in future years are identified and reported to the partnership board in time to be taken into account in the financial planning and budget setting process.

SCHEMES OF FINANCIAL DELEGATION

The Pool Manager is responsible for managing the Pooled Fund on behalf of Partners. In turn the Pool Manager is authorised to delegate this to operational leads in each Partner organisation. See following example

The operational leads that have been granted delegated budget authority by the Pool Manager will be bound by the financial frameworks and standing orders of the respective Partners contributing to the individual service budgets within the Pooled Fund. All budget delegations are subject to the following:

• The availability of approved budget provision.
• Compliance with any legislation, and schemes or policies of the relevant Partner in operation, including Financial Regulations, Financial Instructions and Standing Orders.
• The right for any authorised manager to refer matters up to their line manager for advice or decision.
• The right for any line manager and/or the Pool Manager to require that particular decisions be referred to them for advice or decision.

POOLED BUDGET MANAGEMENT COSTS

The Pooled Fund will include the costs of the following:

• Pool Manager’s pay and ancillary costs.
• Pool Manager’s office costs (apportioned as necessary and agreed by the partnership board)
• Audit costs and associated professional fees agreed in relation to the management of the Pooled Fund.

These costs will be agreed by Partners, and contributions will be apportioned according to activity and usage of service (e.g.60:40). Over and under-spends against these costs will be shared by the Partners on the same basis.

Any reasonable costs incurred by either party that fall outside of the above needs to be presented to the partnership board for discussion and agreement of contributions. This may include where operational activities are transferred between Partners to facilitate the smooth running of the Pooled Fund. (e.g. invoice payment functions).

Operation of the Pooled Fund/Pooled Fund Manager – to be included in agreement (Issued In Guidance 2008)

The Partners agree that <lead organisation> shall be the host organisation in accordance with the Regulations and the <lead organisation> agrees to the following:

• To appoint a person to be the responsible officer for the pooled fund under the regulations for the agreement period
• To set out the accountability arrangements for the pooled fund manager including performance of the agreement
• To provide a management accounting service to the Pooled Fund Manager
• To identify financial regulations and standing orders and maintain accounts for financial transactions and contracts in respect of the agreement which can be inspected by all partners
• To make arrangements for financial monitoring, end of year accounting, audited memorandum of accounts etc

The Pooled BudgetManager shall be responsible for day-to-day budgetary control, for anticipating under-spends or overspends and taking or recommending appropriate corrective and preventive action.

The Pooled BudgetManager and <Board> shall ensure that allocated funds are used and accounted for in accordance with Financial Regulations, Procedures and Standing Orders of the party that has provided those funds.

The <Board> shall review expenditure, commitments and forecast outturn <monthly/quarterly> to ensure that the allocated budget is adhered to.

Where it appears there is a likelihood of an over-spend or an under-spend in relation to the Pooled Fund then the following procedure will be followed:

<Insert procedure>

The Pool Manager shall report monthly on the financial and budgetary information. The Pool Manager shall ensure that action is taken to correct any projected variation from the Pooled Fund, reporting on the variation and the action taken or proposed to the partnership board.

The Pool Manager shall also ensure that any matters relating to the Pooled Fund that might have a material impact on expenditure or income in future years are identified and reported to the partnership board in time to be taken into account in the financial planning and budget setting process.

The pool manager shall be responsible for chairing a joint financial steering group, or similar group – see below

Joint Financial Steering Group

The joint financial steering group is a sub-board level financial group who will assist the pooled fund manager in managing the day to day components of the pooled fund.

It is recommended that this group is chaired by the pooled fund manager. The key duties of this group include:

• Develop and monitor implementation of the Partnership Board Strategy/Decisions.
• Co-ordinate all performance activity for clinical, non-clinical, corporate and financial.
• Inform the Joint Management Boardof impact of decisions, e.g., overspend versus Performance Indicators
• Interpret policy into service delivery.
• Receive and review minutes of joint operational groups and monitor the work of its sub-committees.
• Oversee the development of the integrated store, the subsequent prioritisation of resources, and advise the Partnership Boardof the resources required to address priority areas.
• Produce an annual work programme and annual report of the Joint Financial Steering Group’s activities.
• Co-ordinate implementation of the joint equipment store.
• Oversee implementation of pooled funding requirements.
• Manage spend against allocated budget.
• Monitor activity against Performance Indicators.
• Identify trends to predict change in service development
• Advise Partnership Board of potential risks to pool.
• Inform clinical staff of spending/prescribing trends - both individuals and teams.
• Take action to ensure that budget holders control spend but support them to manage risk.

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Brian Donnelly - Guidance Pooled funding Manager CESI Feb 2008