Financial and Management Procedures: “Documenting Procedures to Ensure Business Continuity”

A key member of staff was leaving their role in Shared Service Treasury Management. The Finance Director was anxious to document their work systems prior to departure, and to also embody a recently installed new General Ledger system into current procedures. ParkHill identified and updated/created 16 procedures. The Finance Director commended ParkHill for turning the high quality procedures around so quickly. These updated procedures were then rolled out across all their Shared Service users.

Internal Audit:  “Minimising Bank and Agency Staff Fraud”

ParkHill carried out a review of Bank and Agency staffing practices at a Mental Health Trust. The audit highlighted that different IT systems were being used across the organisation. Having evaluated each system, ParkHill recommended a migration to the more robust database for booking and processing bank and agency staff. In addition, we also proactively suggested implementing additional controls to further reduce the risk of fraud, together with a detailed training session for key staff to embed these controls. As a result of our work, controls are considerably tighter, overall agency expenditure has reduced and the likelihood of fraud arising is minimised.

Counter Fraud Service: “Returning £300,000 of Stolen Funds to the NHS”

ParkHill’s counter fraud team were brought in to investigate the actions of a Hounslow GP after financial irregularities had been noticed by the practice manager through the course of the day-to-day running of the surgery. ParkHill’s investigation led to the GP pleading guilty of 28 counts of false accounting and being sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Amongst other offences, his wife had been on the payroll for 18 months without the knowledge of the partners, taking home over £1,000 net a month. The GP was struck off the medical register and a subsequent confiscation hearing returned a total of £300,000 of stolen funds to the NHS.

Forensic IT Services: “Tackling IT Misuse at Work”

After implementing MONITOR— ParkHill’s leading edge information security system —it was found that several IT support staff were spending up to 40% of their working day on non work related internet browsing. After disciplinary action it was found that there was a positive increase in the number of calls handled and remedied by the IT support desk. This increase in productivity allowed the Director of IT to reduce the numbers of contracted hours spent on support, delivering an immediate saving of £44,000 per annum

Security Management: “Catching a Car Thief in the Act”

A male intruder to a hospital stole car keys from an unattended office and took a member of staff’s vehicle. The car theft was captured on CCTV, the police were alerted, and the suspect was identified as he visited the hospital on a second occasion. The hospital’s CCTV system had been recently upgraded following ParkHill’s recommendation as the previous system was inadequate. The CCTV footage will provide essential information for the prosecution case.

Specialised IT Audit: “Improving Data Quality”

ParkHill was approached by a Trust to undertake an independent review of its procedures for collecting data for its Performance Indicator Monitoring table. In the previous year the Trust had been scored more severely than had been expected, and this led to some concern over the quality of the data used to measure performance within the Trust. ParkHill’s Data Quality audit confirmed that these management reservations had some justification. In addition to highlighting areas of weakness, we also put forward recommendations designed to assist in obtaining greater assurance on data quality in future. Our recommendations were welcomed by the client, who agreed a timetable and responsibilities for their implementation.

Interim Recruitment: “Fulfilling an Urgent Request for a Skilled Project Manager”

Having been recommended our services by a colleague, the Director of Mental Health Services at Portsmouth PCT contacted ParkHill with an urgent request for additional resources to investigate a critical issue. The requirement involved around 20 staff interviews, a root cause analysis and preparation of a learning action plan to feed into clinical governance processes. ParkHill provided an experienced project manager at short notice who was described by the client as having “executed the investigation with efficiency, charm and demonstrated a real competency in root cause analysis and report writing. She identified the root problems very well and offered the service a comprehensive and robust action plan which will support learning. Staff found her easy to work with and quick to learn in the time she was with us.”