NHSCFA sets out fraud fighting agenda in 2022-2023 Business Plan

The Business Plan contains a foreword by the new CEO, Alex Rothwell, and a message from the chair, Tom Taylor. There’s a description of the NHSCFA’s business model and integrated approach to delivery, a brief overview of the organisation’s achievements across the last 12 months and an outline of the delivery plan detailing areas of focus and activity for 2022-23 under each strategic objective.

In launching the Business Plan, Tricia Morrison, the NHSCFA’s director of performance and improvement, explained: “As the National Health Service (NHS) and the country as a whole recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHSCFA is unwavering in its commitment to fighting fraud perpetrated against the NHS. We can only do this effectively by working together with our colleagues in the wider counter fraud community, both in the NHS and across the public sector. We couldn’t do any of this without our people. This is why a continuing and determined drive to improve engagement with our stakeholders, both external and internal, is such an important part of our Business Plan for 2022-2023.”

The Business Plan explains how the NHSCFA’s areas of focus for the next financial year are informed by intelligence from across the health sector set out in its Strategic Intelligence Assessment. They’re also shaped by employee and external stakeholder perceptions of where the main problems lie. This enables the NHSCFA to focus its attentions on where it can have the greatest impact, working together with colleagues across the wider counter fraud community.

Strategic objectives

The NHSCFA’s four strategic objectives for 2020 through until 2023 remain to:

*lead and influence the NHS to find, prevent and reduce fraud, recovering losses and putting money back into patient care

*work with partners to reduce fraud loss in the NHS

*support and empower its people to be the best in their roles and feel valued

*effectively use its resources, identify and pursue opportunities for growth and innovation and reduce operating costs

In delivering these objectives, the NHSCFA intends to leverage new and existing stakeholder relationships to amplify its voice, impact and reach, maximising the use of agile and smarter working in doing so.

During the first two years of its strategy, operations were inevitably impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the organisation refocused its resources on supporting colleagues across the NHS during a time of unprecedented pressure.

However, there were a number of significant achievements during this time, which are duly reflected in the Business Plan, from the roll-out of Clue, the new fraud case management system for the NHS, through to the introduction of new NHS requirements aligned to the Counter Fraud Functional Standard and also from a successful drive to build capability around fraud risk assessment to the successful criminal justice outcomes delivered, often due to successfully working in partnership with key stakeholders.

During this time, the NHSCFA has also taken the opportunity to listen, re-measure, analyse and refocus every aspect of its operating model. This includes the systems that drive its performance, planning and measurement processes now under the stewardship of a revitalised Board, with a new CEO and dedicated performance director in situ.

Ongoing threat

On that note, the new NHSCFA CEO Alex Rothwell has underscored the ongoing threat posed by health fraudsters. “While front line NHS colleagues have been responding in a fabulous way to the pandemic, the criminals have not been dormant. Far from it.”

However, Rothwell feels the NHSCFA is well equipped for the battle ahead. “We have the right mixture of combined skills to meet the challenge of the final year of this strategy period and are in the process of devising further, future-fit strategies to move us through and past the long tail of COVID-19. This Business Plan affords everybody much needed confidence as we enter and navigate the volatile and unpredictable post-pandemic period.”

NHSCFA chair Tom Taylor noted: “By setting out a clear delivery plan driven by our strategic intelligence assessment, targeting improved reporting of outcomes, continuing to improve stakeholder engagement and giving health bodies the information they need to focus on impact, this Business Plan reflects our ambition to continually develop how we work with our partners in the wider counter fraud community. Only by working together can we make a difference in the fight against fraud.”