HSCFRU

Health and Social Care Finance Research Unit
The provision of health and social care services comprises one of the most challenging issues facing government and society with a seemingly endless demand for services in an environment of finite resources. Furthermore, the magnitude of the UK’s public sector deficit and borrowing requirements means that growth in financial resources for all public services, including health and social care, will be extremely limited for the foreseeable future.

Consequently the HSCFRU has been set up to research and comment on a wide range of issues concerning the financial aspects of these services. The HSCFRU is jointly led by Professor Malcolm Prowle and Dr Don Harradine. Read Professor Malcolm Prowle's blog.

Main Purposes
The main purposes of the Unit can be summarised as:

• To undertake research into the finance and financial management in health and social care organisations in the UK and internationally
• To disseminate research findings and best practices to interested parties
• To provide analysis and commentaries on the financial implications of changes in policy and practices in relation to health and social care

Topics of Interest
The Unit is interested in a wide range of topics including:

• Funding of health and social care
• Resource allocation methods
• Financial strategies
• Financial management and management accounting
• Financial control
• Financial accounting and reporting
• Governance and audit
• International policies and practices

Current Research Activities
The Unit is involved in a number of current research activities:

• The financial aspects of governance in the NHS
  This project looks at the perceptions as to what constitutes effective financial governance in NHS Trusts from the standpoints of finance directors and non-executive directors. It also considers the balance to be struck between financial governance and other aspects of governance and contrasts current NHS practice with normative models of best practice.
• The effectiveness of budgeting systems in the NHS
  This project, which is funded by CIMA, looks at the operation of budgeting systems in NHS Trusts and the contribution they make to: empowerment, strategic implementation and performance improvement.
• A practical approach to the financial and economic evaluation of health promotion activities
  This project considers a range of health promotion activities and provides a framework by means of which the financial and economic impacts of such activities might be evaluated both ex ante and ex post.
• Value for money in the provision of children’s services
  This project examines three specific services and considers how VFM may be assessed in relation to these services. It considers what actions are needed to improve VFM.
• Examination of financial and monitoring issues concerning third sector commissioning for social care
  This project is examining the monitoring, financial and commissioning issues resulting from a study of the LinkAge Plus project and ongoing research in this area.
• Costing of health and social care activities
  This project considers various approaches to costing and contrasts the approaches in health and in social care. It also makes international comparisons with other EU countries.

Recent publications.

Information on possible future research activities.

HSCFRU Staff
A number of academic staff are involved with the unit including: Professor Malcolm Prowle (Joint Director), Dr Donald Harradine, (Joint Director), Dr Jinmin Wang, Kirsten Greenhalgh and Mr Peter Murphy.

In addition to the following visiting staff; Mr Peter March, Mr Kevin Orford, Mr David Pearce, Mr Philip Taylor, Mr Peter Cross, Mr Roger Latham and Mr David Pearson. International scholars include: Ms Carolina Pontones Rosa (Spain), Dr Rosario Perez Morote (Spain) and Dr Ruth Williams (Australia).