{"id":478281,"date":"2025-10-06T14:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T14:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478281\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T14:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T14:28:15","slug":"financial-screws-tightening-at-shropcom-as-nhs-england-keeps-up-budget-pressure-on-trusts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478281\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial screws tightening at Shropcom as NHS England keeps up budget pressure on trusts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (Shropcom)<\/a> agreed to produce an overall budget \u2018surplus\u2019 of \u00a32million by the end of the financial year and the board was told that it is on course but the year will become \u201cincreasingly challenging\u201d.<\/p>\n

Andrew Morgan, who chairs the board, told a meeting this week that NHS England<\/a> is keeping up the pressure on all trusts to focus on \u201cmoney, waiting times, and urgent care\u201d in the second half of the financial year.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Morgan, Chair in Common of both Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust and the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH). Picture: SaTH<\/p>\n

In a report to the board Sarah Lloyd, Shropcom\u2019s director of finance, warned that \u201cthe months ahead will become increasingly challenging, therefore it is vital that we do not fall behind against our recurrent plan in any month as recovering any shortfall will be difficult”.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Lloyd, Shropcom’s director of finance, digital and estates. Picture: Shropcom<\/p>\n

But so far the trust has produced savings by measures including enabling its teams to go digital, and by \u201cincreasing productivity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Reporting figures up to the end of August, Sarah Lloyd said so far its budget surplus was \u00a3666,000 and it is on track to hit its \u00a32m surplus target by the end of the financial year.<\/p>\n

She told the board at its meeting in Telford<\/a> on Thursday (October 2) that \u201cno new risks\u201d have been identified and they are \u201con track to do it”.<\/p>\n

\"Shropcom'sShropcom’s board met at Meeting Point House in Telford on Thursday, October 2, 2025. Picture: LDRS<\/p>\n

Board papers revealed that spending on agency staffing continues to be an issue which is \u201cbecoming more challenging as the year progresses”.<\/p>\n

Shropcom has spent \u00a31.12 million on agency staff after five months of the financial year – \u00a3216,000 less than planned.<\/p>\n

But Shropcom has seen a higher level of staff vacancies than it was expecting and has spent \u00a31.755 million on bank workers, which is \u00a3559,000 more than it was expecting.<\/p>\n

It prefers to use bank staff rather than agency workers to fill staff gaps. But it has to make sure it does not compromise \u201cpatient safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sarah Lloyd reported that \u201cafter five months of the financial year, 64 per cent of the annual bank financial plan has been spent\u201d in a area critical to hitting its overall financial targets.<\/p>\n

Its staff vacancies mean it has spent \u00a3636,000 less on its \u201csubstantive staff\u201d.<\/p>\n

Figures reveal that the trust has spent \u00a353 million this year so far with the vast majority of that (\u00a339 million) on its staff being either \u201csubstantive, agency, or bank”.<\/p>\n

The reductions programme accounts for some 5.3 per cent of its total starting cost base, the papers reveal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (Shropcom) agreed to produce an overall budget \u2018surplus\u2019 of \u00a32million by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[27607,105,4348,8823,379,12,29793,29794,380,8972,18713,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-478281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-bridgnorth","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ldrs","12":"tag-local-hubs","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-north-shropshire","15":"tag-oswestry","16":"tag-shrewsbury","17":"tag-south-shropshire","18":"tag-telford","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115327697958065656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}