Financial Management in Health and Social Care: A Comprehensive Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of financial resource management within the health and social care sector, using the Silloth nursing home in the UK as a case study. It explores the challenges of managing financial shortfalls, emphasizing strategies like budget control, credit control, and financial stream oversight. The report also addresses actions to be taken in cases of suspected fraud, highlighting the importance of investigation, financial book evaluation, and clear guidelines. Furthermore, it evaluates budget monitoring arrangements, including detailed planning, coordination, and expenditure examination. The analysis extends to identifying the information needed for financial decisions, such as market opportunities, risk factors, and investor considerations. The report examines the interrelation between health and social care services, costs, and expenditures, and assesses how financial considerations impact individuals using these services. Finally, it suggests ways to improve services through changes to financial systems and processes, such as professional staff development and improved decision-making.

Managing Financial
Resources in Health and
Social Care

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
3.1 Managing the financial shortfalls..........................................................................................3
3.2 Actions taken in the case of suspected frauds.......................................................................4
3.3 Evaluate budget monitoring arrangements in a health or social care organisation...............4
4.1 Identify information required to make financial decisions relating to a health and social
care service..................................................................................................................................5
4.2Analyse the relationship between a health and social care service delivered, costs and
expenditure..................................................................................................................................6
4.3Evaluate how financial considerations impact upon an individual using the health and
social care service.......................................................................................................................7
4.4Suggest ways to improve the health and social care service through changes to financial
system and processes...................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Financial resources are considered to be very essential to run a business organisation and
act's like blood for the business operations. A business unit involves several activities which run
on daily basis and requires adequate funds for its successful commencement. Financial resources
should be managed properly to run business successfully whether the organisation is related with
any product or is a health and social care unit. This report is based on the Silloth nursing home
which is based in UK and will describe the importance of financial resources and different
aspects to manage these resources are explained below in this report.
3.1 Managing the financial shortfalls
Financial shortfalls are the reason of inappropriate use of financial resources in the
business operations. These shortfalls are the result of not working according to the suitable
strategies to accomplish the desired objectives of the organisation in set period of time. The
Silloth nursing home is facing issues regarding the shortage of funds and are required to prepare
an action plan to eradicate this issue and need to follow some measure that are explained as
follows:
 Controlling budget: the organisation is required to control the budget and it is important
to cut down the wasteful expenses involved in the nursing home. The budget has to be
formed taking care of the future activities and their actual requirements of the fund as, it
will help in reducing the unwanted expenditure, funds will be stored for future needs, it
will also aid in reducing the debt troubles for the organisation (Bourgeault and Merritt,
2015).
 Credit control: It can be defined as a system that is used by the organisation which helps
in giving credits to those who are capable of paying it in determined time. This will help
the Silloth nursing home from eradicating the obligation from the different sources and
will help them in properly maintaining and expanding the money streams in the market
for further use.
 Overseeing financial streams: the financial stream is the process where the money is
generated on regular basis from different set sources. The important reason that is
considered for the shortfalls in the financial resources is related with the income

administration as most of the funds are utilised in making different arrangements to
improve the facilities and services of health administration for the customers.
 Correction and revision of future plans: To manage the financial shortfalls in the
organisation it is very important to form the new policies according to the forecasting of
the future conditions and if necessary making required changes in them to work
effectively.
 Tool for comparison: this tool is very essential that helps in comparing the actual
financial statements with the actual performance. It helps in finding the deviations and if
found then the steps are taken to measure it effectively (Casey, Payne and Eime, 2012).
3.2 Actions taken in the case of suspected frauds
Majorly Health and Social Care organisations are non-profit organisations which faces a
lot of problems related to the fraud and intentional errors as there is a huge flow of money
coming from the different places in forms of grants and donations. Silloth nursing home is a
medical transportability and caring institution which faces a lot of false cases and sometimes the
replacement of money matters also results in some frauds. So, to protect the organisation form
these frauds it is required to follow some actions that are described as follows:
 Proper investigation should be commenced according to the report of any kind of fraud in
the organisation and the person behind this work should be punished in suitable manner.
The proofs should be collected and then the person should be terminated from the job.
This will lead in creating an example for the other workers and will prevent them from
conducting such ill jobs in the management.
 Proper set of actions like evaluating the financial books on regular basis, analysing the
expenditure bills and credit books, etc. should be defined to the working staff and the
required do's and dont's should be clearly communicated that will help in setting guide
lines for the organisation in controlling these unwanted activities in future.
With these actions the frauds can be reduced in the organisation of the health and social care
and it is required to assess the reason why the fraud was occurred in the organisation and to
improve the system to protect them in future (Doherty, Horne and Wootton, 2014).

3.3 Evaluate budget monitoring arrangements in a health or social care organisation
Budget monitoring arrangements in the health and social care organisation is related with
the needs for effective planning in the respective organisation. Monitoring the budget is an
important way of managing the financial resources for the Silloth nursing home.
The budget monitoring arrangements consists of various tools and methods which are as
follows:
 Formulation of the detailed plan: Budget monitoring can be arranged with the help of
constructing an effective budgetary plan that will assist in deciding the future financial
activities for the organisation. It also results in making easy job for the manager of the
Silloth nursing home as all the possibilities of the future is mentioned in the budget.
 Introducing coordinating environment: All the departments should work in
coordination with each other which will result in eradicating the mismanagement of
functions in the organisation. The coordination will lead in controlling the wastage of the
financial resources and will lead in accomplishing the desired goals in the health and
social care industry (Gulliford and Morgan, 2013).
 Examination of the spending: The spending should be checked properly and the
required areas where the money is going unnecessary should be stopped. The supervisors
are required to maintain proper details of the expenses.
 Evaluation of progress: The evaluation of progress and tracking the performance of the
organisation in the areas of social and health care. This evaluation will result in finding
any variation in the functions of the organisation and will try to fix it in effective manner.
This arrangement will help in monitoring the budget in the form of introducing training
programs for the employees according to their performance and need of various research
programs in the social and health care sector.
4.1 Identify information required to make financial decisions relating to a health and social care
service
The information required to make financial decisions in the health and social care service
can be achieved by the evaluation of previous data related with the same sector. The past records
of the organisation which includes accounts books, expenditure register, credit books, etc. can
act as a very important tool to collect the information for financial decisions as it will explain the
working procedure of the organisation and will help in creating an effective decision.

To construct effective financial decisions, the organisation has to realise the information
related to the opportunity in the market, financial consideration that will include the cost,
working capital and the sources of funds, the risk factors involved in the business operations, the
factors related with return on investment, legal issues all these factors are the important
information criteria to make an effective financial decision for the company (Nilsson and
Sandoff, 2015).
The financial decisions can also be made by identifying the current demand information
of the services required in the health and social care sector. These services are the basic necessity
for the people so the health care sector is required to analyse the demands and work accordingly.
The financial decision can also be made by evaluating the risk management information
as, it describes the compatibility of the organisation in managing the risk. The financial decision
also depends on the investors as that will describe the total amount of funds in the organisation.
4.2Analyse the relationship between a health and social care service delivered, costs and
expenditure
The interrelation between the health and social care services can be described as that,
health sector focuses on the well being of the person physically whereas, the social care services
are related with the mentally and overall improvement in the person. These are interrelated
together as it is a joint progress in making better condition of the person in a coordinated manner.
For instance, the team of doctors in the chosen organisation will help the patients to recover at a
faster pace and the volunteers of the nursing home will indulge with the patients in different
activities to encourage them and to create a friendly environment to make them positive and
happy to change their attitude towards their sufferings (Ray and and Heaslip, 2013).
The cost and expenditure specifically affects the nature of the administration in these
organisations provided by the social and health care association. Quality care is the
comprehensive care facility that delivers by these sectors and meet the expectations and needs of
the users. There is also a relation between the demand of these services and the cost incurred in
supplying these services. As, the demand of the service will increase the total expenses will also
increase that is incurred by the organisation. So, it can be said that there is a direct connection of
the health and social care services and the costs and the expenditures. To deliver good quality of
the services, it is required by the organisation to invest in the people in effective manner and in
services and equipment. It can be stated that quality services mean the increase in the investment.

In the past years it can be noticed by that the Silloth nursing home is in relation with its financial
statements and other documents that shows a momentous growth in the different divisions,
collaborations, increase in number of patients and high revenue generation.
4.3Evaluate how financial considerations impact upon an individual using the health and social
care service
This is noticed in the past times that the issues related to the health and social care
services has recorded a constant issues related with the cost administration. This specifies the
requirement of development in the administration quality of the customers. In the need of
making a proper evaluation of the budgetary and the operational functions of the Silloth nursing
home. These financial considerations impact on the staff’s progression proficient improvement
and the execution of their activities in effective manner (Roski, Bo-Linn and Andrews, 2014).
Based on the reviews of the health care unit financial and operational division the
decision is constructed to investment focus on the continuous professional development of the
staff, monitoring and supervision with more emphasis on the selection of the process for suitable
staff and induction process.
At, the time of making decisions the organisation is require to take consideration of the
source of finance to fund the expenditures that will be generated by the formulation of the
respective decision. For example, the Silloth nursing home choose to fund their expenses by
increasing the investment from the investors to increase their services. It states that service
customer has to be with high price to meet the cost incurred in receiving the facilities. So, the
expensive services may result in blocking the individuals who are not able to afford these
services from the organisation.
4.4Suggest ways to improve the health and social care service through changes to financial
system and processes
There are various ways to improve the health and social care services in relation with the
financial system and process. The first point is to ensure the organisation should maintain the
general accounting principles and the necessary legislation to handle the financial system and the
procedure. The system and the procedure of the organisation should be exact and effective to
eradicate the cases of misrepresentation of the data and necessary information with the
organisation (Wang and George, 2016).

The social care unit is required to adopt the effective and efficient control systems and
the changes introduced should consists helpful for the needs of the patients and to provide
services to the patient in effective time and in appropriate manner. The Silloth nursing home is
required to improve their models of collecting data and this can be done by implementing the
software that will help the paediatrics to collect the relevant and authentic data.
The improvement can take place by reassessment of expenditure as, the health care units
make adjustments in the future budgets depend on the forecasting to develop the correct
evaluation of the organisation picture. The expenses should be incurred after the analysis of the
facts that what amount will be relevant for the future uses (van Wijngaarden, Scholten and van
Wijk, 2012).
The improvement can also take place by assessing the value for money which is received
by the different investors, grants from the government and donations should be effectively used
to accomplish the maximum output form the incurred cost.
The Silloth nursing home should also take help of the management consultants that will
help in reducing the wasteful expenses of the health and social care organisation that will lead
them in working in effective manner.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that the financial resources are considered to
be very important in the health and social care sector. It describes the use of the financial
resources in the different function of the health sector. Interrelation between the health and social
care services with the cost, expenditure is being defined. Further the report discussed about the
impact of these resources on the individual who require these health services. At last the ways
are described to improve these services by the change in the financial system and the process.

REFERENCES
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