A charity asked us to review their cash and financial management arrangements. The organisation supported vulnerable adults placed in its care homes and outreach centres across the country. We helped them improve in the following ways.
We helped them improve in the following ways.
- Developed a new approach with, and for, local managers so that there was more guidance and clarity for making decisions in a devolved setting. Specifically, we produced a set of rules about what spending was permissible by local budget holders. This enabled managers to make informed decisions, thereby enhancing service delivery at the grassroots level.
- Designed a single, organisational approach for managing finances to overcome some of the inconsistencies that existed at individual sites. A unified approach ensured consistency across all sites, leading to more efficient use of resources and improved service quality.
- Improved the completeness and accuracy of returns to the central finance team. This meant that missing or incomplete transactions could be identified and addressed earlier, saving staff time and effort and allowing more focus on supporting vulnerable adults.
- Our work also identified process efficiencies so that the level of cash holdings at local sites could be reduced, minimising risk and promoting financial security.
- Lastly, we helped clarify the regulatory and legal framework for financial decision-making for service users so that the charity could meet more fully, the guidance and standards expected by their regulator, the CQC, bolstering trust among service users and stakeholders.
These measures collectively strengthened the charity’s financial foundation, enabling it to better serve vulnerable adults.