Late contract agreement in Calderdale

A primary care trust finance paper says: “The CHFT contract is still being negotiated. The negotiation is based upon agreeing an expected value (agreed contract value) and operating the contract within a minimum and maximum payment above and below the expected value.
“The PCT’s latest offer for the contract value is £1.7m more than the budget agreed in the [PCT’s] financial plan.”

The PCT says the problem is due to “under achievement on QIPP [quality, innovation, productivity and prevention] schemes included within the demand plan” and “under achievement of the anticipated 1.5 per cent tariff reduction”. Contracts are ideally agreed at the beginning of the financial year.