I am currently up against deadlines on appeals and one set of PR reps in particular, so a more substantive post regarding Preferred Supplier is not possible. (The headline seems to me to be “bad but not as bad as we thought”).
One thing does seem clear however – the LSC have a renewed interest in conducting on-site audits as evidenced by the number of notifications and panic phone calls we have recently received. Generally, though not always, there is little immediately apparent from the risk management statistics (CMRC & QPRs) to justify a visit and where there is, it is probably only enough to indicate medium rather than high risk.
This leads to a slightly lob sided event with not sufficient to occupy the audit teams time for a full day on risk areas. The result is often long sessions considering business planning and financial management, either as a consequence of the level of risk or, and we think more pertinently, because of the centrality of these other factors to the PSS.
As we have said before old fashioned and slightly cynical approaches to business planning (with which we have somewhat unwillingly colluded) will have to end.
That said the pressure for “corrective action” and to define a clear three year strategy in the current environment seems ludicrous. “Tell me if I have a contract, what I will be paid and if I will be a likely PS first” – seems a reasonable response.
That said there is practical groundwork which can be done so – talk to us about the PSS.