FPOL07 Condemning Disposal of Equipment by Provide Community

Version: V6

Ratified by: Finance & Investment Committee

Date ratified: 03/04/2024

Job Title of author: Director of Finance

Reviewed by Committee or Expert Group Finance & Investment Committee

Equality Impact Assessed by: Director of Finance

1. Definitions

Fraud is where any person who dishonestly makes a false representation to make a gain for himself or another or dishonestly fails to disclose to another person, information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, or commits fraud by abuse of position, including any offence as defined in the Fraud Act 2006.

Bribery is the giving or receiving a financial or other advantage in connection with the ‘improper performance’ of trust or a function that is expected to be performed impartially or in good faith. Where the Provide Group is engaged in commercial activity it could be considered guilty of a corporate bribery offence if an employee, agent, subsidiary or any other person acting on its behalf bribes another person intending to obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of business for the Provide Group and it cannot demonstrate that it has adequate procedures in place to prevent such. The adequate procedures that the Provide Group is required to have in place to prevent bribery being committed on their behalf are performed by six principles – proportionate procedures, toplevel commitment, risk assessment, communication (including training), monitoring and review. The Provide Group does not tolerate any bribery on its behalf, even if this might result in a loss of business for it. Criminal liability must be prevented at all times.

2. Counter Fraud

I If any member of staff has good reason to suspect a colleague, patient or other person of fraud, bribery and / or corruption, involving the Provide Group, they should report their genuine concerns to the LCFS or Chief Finance Officer immediately. The LCFS will then decide on the next course of action and advise the member of staff accordingly. All calls are dealt with in the strictest of confidence and callers may remain anonymous.

Suspicions of fraud, bribery or corruption should be reported to the Local Counter Fraud Specialists on 01473 945843, Provide Group Chief Finance Officer or NHS Fraud and Corruption Reporting Line via an online reporting form: http://www.reportnhsfraud.nhs.uk/ or telephone 0800 028 4060. Further details including email addresses for those responsible can be found on the Provide Intranet.

Individuals suspected of committing an offence of fraud, bribery or corruption may be subject to criminal and/or disciplinary investigation, which could result in criminal and/or disciplinary action being taken, including prosecution and/or dismissal. For more information, please refer to the Local Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Policy or to the Provide Counter Fraud intranet page https://www.providecommunityplatform.co.uk/Interact/Pages/Content/Document.aspx?id =2254&SearchId=530713.

3. General

It is the responsibility of the budget holder in conjunction with the Chief Finance Officer to have items formally condemned or declared obsolete. The budget holder must discuss with the Director of Finance which items are proposed to be disposed of and their estimated market value. Approval will then be sought from the Chief Finance Officer for formal disposal to take place.

As a general rule, disposals will come under the main headings of:

• IT equipment

• Landlord/estates related equipment

• Clinical equipment

• All other equipment

Redundant and/or obsolete items only have a value if a buyer can be found. Many items may have a value on paper but even though every effort is made to dispose of them and realise that value, a buyer cannot be found. In such cases it will be necessary to arrange disposal locally.

It is the responsibility of the budget holder to ensure appropriate storage and security of all assets until their disposal has been agreed in order to avoid losses, including losses in value through deterioration.

Every effort should be made by the budget holder to ascertain the condition of the equipment with regard to safety and likely residual value and therefore it is essential that the piece of equipment is inspected by an officer who is able to give an informed assessment.

4. Disposal

It is possible that another department or organisation may be able to make use of items of equipment. Under these circumstances equipment items should be offered to other departments/organisation before inviting quotes from the private sector.

For disposals with an estimated resale value of over £500 at least two offers should be sought. For sums above £1,000 three offers should be sought.

In some cases, with the authority of the Chief Finance Officer, consideration may be given to offering the goods free of charge to charitable organisations or in certain instances to members of staff. Such instances are to be agreed by the Chief Finance Officer and reported to the next Audit Committee. In the event of staff being offered surplus equipment then this would normally be on an invitation to bid basis.

A form of indemnity must be obtained for all sales (Appendix A) and payment must be received before the items are released.

The disposal arrangements of equipment should be handled as follows:

• IT equipment should be handled by the IT Team

• Landlord/estates related equipment should be handled by the Estates Team

• Clinical equipment should be handled by the Quality & Safety Team

• All other equipment should be handled by the budget manager

All proposed disposals of clinical equipment should initially be discussed and agreed with the Quality & Safety Team, the budget manager of the service to whom the equipment “belongs” and then notified to the Director of Finance. Proposed disposal of all other equipment (including IT) should be notified by the Director of IT directly to the Director of Finance.

Any requests from the budget holder to dispose of equipment must be accompanied by any condition assessments and other available relevant information to enable the relevant service leads and potential purchasers to assess the risk. This information must include maintenance records, manuals, test certificates etc. where available. This is a responsibility under health and safety regulations.

The Chief Finance Officer will determine whether the issue is required to be reported to the Audit Committee under the framework relating to losses.

The Finance Department must complete an Asset Disposal form and update the Asset Register if necessary

The budget holder should ensure that the local asset inventory is updated with the date and method of disposal. Appropriate back-up information should be retained for audit purposes.

5. Appendix A – Disposal of Assets Indemnity

Disposal of Assets Indemnity

I, the undersigned, acknowledge receipt of the following goods from Provide Group

I understand that the Group makes no guarantees as to the condition or serviceability of the items and I indemnify the CIC from any claims, liabilities or responsibilities in respect of these items.

Name

Organisation

Signature

Date

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE: Stage 1: ‘Screening’

Name of project/policy/strategy (hereafter referred to as “initiative”):

Condemning and Disposal of Unserviceable, Obsolete or Surplus Goods and Equipment

Provide a brief summary (bullet points) of the aims of the initiative and main activities:

Provides guidance on how to record the Condemning and Disposal of Unserviceable, Obsolete or Surplus Goods and Equipment

Project/Policy Manager: Director of Finance

Date: March 2024

This stage establishes whether a proposed initiative will have an impact from an equality perspective on any particular group of people or community – i.e. on the grounds of race (incl. religion/faith), gender (incl. sexual orientation), age, disability, or whether it is “equality neutral” (i.e. have no effect either positive or negative). In the case of gender, consider whether men and women are affected differently.

Q1. Who will benefit from this initiative? Is there likely to be a positive impact on specific groups/communities (whether or not they are the intended beneficiaries), and if so, how? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”? i.e. will have no particular effect on any group.

Neutral

Q2. Is there likely to be an adverse impact on one or more minority/under-represented or community groups as a result of this initiative? If so, who may be affected and why? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”?

Neutral

Q3. Is the impact of the initiative – whether positive or negative - significant enough to warrant a more detailed assessment (Stage 2 – see guidance)? If not, will there be monitoring and review to assess the impact over a period time? Briefly (bullet points) give reasons for your answer and any steps you are taking to address particular issues, including any consultation with staff or external groups/agencies.

Guidelines: Things to consider

Equality impact assessments at Provide take account of relevant equality legislation and include age, (i.e. young and old,); race and ethnicity, gender, disability, religion and faith, and sexual orientation.

The initiative may have a positive, negative or neutral impact, i.e. have no particular effect on the group/community.

Where a negative (i.e. adverse) impact is identified, it may be appropriate to make a more detailed EIA (see Stage 2), or, as important, take early action to redress this – e.g. by abandoning or modifying the initiative. NB: If the initiative contravenes equality legislation, it must be abandoned or modified.

Where an initiative has a positive impact on groups/community relations, the EIA should make this explicit, to enable the outcomes to be monitored over its lifespan.

Where there is a positive impact on particular groups does this mean there could be an adverse impact on others, and if so can this be justified? - e.g. are there other existing or planned initiatives which redress this?

It may not be possible to provide detailed answers to some of these questions at the start of the initiative. The EIA may identify a lack of relevant data, and that data-gathering is a specific action required to inform the initiative as it develops, and also to form part of a continuing evaluation and review process.

It is envisaged that it will be relatively rare for full impact assessments to be carried out at Provide. Usually, where there are particular problems identified in the screening stage, it is envisaged that the approach will be amended at this stage, and/or setting up a monitoring/evaluation system to review a policy’s impact over time.