Thank you to all colleagues for your continued efforts in supporting our journey to financial sustainability.

We are required to deliver our financial plan for this year, which means living within our means and not spending more money than we are allocated – ensuring that resources are used wisely and directed towards providing sustainable services for our patients.

We recognise that it is a challenging environment to operate in, but this approach will support how we can move to a more balanced position in future years and is consistent with other providers across Cheshire and Merseyside.

What is changing?

As a part of this work, there will be upcoming changes to printing in colour and discretionary spend. The below update provides you with guidance on how to request colour printing, and what is changing within items classed as discretionary spend. We have endeavoured to put controls in place rather than implement a total freeze on all discretionary spend and colour printing.

We will be reviewing these arrangements on a quarterly basis and thank colleagues for your understanding.

Changes to colour printing

From 9 October, we will be removing the option to print in colour and implementing black and white printing only across Aintree, Broadgreen and the Royal sites. This follows a successful launch of the same printing rules at Liverpool Women’s in August 2024.

Colour printing costs can average 7.5x more than black and white, and often the decision to print in colour is a user-decision rather than a business-requirement.

This means that colleagues will no longer be able to print in colour on the local multifunction device (MFD) printers or via external print providers, other than in agreed exceptional circumstances.

If you need to print in colour on the local MFD (multifunction device) printers in your ward or department:

  • Log a job with Digital Services, via the IT Service Desk
  • Select ‘IT Support’ - then Canon MFD – Colour Printing
  • Your request will be reviewed by the weekly Discretionary Spend Panel
  • An outcome will be communicated back to you
  • If the panel decide the request is rejected, a reason will be provided.

 

If you require a large print run, something that requires a more professional finish or something that cannot be printed via the MFD printers, all requests should go to Reprographics and follow the below process.

Please note, anybody who raises a purchase order for print with an alternative supplier, will be directed to follow the process below by the Discretionary Spend panel:

  • Contact Reprographics who will determine if the job can be completed in-house or whether it needs to be sent to an external supplier
  • If your request is to print in colour, you will need to complete and attach a case of need form with an outline of your requirements – this will be reviewed by a weekly clinical panel
  • If the job is approved and can be completed in-house, Reprographics will action the printing
  • If it is approved but cannot be completed in-house, Reprographics will obtain a quote from an external supplier and follow the next steps below.

If Reprographics advise you need an external supplier:

  • Complete a case of need form with an outline of your requirements
  • Using the quote obtained by Reprographics, you will then need to raise a requisition on NEP/Oracle
  • Email all your documentation to:DiscretionarySpend@liverpoolft.nhs.uk
  • Your request will be reviewed by the weekly Discretionary Spend Panel, who will have been informed of which requests have been passed for colour print by the clinical panel
  • An outcome will be communicated back to you
  • If the panel decide that the request is rejected, a reason will be provided.

Discretionary spend

NHS discretionary spend refers to non-pay expenditure not directly essential for patient care, which can amount to over £20m a year. This includes everything from stationary, office equipment, catering, printing, through to non-mandatory training and development.

To support in making efficiencies, we kindly ask staff to think carefully before ordering any items, considering if there is a cheaper alternative, or if it is needed at all. Together, our combined impact of ordering less across the whole organisation can be significant and support our goal of achieving financial sustainability.

What are we changing?

There are key changes to discretionary spend that have already taken place, or are planned:

  • Discretionary spend panel: all items of discretionary spend above £100 and external printing requests are now coming to a weekly discretionary spend panel for approval.
  • Supply Chain Portal: The review of items on Supply Chain Portal is ongoing, looking at where there are alternatives available that are better value for money or are not essential.
  • Click Travel Portal: All requests made via the Click Travel Portal will now need a ‘Case of Need’ form completing to accompany them before being submitted for approval. The number of approvers on the Click Travel portal will also be reduced.
  • Training and development: All requests for spend on non-mandatory training and development will require a ‘Case of Need’ form completing to be approved by panel. The expectation is that all requests are submitted at least 28 days before.

If you have an idea about any items of discretionary spend we could review or use an alternative for, alongside any other suggestions for efficiencies, please email the Saving Together inbox.

We’d also like to hear if colleagues have any feedback about the approach regarding changes to discretionary spend so far - please email the discretionary spend inbox.