Finance and Sustainability Committee Assurance Report - November 2025
Meeting: Public Board
Date: 5 November 2025
Report Title: Finance and Sustainability Committee Report to Board
Agenda Item: PUB25/11/5.5
Committee Date: 01.10.2025
Meeting Chair: Chris Brook, Non-Executive Director
Meeting quorate: YES
Purpose: Assurance
Link to EEAST Strategic Mission:
- Partnership Mission
- Productivity Mission
Summary of items considered at the meeting:
| Issue | Consideration | Resolution | Assurance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Update Report and Integrated Performance Report | The committee reviewed the latest financial position of the Trust, understood the drivers that have led to the surplus and considered options for investment. | The Trust planned a surplus of £1.2m but had achieved a surplus of £7.2m. The surplus has been achieved through variations in planned pay and expenditure, coupled with unfilled vacancies. Plans to utilise the budget include Private Ambulance Services, increasing the graduate workforce and creating overtime incentives. The committee looked for assurance that any surplus spend would ultimately be used on delivering big ticket strategy items, but this was balanced against the areas spend could be achieved in this financial year. Efficiency delivery was £6.1m against the target of £6m, with 88% delivered recurrently. | High |
| Fleet Deep Dive | The Trust made a strategic decision to invest in Fleet at Board. Fleet has consistently been adverse to budget and a deep dive was sought to understand the drivers and the resolution. | The strategy to insource work was proving beneficial in terms of performance and cost. Whilst investments have been made in procuring new ambulances, there has been delays outside of the Trusts control with seeing these become operational. Running an aged Fiat fleet was driving costs as they have poorer reliability and higher maintenance costs (old Fiat costs £13k per year to maintain in comparison to the newer vehicles at £4K p/a). The expectation is that the newer fleet will be onboarded by the end of 2025/26 and a phased replacement programme will be undertaken in the future. The committee asked if any penalty clauses are within the National contracts, given the Trust is incurring high costs due to an issue with the suppliers. | Moderate |
| Sustainability and Transformation | The committee received the latest reports on activities associated with Sustainability and Transformation from across the Trust. | The Trust continues to progress sustainability initiatives, broadly through the Estates team. Hubs have been identified to pilot electric ambulances and the wider estate is under assessment to see what is feasible. Steven Course will now chair the sustainability group at an executive level and it is hoped that this appointment will broaden the activities and impact of the sustainability agenda across the Trust. In terms of Transformation, the Ipswich hub became operational which is great to see. The QCIP plan was exceeding the forecast at month four but greater viability on benefit tracking was sought by the committee. | Moderate |
| Board Assurance Framework | The Committee considered the latest BAF scoring | The committee challenged the team to be more dynamic in their assessment of risk and the scoring. The committee wanted to see more alignment on the risk and the mitigations within the papers. | Moderate |
Matters for escalation or referral:
| Issue | Resolution | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| EOC Recruitment and Retention | People Committee | Staff recruitment and retention is challenging within the EoC - how could this be achieved more effectively. |
