Latest news with #financialchallenges
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New chief executive braced for 'challenging' year
The new chief executive of Leeds City Council has warned the city is facing one of its "most challenging years" financially for "a long time". Ed Whiting was appointed in January after Tom Riordan stepped down following 14 years at the helm. Four months into the role he said the council needed to "live within our means" and faced "tough choices" as it looks to save almost £104m by the end of 2025/26. Despite the challenge he said he was "excited" about the opportunities ahead and said the chance to be a part of "what comes next for the city was "amazing". Speaking to the BBC, Mr Whiting said notwithstanding the financial difficulties faced by the council he believed there was "light at the end of the tunnel" for local authorities. He said he was hopeful that the government's Spending Review in June would deliver a multi-year settlement for the council. While he said it would not "dramatically transform the amount of money we can spent as a council" it would provide stability. Leeds City Council names new chief executive Council approves more than £100m of budget savings Born at St James in Leeds, Mr Whiting grew up in Roundhay and went to Leeds Grammar School. He said his mum was a music teacher who taught at schools across the city. He said she would come home and talk about her "250 other children" at various schools, so he grew up feeling like it was a city he knew. Before joining the council he worked for a number of Civil Service departments, including the Financial Stability Unit of HM Treasury druing the 2008-09 financial crisis, and as Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the prime minister between 2014 and 2016. Most recently he was the Director of Cities and Local Growth in the Department for Business and Trade and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. In 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to public service and No. 10 Downing Street. Despite the challenges facing the city Mr Whiting also sees big opportunities for the city. As chief executive he wants any economic growth "to touch every neighbourhood in the city and want it to fund the services the city needs". He highlighted sectors such as retail, financial technology and medical technology as key to growing the economy. He said, in particular, the way "new innovators can work with the NHS in Leeds is the envy of other places". Away from the town hall Mr Whiting has been fostering a child with his partner, David, which he said had given him first-hand experience of the services a local authority provides. "[We] have been working with social workers every day and thinking about how we can provide the best home for this little one," he said. "So our lives at home have been intertwined with local authorities, intertwined with the sort of services that we provide from Leeds and that for me has given me a sense of the difference that can make. "That sense of what local authority services mean for real people in critical moments of their lives." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here. Leeds City Council
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New chief executive braced for 'challenging' year
The new chief executive of Leeds City Council has warned the city is facing one of its "most challenging years" financially for "a long time". Ed Whiting was appointed in January after Tom Riordan stepped down following 14 years at the helm. Four months into the role he said the council needed to "live within our means" and faced "tough choices" as it looks to save almost £104m by the end of 2025/26. Despite the challenge he said he was "excited" about the opportunities ahead and said the chance to be a part of "what comes next for the city was "amazing". Speaking to the BBC, Mr Whiting said notwithstanding the financial difficulties faced by the council he believed there was "light at the end of the tunnel" for local authorities. He said he was hopeful that the government's Spending Review in June would deliver a multi-year settlement for the council. While he said it would not "dramatically transform the amount of money we can spent as a council" it would provide stability. Leeds City Council names new chief executive Council approves more than £100m of budget savings Born at St James in Leeds, Mr Whiting grew up in Roundhay and went to Leeds Grammar School. He said his mum was a music teacher who taught at schools across the city. He said she would come home and talk about her "250 other children" at various schools, so he grew up feeling like it was a city he knew. Before joining the council he worked for a number of Civil Service departments, including the Financial Stability Unit of HM Treasury druing the 2008-09 financial crisis, and as Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the prime minister between 2014 and 2016. Most recently he was the Director of Cities and Local Growth in the Department for Business and Trade and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. In 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to public service and No. 10 Downing Street. Despite the challenges facing the city Mr Whiting also sees big opportunities for the city. As chief executive he wants any economic growth "to touch every neighbourhood in the city and want it to fund the services the city needs". He highlighted sectors such as retail, financial technology and medical technology as key to growing the economy. He said, in particular, the way "new innovators can work with the NHS in Leeds is the envy of other places". Away from the town hall Mr Whiting has been fostering a child with his partner, David, which he said had given him first-hand experience of the services a local authority provides. "[We] have been working with social workers every day and thinking about how we can provide the best home for this little one," he said. "So our lives at home have been intertwined with local authorities, intertwined with the sort of services that we provide from Leeds and that for me has given me a sense of the difference that can make. "That sense of what local authority services mean for real people in critical moments of their lives." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here. Leeds City Council
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Leeds City Council chief executive braced for 'challenging' year
The new chief executive of Leeds City Council has warned the city is facing one of its "most challenging years" financially for "a long time".Ed Whiting was appointed in January after Tom Riordan stepped down following 14 years at the months into the role he said the council needed to "live within our means" and faced "tough choices" as it looks to save almost £104m by the end of 2025/ the challenge he said he was "excited" about the opportunities ahead and said the chance to be a part of "what comes next for the city was "amazing". Speaking to the BBC, Mr Whiting said notwithstanding the financial difficulties faced by the council he believed there was "light at the end of the tunnel" for local said he was hopeful that the government's Spending Review in June would deliver a multi-year settlement for the he said it would not "dramatically transform the amount of money we can spent as a council" it would provide stability. Born at St James in Leeds, Mr Whiting grew up in Roundhay and went to Leeds Grammar School. He said his mum was a music teacher who taught at schools across the city. He said she would come home and talk about her "250 other children" at various schools, so he grew up feeling like it was a city he knew. Before joining the council he worked for a number of Civil Service departments, including the Financial Stability Unit of HM Treasury druing the 2008-09 financial crisis, and as Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the prime minister between 2014 and 2016. Most recently he was the Director of Cities and Local Growth in the Department for Business and Trade and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local 2016 he was awarded an OBE for services to public service and No. 10 Downing Street. Despite the challenges facing the city Mr Whiting also sees big opportunities for the city. As chief executive he wants any economic growth "to touch every neighbourhood in the city and want it to fund the services the city needs".He highlighted sectors such as retail, financial technology and medical technology as key to growing the economy. He said, in particular, the way "new innovators can work with the NHS in Leeds is the envy of other places".Away from the town hall Mr Whiting has been fostering a child with his partner, David, which he said had given him first-hand experience of the services a local authority provides. "[We] have been working with social workers every day and thinking about how we can provide the best home for this little one," he said."So our lives at home have been intertwined with local authorities, intertwined with the sort of services that we provide from Leeds and that for me has given me a sense of the difference that can make. "That sense of what local authority services mean for real people in critical moments of their lives." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
External review of LHSC shows hospital challenged by 'self imposed' problems
Social Sharing London's largest employer will need to make tough decisions as it continues to grapple with the fallout of years of instability, bloated management and growing need for medical care, a review of the organizational structure of the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has found. The review, done by an outside healthcare consultant at the request of provincially-appointed supervisor David Musyj, paints a bleak picture of the region's largest hospital — an organization that lags behind similar centres in its use of technology, faces a $150 million operating deficit, and has been embroiled in scandal and "massive" leadership turnover in the last decade. "LHSC is currently in a very difficult financial position and faces significant operating challenges every day. While all hospitals in Ontario are facing similar challenges, LHSC's circumstances are particularly complex," the consultant, BIG Healthcare, wrote in its report, which was released to staff earlier this week and includes 169 recommendations for how to improve the hospital's finances in the next three years. The report was not publicly released but a copy was obtained by CBC News. Hospital executives would not comment on the review because they're still sharing the findings internally, a spokesperson wrote in an email. The review was being done at the same time as a management restructuring, which "corrected excessive growth in management that has occurred at LHSC over the last four years," the consultant wrote. That restructuring has seen the elimination of 74 management positions, and 71 leaders being reassigned. It resulted in a $14M savings. LHSC interim CEO says executive job cuts won't affect patient care 9 months ago Duration 1:00 In the last decade, the report noted, the hospital, which includes Victoria and University hospitals, has had six different CEOs, six different CFOs, and 41 different executives. "Each new administration brought new structures, spending and priorities," the consultant noted. "The amount of service available in the region has not kept up with demand," the report states. Continued population growth means there will be "overwhelming demand for services in the future," but the hospital's spaces are at older and at capacity, with no room to grow or expand. "LHSC feels 'full' all the time because more people than ever are relying on it for care and there are fewer places than in the past that take patients who no longer require the acute level care provided at LHSC. This will be an ongoing challenge," the report states. "However, some of the difficult operating challenges LHSC faces are self-imposed: a result of its own choices and actions over the years." The hospital has hired a large number of people in the last four years, but "growth in staffing has been disproportionate to growth in service," the report states, and has been done without coordination. ""LHSC is using more staff and more hours of work to provide the same care peer hospitals do" 'They've lost trust' The hospital also doesn't designate patients who no longer need acute care accurately, which has "masked the extent of the capacity and flow challenges," that it faces, the report states. Efforts are underway to restart a relationship with St. Joseph's Health Care so surgeries and other medical care can be delivered more efficiently. Simplifying team structures, clarifying roles and expectations, reducing duplication and improving how work gets done will allow the hospital to provide more care without increasing staffing, the consultant said. Some of the recommendations sound like plans from decades past that tried to make the hospital system more efficient, said Peter Bergmanis, head of the London Health Coalition, who has advocated for the health care system for more than three decades. "It's tinkering at the edges again. Ultimately, a lot of this is out of the hands of the hospital administration and we know that LHSC is just a part of a bigger picture of underfunding of healthcare," he said. "We spent so much money in London 20 years ago to coordinate and re-organize and consolidate and amalgamate hospital staffing, and now here we are again." The hospital must do a capacity audit to see what the communities it serves needs, which will likely mean a demand for hundreds more beds, he added, which would boost moral of the staff. "They've lost all the trust. It's unbelievably frustrating for the staff." The hospital's dual responsibility as a major tertiary centre and a community hospital is unique, and it's one of the biggest and most complex multi-site academic health centres in the province, the report states. It also has a relatively young work force and hasn't paid enough attention to financial performance, according to the report. "The organization is data rich but has been information poor with regards to management decision making," the consultant wrote. A look at some of the 169 recommendations Doctors need to work more closely with administrators to review clinical results Individual doctors' admission rates and average length-of-stay should be monitored and reported Pause current spending on leadership development Review policies on the use of expensive drugs for rare diseases, with a focus on "optimizing patient access to those medications outside of the regular hospital drug budget" Have explicit discharge targets so most patients are discharged before noon, and include medical imaging (for example x-rays, ultra sounds or MRIs) in discharge planning Increase the number of patients that can be discharged to their own homes, and analyze why people are getting readmitted because LHSC has a high readmission rate All psychiatric admissions should have a care plan with an estimated date of discharge Mental health services should be 24/7 so patients admitted on weekends are seen by a psychiatrist. Call discharged mental health patients within 48 hours for a follow-up Stop investing and maintaining buildings that are not operationally active Create a surgical short-stay unit for people who have admissions that are less than 36 hours, and do more same-day surgeries so people with less than 24 hours in hospital don't have to be admitted Partner with long-term care homes so residents don't have to go to the emergency room, and leverage family medicine clinics to provide care for people without a family doctor who were see in in the ER Work to recover costs for non-OHIP funded births and switch to translation technology instead of in-person translation services in the birthing centre
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Universities in Wales facing 'massive' financial challenges
Universities in Wales face "massive" financial challenges but none are at risk of going bust in the next 12 months, the head of the body which funds and regulates them has chief executive Simon Pirotte said the eight institutions reached a total deficit of £77m for 2023-24, compared to a £21m surplus the previous planning for their future was "extremely difficult" in a "volatile and changing environment", he warned Senedd universities face higher costs that include staff pay increases, a rise in employer National Insurance contributions and energy prices whilst the number of higher paying international students has fallen, said Mr Pirotte. The £77m figure includes one-off restructuring costs. A rise in the tuition fee cap for home undergraduates to £9,535 for 2025-26, after being frozen at £9,000 between 2012 and 2024, was not enough to cover cost pressures, said Mr plans, including university-wide voluntary redundancies schemes, have been announced by Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Cardiff Metropolitan, Swansea, and the University of South Wales. More limited plans have also been announced by University of Wales: Trinity Saint a document submitted to the Senedd's education committee, Medr says a "number of institutions have significant transformation activities to implement in order to secure their longer-term financial sustainability".However Mr Pirotte told the committee: "We do not believe that any institution in Wales is at risk of failure in the immediate short term."Medr, he said, was "working closely with institutions to understand their medium and long-term forecasts and plans"."I think the future is really challenging. That's why institutions are addressing the issue now because they have to," he difficult decisions universities were making were to "prevent that falling over of a university further down the line".Medr chief operating officer James Owen said an additional £28.5m the Welsh government announced for universities in February for the current year had been welcomed.
