Reporting

NHS Reporting on Sustainability


NHS Trusts should report on sustainability as part of their annual reporting process.

2013 key actions and timetable

  • The deadline for submitting your sustainability reports has been extended to 31 May 2013 to align with Annual Reporting timescales
  • Please send the Sustainability Report to the SDU by 31 May 2013.  E-mail to sdu@sdu.nhs.uk 
  • You can find a template below (NHS Sustainability Reporting Framework 2012-13) to help you complete your sustainability report as well as a guidance document -  "A guide to reporting on sustainability in annual reports"

 
For further questions please contact Joel Glover and Imogen Tennison.

Background to sustainability reporting

NHS Trusts should report on sustainability as part of their annual reporting process. The Annual Report is required by the Auditors by 22 April so please send the Sustainability Report to the SDU by this date. Due to the Annual Reporting cycle deadlines figures may need to be estimated for the full year in line with financial reporting standards used for the Annual Report.

The NHS SDU and colleagues in the Department of Health have developed an NHS Sustainability Reporting Framework (below) for reporting sustainability information as part of the annual NHS financial reporting guidance (Chapter 2, paragraph 2.8).  The template is in line with the data requirements in HM Treasury's Financial Reporting Manual (FReM). 

The framework is to be included in the annual reports of NHS organisations, making the links between financial and environmental sustainability more transparent to patients and other stakeholders while also highlighting the mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

We have prepared some guidance to help organisations complete their annual report sustainability entries.  The Guidance is available below.

The SDU has also reviewed the quality of sustainability reporting in Annual Reports.  If you would like to improve your Sustainability Reporting have a look at some of the best practice we identified - see best practice download below.

We have also produced a map showing the results at a regional level (also available below).

For further questions please contact Joel Glover and Imogen Tennison.

Defra reporting guidance - In September 2009, Defra, in partnership with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), published guidance for businesses and organisations on how to measure and report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.