News / Assurance process gives green light to CFOs

By Steve Brown

The assurance process for chief finance officers (CFOs) for clinical commissioning groups is returning a vote of confidence in the calibre of existing finance officers.

NHS North of England finance director Jane Tomkinson, leading the assurance programme for the Department of Health, told Healthcare Finance that feedback from the process was encouraging. Some 240 finance managers have been through the process. These have been drawn from substantive primary care trust finance directors, acting finance directors or ‘assigned’ directors of emerging clinical commissioning groups.

With reports back on nearly 85% of the sample, Ms Tomkinson said all the candidates had been assessed as ready for CCG CFO roles.

The assessment assigns a 1-5 grading – grades 1 and 2 indicate the candidate is not ready for a CFO post in the next six months; 3-5 indicate reducing levels of required development needs.

‘This probably confirms what we anticipated,’ said Ms Tomkinson. ‘The calibre of the field we have is very strong.’ But she admitted the assessed group was focused on the top layer of the existing commissioning finance function.

Even if all 240 candidates are given the green light, there are unlikely to be sufficient candidates to meet the needs of the 212 CCGs. Some assessed candidates are known to have been offered alternative jobs or are not intending to apply for roles when CCGs go to open advert later in the year.

And Ms Tomkinson acknowledged that the kitemarked candidates would not all fit geographically with CCGs. Full results of the assurance process are expected within a few weeks.