Comment / Charter mark

By Mark Knight

In a year when we celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee, shortly after our own 60-year celebrations, it is fitting that the HFMA Board has decided to actively consider applying for a  royal charter. This was one of two key decisions taken at our May board meeting – I will report back on the other issue next time out.

Royal charters, granted by the sovereign on advice from the Privy Council, were once the only means of incorporating a body. They are now reserved for eminent professional bodies or charities that have a solid record of achievement and represent a field of activity not covered by other professional bodies.

With a plethora of royal colleges and other institutions backing up our medical colleagues, the HFMA board feels it is time to strengthen the association’s position with a more formal recognition of its own status.  We regard it as the creation of a new healthcare body, rather than an accountancy one, with a much broader role to play in the development of excellent healthcare services and a mission to explain healthcare finance to staff and the wider world.

It would involve a change of name to start with. We would probably become the Chartered Association of Healthcare Finance (CAHF).  Armed with our new name and status we’d be able to develop further educational and other associated services.  Most important, it would provide a boost to our organisation’s credibility and hopefully enable other organisations to recognise us as a more serious commentator on major issues. We would remain the same friendly, collegiate type of organisation, but we would aim to increase our membership. In fact we believe many more colleagues would view membership as essential.

We would not create a new accountancy qualification – CCAB bodies and CIMA can rest easy.  Nor would it mean a new regulation agenda. We have always had the option to remove people from membership but we are not looking to duplicate the disciplinary processes linked to the accountancy bodies that train professional accountants.

It won’t even mean a change to the way HFMA operates locally. It will simply be an opportunity to raise the profile of the association and invest its voice with more authority.

So what next? Now that the initial decision has been taken there will be a two-track process. First, the decision to recommend the creation of a chartered body needs to be considered by you, the membership. The second track is gaining the consent of the Privy Council. This involves publishing information in a prospectus and seeking the views of other colleague organisations. 

Limited space means I won’t go into detail about this here, except to say that there will be full consultation across the summer and a vote will be taken at the annual general meeting in December. If everything goes smoothly, the proposal will go to the Privy Council and we may be a chartered association by mid-2013.

I know many of you care deeply about the HFMA and are committed to its objectives. We would not change. We would continue to pursue the same activities to advance the professional area of healthcare finance as we always have. If as a stakeholder you would like to send me some early thoughts please do not hesitate to do so.