Comment / In control

Helped by the HFMA’s ‘Take control’ programme, finance staff are better equipped for the changes ahead – but major challenges remain

What a year. From representing the association in front of the Commons health select committee to addressing close to 5,000 US health service accountants in Florida, to visiting all the HFMA branches, being HFMA president for the past 12 months has been hectic, varied, at times tiring – but always enjoyable.

What I share with past presidents and chairmen of the association is a sense of how quickly the year has disappeared. I can hardly believe I am writing my last official comment.

The year has seen big developments in the unfolding agenda for the NHS. No-one can doubt we live in interesting times with an unprecedented scale of change in the service. But with change comes risk and in times of such uncertainty and ambiguity, there is a danger that people lack direction and focus.

Yet faced with the ‘Nicholson challenge’ – finding up to £20bn of productivity improvements by 2014/15 – the last thing we can afford to be is distracted. We need to focus on things we can do something about, not those we can’t affect. This has been central to my theme ‘Take control’ during 2011. 

HFMA is a membership association and has a proud tradition of supporting the NHS finance family. During a year in which a number of our members were directly affected by the structural changes, I was keen to ensure the association offered real, tangible support to those finance staff. In addition was a need for a broader package for others seeking to take stock of their position or simply develop their skills for the new environment.

I was therefore extremely proud that the trustees, in conjunction with David Flory and his team at the Department of Health, took the decision to invest resources in the ‘Take control’ programme this year.

The programme operated at a number of levels. On the one hand it offered a very practical dimension, with a career guide and accompanying workshops to help individuals with presentation skills, CV writing and interview skills. But at a more strategic level, it also included special ‘Take Control’ workshops to help staff take stock of their situations and identify what they need to do next. 

Further workshops sought to help managers support their staff dealing with the stress of the current changes. We have increased the number

of mentors, provided sessions to develop coaching skills and provided free and subsequent discounted sessions with professional coaches to support finance staff. 

During the course of the year we have delivered sessions for more than 840 staff and the feedback has been 100% rated at excellent/good, with really positive testimonials from attendees. 

While the formal ‘Take control’ programme has undoubtedly proved very successful, I hope the theme will continue long past this year. There is still much to do and a huge agenda to address. Finance staff have already proved they have a very important role to play as enablers in transformational change. 

We need to ensure we are appropriately skilled and prepared for this role and ready to act as leaders within our organisations.

We need to work closely with our clinical colleagues to ensure the NHS navigates the challenges successfully and delivers the outcome of safe, sustainable services for our patients.