Comment / Cost call

By Mark Knight

I was leafing through some old editions of this magazine's predecessor and chanced on a publications list from the 1960s. It included Patients' monies and belongings and other HFMA titles familiar to us today. Although that might suggest we haven't moved with the times, these publications remain relevant, have been updated many times and continue to be part of the association's wider work. 
Our advice on how patients' monies are treated is the standard practice in health and social care.

It's a great example of something the HFMA has invested time and energy in over the years that has become the standard modus operandi for the service. And this is not an isolated case. Several other publications have become the 'go to' guide for their subject area. Some we produce independently, others in partnership, such as the Audit committee handbook (with the Department of Health) or the Guide to accounts series (Audit Commission).

A recent and more formal initiative, and arguably of even greater significance, concerns costing. In 2010, the HFMA was commissioned by the Department to continue its initial development work on clinical costing standards - providing best practice guidance for costing at patient and service user level for acute and mental health organisations. The Department has provided vital support for this work by allocating grants. But the transfer of responsibility to the HFMA is in line with a shared recognition by the Department and the HFMA that the NHS finance profession should have the lead role in setting costing standards.

Revised standards were published last April and further updates will be published this month and launched at the HFMA costing conference - an annual event we are seeking to establish to cater directly for the needs of the costing professional. We have set up two groups to support the development of the standards - one each for acute and mental health sectors - and the engagement of these practitioners has been spectacular. The engagement of the wider costing community, via annual costing standards surveys, has also been gratifying.

The association and the costing groups have benefited from the leadership of Tony Whitfield, who becomes the HFMA's president next year. You can be confident that costing will be at the front of his agenda. 

We have also benefited from the expertise of Helen Strain, who led last year's update as HFMA costing lead (on secondment). Helen will join the association's staff in May to continue this work. I would also like to highlight the substantial contribution of Fiona Boyle, from University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, who has led the revision work over the past 12 months alongside her day job - definitely someone taking our current president's 'Making a difference' theme seriously.

The costing standards work continues as we look to support the drive for higher quality costing to inform decision-making and tariff development. This is a key time for costing in the NHS. The current changes, and in particular the change in responsibility for tariff setting, mean it is vital the association engages with all the relevant stakeholders. Tony has pulled together a Strategic Costing Group to do just this.

However, this leaves an important gap at the helm of our costing standards work. If any senior finance professional is interested in chairing the costing standards group, we are keen to hear from you.