Feature / Into the future

The NHS is in a very different place to
where it was three years ago. In 2014, austerity was already the government’s established economic policy, and the NHS was feeling the pressure with a small provider side deficit in 2013/14. The HFMA’s first NHS financial temperature check highlighted growing finance director pessimism about their organisation’s ability to meet financial targets. 

Three years on and finance directors’ concerns have materialised into perhaps the biggest financial challenge the NHS has faced. There is a broad consensus around how the service needs to progress – transforming care models and integrating all health and care services around patients – but there are also clear concerns about whether current funding levels are sufficient to allow a realistic timeframe to be set for this transformation.

This new environment provides a different context for the HFMA to operate within and will have a direct impact on some of its activities. Our new strategy – covering 2017 to 2020 – sets out the board’s key aims for the association over the next three years. We are keen to hear any comments and views from members on this strategy.

The HFMA is the only professional body in the UK dedicated to setting and promoting the highest standards in financial management and governance in healthcare. We possess a unique space in the healthcare sector – our members and what we say is important and the network we provide is vital for a healthy and effective finance function.

The difficult financial position within the NHS and the challenges faced by all NHS staff make the role of the association – particularly in delivering professional development (CPD) and technical support to finance practitioners – even more important.

Since the last strategy document was published in 2014, the HFMA has run more than 750 events and provided some 300,000 hours of CPD. Its wider membership has grown to
more than 13,000 and it constantly performs at
95% good/excellent satisfaction ratings for its events. 

The association remains committed
to ensuring the content of all its education and development activities meets the changing needs of the membership and that these activitiesare delivered in the most appropriate way to fit the busy working lives of members.

• Provide excellent member networks and services
• Develop and disseminate leading edge policy and technical work 
• Create relevant and affordable development and qualification opportunities
• Manage ourselves effectively as a business.

Members and services

Our members remain the central focus for the HFMA. We will continue to support members, ensuring content is absolutely relevant and improving how they can access this support. 

For example, a new member app will provide a simple way for members to keep up to date with what the association is doing, what it is publishing, and the webinars and events that are most relevant to their working lives. 

But we’ll also continue to target an increase in membership, both in terms of our core finance practitioner members and our growing affiliate membership – a broader group of stakeholders who rightly have an interest in healthcare finance.

We will continue to develop our faculty system with new networks in social care and for clinicians – underlining the importance of engagement and working as whole systems to deliver sustainable services.

Policy and technical

Over the past three years, the HFMA has made significant investments in its policy and technical team. Our approach has always been to make comment on the basis of evidence and to publish informed and practical guidance. Our expanded policy and technical team has enabled us to expand these activities, while retaining our commitment to depth and detail, and to enhance the support to our range of groups and forums. Over the next three years, we aim to continue this development with an increased focus on ensuring our members are always aware of the wide ranging work being taken forward across the association.

Education and training

The HFMA is the leading provider of finance-related CPD and will continue to ensure its programme of conferences, forums, workshops, webinars and e-learning remains relevant to members and other stakeholders. In helping branches to develop their work and events, we will co-ordinate more sharing and developing of common programmes that can be rolled out in different areas.

The masters-level qualification, which formally started in May 2017, marks a significant milestone for the association.
This is an exciting development and our clear objective is to establish this qualification as the ‘gold standard of healthcare finance’ attracting more students and adding a wider range of modules. 

A new HFMA Academy will oversee the qualification training. We will also continue to support the Future-Focused Finance initiative in our role as prime partner. 

Manage ourselves effectively

In the past 15 years, the HFMA has become a successful medium-sized business with a turnover of more than £8m. While in 2000, we had one employee, we now have more than 70 staff (45 whole-time equivalents). 

The HFMA’s asset base has increased significantly in the same period, with our London conference centre the biggest single asset in our portfolio.

The association recognises that 2017-2020 will be a difficult period for the health and social care sector. Budgets for the work in which the HFMA is engaged are likely to remain tight and we recognise that affordability and value for money will be more important than ever. 

The HFMA board will continue to consider investments of its cash reserves, with any revenue used to reduce costs of services. 

We do not anticipate increasing reserves during the coming three years, but will aim for balanced budgets. We will also continue with our long-term goal of becoming a chartered organisation.

The new strategy walks a fine line between the association wanting to develop, but also recognising that the current NHS landscape is very tough. 

Equally, the move to deliver more services digitally, to provide new educational offerings and a drive to be more member focused are all areas where the board feels there is real scope for development. 

Have your say about the new strategy by emailing [email protected]