Comment / Hazy aspirations?

‘Time, time, time. See what’s become of me.’ So goes Simon and Garfunkel’s classic Hazy shade of winter. It continues: ‘while I looked around for my possibilities’. What stimulated this musical musing? Well, it was Department of Health director general of finance David Flory at December’s HFMA annual conference talking about the need for more succession planning for NHS finance posts.

He was recounting that a recent senior finance post only had one applicant and, while he acknowledged you only needed one good candidate, choice in the modern NHS was always a good thing. Where are all the senior finance staff of the future?

It is a problem that not enough finance staff in the NHS aspire to the most senior posts. There are many reasons apart from a lack of ambition – the assumed risks of taking a senior post, the daunting pay gap between deputy and director-level posts, potential long hours and the small ‘p’ politics. Failure to provide sufficient career development and preparation for the top jobs may also be a contributing factor.

We live in a different world from that of 20 years ago when it was accepted that to get on you had to move around to get the right experience. Now, there is a reluctance to follow the job for family reasons and, for those in a relationship, both partners having careers can create restrictions.

Back then it was not just where you worked geographically, but as important was gaining experience of the different levels in the NHS. Talking to colleagues, I’ve been staggered by the length some people commute for personal reasons. But they are, increasingly, the exceptions and not everyone is prepared to pay such a high price in terms of stress and time.

Having just changed jobs, the ‘competition’ was very much on my mind as I updated my CV and contemplated the interview. Attitude to choice, I discovered, depends on whether you are buying or selling! Both my old and new organisations had long lists of candidates from which to select their short lists.

Both jobs, however, were with acute trusts. So are there certain types of senior finance post that are more difficult to fill?

I suspect this is the case. Acute trusts can struggle if they are perceived to have serious financial challenges, but they are considered by many as the place to be. There are huge agendas in areas such as mental health and commissioning, where I have met many talented and committed managers. But if there is a bias towards the acute sector, it only reduces the field for future vacancies in other key areas.

How, then, are we to ensure that all NHS organisations and aspiring finance directors have choice? Placing value on experience across the range of different organisations would be a good start. Encouraging finance staff to move between the various organisations, and even the Department, would help. This would produce director-level people with a breadth and depth of experience and knowledge that would not only benefit the NHS, but the individuals themselves.

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