HFMA Academy: starting a new term

Now may not seem like the time to add to your workload by taking on further studies. But that’s exactly what finance professionals and the broader healthcare community are doing with the HFMA’s masters-level qualifications.

The feedback from students is positive. Some say they need to re-adjust to the studying habit, but they enjoy the content and are applying what they are learning to their work environment.

The benefits are two-fold. The student gains a qualification – which is quickly establishing a reputation as valuable and well-regarded; the NHS gets a workforce with an enhanced skillset. Paul Baumann, chief financial officer at NHS England, says the health service needs people at the ‘top of their game’ given the challenges it faces. While a finance qualification is essential for many of the financial leadership roles, he says the HFMA masters-level qualifications fill an important gap by focusing attention on the specific NHS context.

Outside finance, Mr Baumann says clinicians and non-finance staff do not need to become accountants, but be ‘value literate’. This involves understanding the financial and value aspects of the decisions they take and recognising the importance of optimising quality and efficiency.

Both NHS England and NHS Improvement have backed this support for the qualifications with funding in the form of bursaries that cover up to half of the costs of the advanced certificate, diploma or higher diploma.

The qualifications were launched in 2017 and there have been four intakes to date plus an initial pilot intake. Learning is delivered online through the HFMA Academy using tutor-led ‘live online’ sessions, interactive discussion forums, e-books and a resource library. 

More than 100 students have already undertaken some aspect of the qualification – whether one or multiple modules. Completion of three modules makes up both the postgraduate diploma and higher diploma in healthcare business and finance. In September, over 90 students will start modules with the academy, approximately 40 of these taking their first module, while the rest are continuing studies.

To date students have had six modules to choose from – with one module (How finance works in the NHS) compulsory for diploma students. But from this month, they also have the option of a new patient-level costing module. As an extra incentive, the HFMA is offering further discounts for people signing up to a diploma or higher diploma including this module, in return for students providing regular feedback on the content and format.

A handful of students have now completed their higher diploma, making them eligible to access the final third of a new MBA programme in healthcare finance, developed by
BPP University, which will be running from October.

These are exciting times for the HFMA and for those working in the NHS who want to take their understanding of healthcare business and finance to a new level.



If you would like to join in, visit www.hfma.org.uk/education-events/qualifications or contact the HFMA on [email protected].