Comment / Qualified response

The financial pressures facing the NHS continue to dominate our members’ professional lives and the association’s work. The publication of the anonymous finance director letter to the Public Accounts Committee and the Guardian’s interview with Trevor Shipman – both in February – perfectly highlight the pressures finance directors and their boards are facing. 

These very personal views on the current challenges have added to a growing chorus of concerns over the past two years as the financial pressure has mounted. The HFMA – alongside other representative bodies – has tried to ensure that the finance profession’s view is understood. Our ongoing NHS financial temperature check is about providing a platform for the finance voice.

I want our members to know that the HFMA uses every opportunity it gets to put forward your perspective – not just in public but in the meetings that I, your president, and policy director Paul Briddock have with key players.

We know it is tough at the moment and we remain concerned about the impact of these pressures on directors and the whole finance community. However, it is encouraging to see in our latest staff attitudes survey, published alongside our biennial finance function census, that while the job is tiring and demanding, job satisfaction remains high (see page 12).

We must continue to be resilient to ensure we ride through this difficult period. But no one is under the impression that it will be easy.

Event attendances remain at an all-time high and I think the networking opportunities provided by these, and the chance to pick up on best practice, have never been more important.

The census – and tracking changes in the NHS finance function – remains an important project for the association. It also sets out our potential membership – and expanding this membership is a key part of our new membership strategy. Last month the HFMA board strongly endorsed this strategy. We will now start to develop new resources and approaches to membership and will appoint a new membership manager soon.

In my last column, I mentioned the groundbreaking work of HFMA education director Alison Myles on our healthcare business and finance qualification. It is a work in progress, but we are submitting our application to Ofqual to become an awarding body – a major step forward for the association that will provide us with exciting new opportunities.

The programme will offer a range of qualifications at masters level. A diploma stage will be awarded by the HFMA and comprise three certificates, each giving the student 20 credits towards a final MBA. The diploma will be accessible by a range of healthcare staff, including finance staff not yet professionally qualified, and will typically take one year to complete on a part-time basis. 

A higher diploma (60 credits) will be open to anyone who has completed the diploma, as well as CCAB- and CIMA-qualified accountants with at least two years’ NHS experience.

The final part of the MBA (60 credits) will be provided by BPP University, although this is subject to the university’s approval.

Although we’re not yet formally launching the qualification, anyone interested should email [email protected]