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Havelock Training Award

The HFMA Havelock Training Award is made annually to recognise a significant contribution made towards finance skills development (FSD). It recognises best practice in the training and development of finance staff or the raising of financial awareness and skills within the wider non-financial workforce.

The award was established in 1999 to commemorate the significant contribution Jon Havelock made to NHS finance staff development. Prior to his sudden death in 1998, Jon was the deputy director of finance in the Department of Health. The award looks to share good practice and innovation in financial skills development

Further detail on this Award can be found in HFMA’s 2009 Awards brochure.

Winner: Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust

 

The phrase ‘NHS finance talent pool’ is most closely associated with the next wave of finance directors – the deputies, assistants and associates waiting to grasp their chance to take the top job. Last year, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) decided to focus on a much lower level – recruiting from the local community at the lower levels of Agenda for Change bands.

Achievements

This ‘grow your own’ policy was a logical one for HEFT and has won the trust the HFMA Havelock Training Award for 2009.  The trust is at the heart of a deprived area in Birmingham and is serious about its position as the leading employer in an area of high unemployment. Despite the large number of people in the area looking for jobs, the trust found it increasingly difficult to recruit the right people, with the right skills and attitude, to work in financial management assistant (FMA) roles. To resolve this problem, the finance department set up a talent pool, which would recruit up to six people on a 12-month contract. Trainees had the opportunity to work in two areas of the finance function, spending six months in each.

HEFT director of finance Adrian Stokes said five of the six original trainees have now got a job with HEFT, while the other has taken a position with another NHS organisation.

'We didn't do this to win awards but it is fantastic to win this,' he said. ‘It's a real honour. We have brought three of the trainees with us tonight. They started work with us a year ago and many had not worked in the NHS before but tonight they are learning a lot, seeing the HFMA conference and winning something.'

Calvin Hall, who has taken a permanent post as an FMA at HEFT added: 'The scheme is a great introduction to finance. I have learned a lot in a year and am really pleased to have got a permanent role at the trust.'

Further detail on the winning entry is available in the HFMA 2009 Awards Supplement.

What the judges said

“This is an innovative project and addresses the community pool of non-studiers and those with no qualifications” 

Further detail on the entry requirements, judging criteria and judges for this particular award can be found in the HFMA 2009 Awards Brochure.

Highly Commended: Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board
Also shortlisted: NHS Gloucestershire, Newham University Hospitals NHS Trust