Comment / New year focus

This is my first update since our annual conference in December. Once again, it was a tremendous event with a great range of speakers and opportunities to network. A big thank you to everyone who took part and, of course, to my team who make it all happen. 

The feedback showed a high level of satisfaction with the event and a few useful tips on what we could do better. We have launched the booking form for the 2024 event, so I look forward to seeing you all again.

What I took away from the conference was an overwhelming spirit of friendship and togetherness. It is a difficult time, possibly the toughest ever, and it was good to see colleagues sharing ideas and supporting one another. 

The spirit of comradeship is also exemplified by our new president’s theme, Working as one – a call to action not just for organisations to work together but for individuals to help each other too. This is an important part of our overall strategy: to provide support and assistance to one another.

One area of support where the association has dramatically increased its output is via our band 2-6 members – ‘the 226ers’ as I call them. That community now has its own events and forums, mostly online. They also represent the majority of members – while band 7 plus ‘paying members’ number around 2,800, there are more than 4,000 bands 2-6. 

Last month we held the first national 2-6 event, which was well attended and doubled up as the awards ceremony for our first level 4 graduates. Our level 4 intermediate qualification in healthcare business and finance is free and available to all HFMA members, but is most clearly directed at the 2-6 group. 

This year, we aim to host more than 100 on the programme, so if you know someone who would be interested, please sign them up.

We are also working hard to develop resources for our qualified community, too numerous to list here, in a whole range of different areas. It’s that time of year again, so on top of the highly successful pre-accounts planning conference, there is a whole raft of advice from our team led by Emma Knowles. And of course, all this is showcased on our brand new website. As a member, you are encouraged to sign up to the site, to gain the maximum benefit from it.

Riding hard on the heels of the website is our new learning management system – going live this summer. This is a central platform with all our content hosted in one place. We anticipate this will be a real game-changer.

So it’s been a busy start for 2024. Staff and members have worked hard to make these projects happen. It’s important we continue to strive to support you, our members. If anyone wants to get more involved locally or nationally give me a shout: [email protected].