Havelock Training Award

This award recognises 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 looks to share good practice and innovation in financial skills development.

Winner E ast Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

Also shortlisted ABM University Health Board, Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust

New perspectives
Closer working between finance and clinical staff is an aspiration for organisations across the NHS and there are a number of initiatives that aim to achieve this goal. East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has an innovative approach that has given accountants confidence to work side by side with clinicians as they seek to improve quality and identify savings. And that has also produced positive results for the trust.
The trust has been given the HFMA Havelock Training Award, which recognises a significant contribution to finance skills development, best practice in the training of finance staff or the raising of financial awareness among the non-finance workforce. The award was established in 1999 and named after former Department of Health deputy finance director Jon Havelock, who died suddenly in 1998.
Judges chose East Kent Hospitals because the project gave finance staff the practical skills to achieve outcomes that would benefit the organisation. ‘It was an excellent example of finance working in partnership with operational staff to help deliver the change programme required,’ they said.
In May, East Kent’s finance department embarked on a strategy to make it more dynamic and innovative by extending the development of accountants beyond their professional remit. It aimed to give management accountants the confidence to identify and deliver sustained savings, ensure the finance team were aware of their working practices, help accountants gain decision-making skills, and support the development of business skills across the trust.
In addition, the trust set outputs including the delivery of projects demonstrating the team could identify, plan and support the delivery of sustainable change; report to a senior team on the financial and service improvements identified; and give confidential feedback to each training cohort member on their working habits.
The training involved the identification of new or stalled cost improvement opportunities. Accountants were asked to determine how these improvements could be realised in a sustainable way.
Several methods were used to deliver the training: HFMA e-learning, psychometric analysis (to study working behaviour), formal training days and coaching and mentoring support to help deliver the cost improvements.
In presentations and Q&A sessions with the cohort, trust directors and clinicians emphasised the benefits of understanding clinical services and the pressures faced by frontline staff in delivering high-quality, safe and cost-effective care. As one course participant said: ‘This is training outside the finance box.’
Five efficiency schemes that were either new or had previously stalled were developed under the programme, and overall the programmes clocked up more than £2.5m of efficiencies.
Mark Hawkins, the trust’s programme office manager (above centre), said the trust was moving from centralised management to a devolved structure. ‘We have put a training programme in place to give finance staff the right skills and personal development to meet the challenges. The programme we have put together is personalised, in the sense of identifying strengths and weaknesses, but we also look at outcomes in terms of service development or the efficiency programme, which benefits the organisation. It’s a win-win arrangement,’ he added.

The Judges

Letsie Tilley, Former Director of Finance & Performance, Hampshire Partnership NHS FT

Mark Knight, Chief Executive, HFMA

Andy Hardy, Chief Executive, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust

Sue Lorimer, Director of Finance & Commissioning, Alder Hey Children's Hospital NHS FT