Comment / Centre forward

As summer approaches, the association continues to march on through 2013 and a big year of change for the HFMA.  One big piece of news is that our conference centre at 110 Rochester Row, London, is to be opened in July alongside our key supporters' dinner.  The centre has a comfortable members' area. It isn't large, but it should enable members to meet for a coffee when in London. We will e-mail you when the area is fully open.

We were due to complete a second stage of the project in late 2014, but have been able to persuade tenants to surrender their lease and the full project should be complete by September.  We already have quite a few HFMA committee meetings and events lined up at the centre, so some members will see it, even if they don’t visit the members' area. 

The centre will be a tremendous resource for HFMA but its success depends on attracting commercial business. This will take time and the board has been realistic in its expectations. In the meantime, I am delighted the HFMA has been able to attract a strong candidate for conference centre manager – Andrew Goddard, who has set about his challenge with gusto.

Another key appointment for the association is our new marketing director, Simon Dolph.  He comes to us from the Chartered Institute of Management and has a background in member development and marketing. He has made a significant contribution to discussions on a revamp of our website and has attended a successful branches’ strategy day.  Simon will be based in London and is expected to recruit a small team in the capital while retaining our existing presence in Bristol. 

One key aspect of his job will be to help develop our media and communications strategy.  It’s important that we build and develop our communications strategy as we are aware that members want to hear the voice of NHS finance represented in media debate .

We have been busy supporting our president Tony Whitfield's ‘Knowing the business’ theme.  The theme has proved timely, coinciding with ministerial and civil service initiatives to get closer to services by working shifts on the frontline. We have been running events to support it, as well as webinars and producing briefings. Finance directors should look out for two 24-hour retreats planned for autumn, when we expect to provide power-packed development opportunities.

We are also working with Monitor, the Department of Health and the NHS Trust Development Authority on a host of issues. As the new landscape settles down, we are getting to grips with the new status quo – this is important work for the future profiling of HFMA.

As to our Royal Charter application, I think the case for a well defined grouping of ‘healthcare finance professionals’ is even more powerful than ever given the type of transformational leadership required. We are at an important (albeit informal) stage of these proceedings, so I cannot say too much. But I can say that I remain very hopeful we will be CHFMA by 2014. If we do gain this recognition, the question for your colleagues who are not members will surely then be: ‘How can you afford not to be a member of the association?’ Why not encourage your colleagues – we need your support.  Have a good summer.