New opportunities

A very belated happy new year. I trust you had a good break over Christmas. The short days and cold weather don’t entice us back to work but, for many of us, it is the belief we are doing something worthwhile that motivates us.

For the HFMA, the work continues. Thank you to all who attended the annual conference in December. Apart from a pretty shockingly bad dinner, for which I apologise, I felt the event was one of the best we had run, with a variety of interesting and stimulating speakers present.

For the association, it was a piece of crisis management four weeks out, when the general election date was set for the week after our flagship event. Several NHS leaders scheduled to speak had to withdraw because of pre-election sensitivities. But HFMA staff were able to turn a potential disaster into a triumph. And many of our colleagues from NHS England and NHS Improvement, who were unable to address the conference, will be delivering webinars on the HFMA platform in the coming weeks.

For those who like to plan early, the early booker rate for our 70th anniversary conference in December will be out soon.

The new year means a new president and we are excited to have Caroline Clarke at the helm for 2020. Her theme, Taking pride in the future, is a powerful rallying call in the association’s 70th year of existence. She wants NHS finance to take pride in what it does well and play a key role in securing the future success of the NHS.

Those of you who have met Caroline will have been struck by her energy and charisma. We look forward to helping her deliver her objectives. There is a different dimension in having a CEO as president and it’s great to have someone from London – the first since 2000.

The association used the annual conference to launch our HFMA bitesize portfolio of courses, with three levels to meet the learning needs of a wide range of NHS staff. We are exploring how we can make these courses much more accessible across all four UK nations. The product will be available to purchase from early March and we will be sending out further details shortly.

In April, we launch our new hub concept. Most of the face-to-face networking at HFMA in England takes place via our faculties, which have been astonishingly successful. But we must move with the times. The HFMA’s longstanding partner programme and faculty offering will evolve into the HFMA hub partner programme to mirror moves towards system working. Partnership with the hub will allow organisations and systems to come together, network with peers, share expertise, and influence policy and decision-making. The aim is to support wider finance teams working across organisational boundaries for integrated service delivery.

The HFMA faculties will continue as networks and keep their strong identities. But there will be more focus on integration and picking up new methods of delivery. Hub partners can select the events and familiar benefits from their faculties. But they will also be encouraged to access the broader hub programme. You’ll hear more from us in the coming months and weeks, so look out for further details on the hub.

2020 has got off to a flying start already for the association. Perhaps this is the year you will get more closely involved with the HFMA!