HFMA 2018: Kathy Roe is FD of the year

The trailblazing finance lead has been instrumental in the integration of local health and care services. However, her advocacy of joint working has gone further – highlighting how the range of services provided by the local council, such as housing, education and employment, are closely linked to the wider determinants of health.

Ms Roe (pictured) is both chief finance officer of Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group and Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in an innovative joint structure. On a practical level, integration has meant bringing together CCG and council finance staff into a single, co-located finance team. The team looks after one of the largest integrated NHS/local authority commissioning funds in the country, totalling around £1bn. It has attracted attention from other parts of the country and the team has contributed to the Department of Health and Social Care’s work to change section 75 rules to allow greater integrated management of services.

The move to integration was prompted by recurrent unsustainable local authority and health services and concerns about clinical training and services at Tameside Hospital. The hospital was one of the first wave put into special measures by the Keogh review.

Over the last two years, the local integrated trust, council and CCG have achieved aggregate savings of £82m from transformation and QIPP efficiencies, while the provider deficit position has improved by £5m. Further savings of £18.5m are expected by 2022/23.

The judging panel of senior finance leaders were impressed with the scale and scope of her work. One said: ‘A really strong example of joined up working and leading from the front.’

Ms Roe received the award at a gala ceremony in central London last night [6 December]. In total, eight awards were presented. Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust won two awards – the Costing Award, for using patient-level data to transform care, and the Havelock Training Award, for its marginal gains programme.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was presented with the Finance Team of the Year Award. In 2017/18, it produced the trust’s largest-ever surplus, in part through a waste reduction strategy. The trust’s deputy medical director David Berridge scooped the Working with Finance – Clinician of the Year Award. The award acknowledges the importance of clinical engagement in financial management and recognises a clinician who has taken financial responsibility for their services, led efficiency or improvement programmes or provided an example for other clinicians by engaging with the financial agenda. Fellow Leeds doctor Phil Wood was highly commended in the same category.

 

 

The awards presented were:

 

Finance Director of the Year

Kathy Roe, Tameside and Glossop Strategic Commissioning Function

 

Deputy Finance Director of the Year

Duncan Orme, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

 

Finance Team of the Year

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

 

Costing Award

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

 

Working with Finance – Clinician of the Year

David Berridge, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

 

Governance Award

Northern Care Alliance NHS Group and MIAA

 

Innovation Award

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

 

Havelock Training Award

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust