Member Article

Finance training scheme wins prestigious award

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust has won a prestigious national award, sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), for creating a training package to give managers and senior doctors a better understanding of finance.

The trust’s finance team won the Havelock Training Award at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Awards in London on December 6.

The initiative was designed to enable Band 7 managers to take control of their budgets and authorise expenditure, such as on bank staff or local service improvements, following the trust’s decision to devolve such decision-making to frontline teams in 2011.

Local managers, consultants and lead clinicians would be held jointly accountable for balancing their budgets and achieving best possible outcomes within those constraints – however many had little or no financial knowledge.

An overview of how to order goods, payroll forms, standing financial instructions (SFIs) and savings was included in the training package, along with what to do if a team has overspent and the consequences of overspending. This included group and one-to-one training, and so far 150 managers and 100 consultants have completed the programme.

An evaluation of the scheme, conducted by the trust in March 2012, revealed there has been no loss of financial control since managers took control of team budgets.

David Rowsby, director of Europe at CIMA, who was on the judging panel and presented the award to our finance team, said: “Birmingham and Solihull developed an innovative training package designed to devolve more decision making to the frontline.

“The resulting increase in financial awareness has led to much better teamwork and control of budgets, with quantifiable reductions in the number of SFI breaches.”

Richard Sollars, finance and business manager for the trust’s adults of working age division, said: “Most of the band 7s were clinical managers and it was about improving their skill levels and confidence to look at finance.

“While it increased knowledge of issues such as SFI breaches, there were benefits in softer areas, such as engagement. The scheme has now been rolled out across the trust and we are thinking of extending it to band 6 staff.”

BSMHFT was one of four trusts shortlisted in this category, sponsored by CIMA – beating Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust – to pick up the award at the London Hilton Metropole.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CIMA UK Regional News .