Blog

Sometimes the Finance Teams can seem like the bringers of bad news and the people who are always saying no. This is of course not true on the whole and the Finance Team tends to be valued by the General Managers and Clinicians in management. 

The key to any successful Divisional management team is a good blend of skills with the Divisional Accountant role supplementing the General Manager, Lead Nurse and of course the Clinical Director. Together in the right blend will mean that good things will be happening in that part of whichever hospital that maybe.

For me this is the exciting part of being an accountant in the NHS, being at the "sharp end" and helping make services better for the patients who rely on the hospital for their care and treatment. Working in tandem is a really rewarding part of the job and the one that perhaps can feel a bit daunting to a young recruit. My advice would be to embrace the job, get support from the right places at the right time but you will feel some real pride when a major project comes to fruition, I know i did, and its why I joined the service.

It's a two way street though and the divisional accountant has a crucial role in ensuring that his colleagues within the Divisional team have the requisite understanding of all things Financial for them to be able to see their way through when thinking about a new project.

Managers need a good all around knowledge of the bits of Finance that are the real issues for them, regular awareness raising is a great way to supplement the work of the Divisional accountant. 

It just so happens I have the very thing you might need, have a look round the website and give me a call if you need any awareness raising, either general or bespoke.

Have a good week folks.

​Stephen

Well this last few days certainly has bitten hard weather wise, I've had to take the scraper to my car, maybe this NHS planning round might not be as bad as some people have suggested.

Yes there are savings targets, yes that will be hard, but the inflation deflator is actually an inflator, and tariffs might actually work for the acute sector this time, but the big thing is the new Transformation and Sustainability Funding. 

Trust have to perform to their plans to get the funding but thats good, right? Trusts have performed in the past and theres been no incentive, now there is and I'm hoping this will help Trusts see their way through what could have been a very difficult planning round.

The first draft operational plan is due ion the first week of February with the final draft due first week of April, the challenge will be the Sustainability and Transformational Plan, the so called place based plans, easy in big cities, not so easy in the rural health economies, but at least its a start.

As always if there is anything I can help with, get in touch.

​Stephen

Welcome to the website of Sk Consulting 2015 Limited, I'd like to say a huge thanks to Les Findley without his fabulous design skills and huge dedication this website would still be a twinkle in my eye, thanks Les, you are a star.

I hope you find what you are looking for on my website and also through the services that I can provide to you and your organisation.

Its a massively busy period for the NHS as a whole and particularly for Finance staff who are busy forecasting, planning and doing all of the things required during the last quarter of the financial year.

I'll be blogging regularly and will be tweeting each day about the current topics and things that interest me. 

Feel free to get in contact if you have any requirements I would be happy to chat through with you around anything you may need assistance with.

I look forward to hearing from you.

​Stephen