Meet the Regional Leads

Transcription

1 Value Maker Regional Networks Meet the Regional Leads

2 FOREWORD Claire Yarwood! Senior Responsible Officer Value Makers As the Senior Responsible Officer for Value Makers, I am delighted to introduce you to our Value Maker Regional Leads. The Value Maker role was introduced to create a network of passionate individuals across the NHS who champion and spread the work and messages of Future-Focused Finance. Our Value Makers continuously show enthusiasm and commitment in sharing best practice, resources and ideas, while working on many of the projects within FFF. They are also doing a fantastic job of keeping their organisations and health economies up to date on all of the latest news from FFF. The Regional Networks were established to set up a regional approach to promote best practice and share ideas at a local level, with locally based leads. This document introduces you to each region s leads who are passionate about NHS Finance, Making People Count and the development of finance staff and teams. The regions have been established as follows: North West (split into Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside, Lancashire and South Cumbria>. North East Yorkshire and Humber West Midlands East Midlands East of England London South West South Central South East Each regional network will provide events and networking opportunities so make sure you get involved in your region. Claire Yarwood Senior Responsible Officer Value Makers Value regional lead North East Rikki Siddle! First of all a little background - I have over 17 years financial management experience within the NHS, 10 of which are Post Qualification Experience (CIMA) and I have operated at a Senior Management level since 2013 spanning multiple roles from Associate Care Group Accountant, Contracting and Development Accountant through to my current role as Associate Director of Finance at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. Secondly, my brief Value Maker Story. I first started to hear of Future-Focused Finance and Value Making back in 2015 and the concept instantly grabbed me and I thought I want to be part of this movement. I duly applied to be in the second tranche of Value Makers and submitted my application in infographic form, demonstrating my experience, skill set and what I hoped to gain and offer by being a. THE CONCEPT INSTANTLY GRABBED ME AND I THOUGHT - I WANT TO BE PART OF THIS MOVEMENT. Fast forward to 2018 and I continue to find the ever resource expanding Future Focussed Finance initiative very valuable and this year will paying particular attention internally to Focused Finance Accreditation for my organisation and outwardly to increasing my engagement with other Value Makers and the FFF Community. Becoming the North East Value Maker Lead will give me a great platform to do this and increase engagement, network and impact.

3 Value regional lead Yorkshire & Humber Value regional lead West Midlands Mark Songhurst! I am nominally the regional lead for Yorkshire and the Humber. I say nominally because I am more of a co-ordinator I am working alongside Suzanne Ibbotson, Jonathan Lumb and Jenny Harcourt. Mark Mawdsley! I work as Head of Costing and Contracting at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust. I ve worked in NHS finance for thirty years now, in a variety of different roles and organisations though the majority of this time has been in financial management within acute Trusts. Since becoming a Value Maker I have had the chance to work on secondment to the Yorkshire and Humber Secondment Pilot that proved the worth of taking secondments both for individuals and for organisations. Following the end of the secondment to the Future-Focused Finance scheme, I took the plunge and have been working on the Scan4Safety Programme here at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. I still sit back and think how did I end up working in such an amazing job, making improvements to the way we use technology to make our patients safer and the systems we use more efficient, I suppose 13 years in Internal Audit has really paid off. I have been involved in Future-Focused Finance since the first cohort of Value Makers. Being very honest joining Future-Focused Finance is one of the most amazing points of my career so far. I have been able to meet and work with some amazing people and have expanded my career and horizons beyond belief. I am a real believer in Great Place to Work and creating the right atmosphere and cultures for people to work in. We spend so much of our lives at work the office should at least be a welcoming and supportive environment. The one thing I look forward to at work and for me the best part of FFF is being part of a network of people who all want to work together to improve healthcare and will support each other. FFF is truly like a family and I have made great friends as well as colleagues along the way. I look forward to rolling FFF out further across the region and working with more and more people. When Future Focused Finance was first announced I have to admit I felt sceptical, I ve seen any number of initiatives come and go, often with little impact. However I gave it some reflection and decided that my cynicism made me an ideal person to be involved, and I think I even said this in my application. I figured that if I could be persuaded FFF would deliver real benefit then it would definitely be a good thing, and if not then I would know not to bother with it! I became a Value Maker and was fully enthused by the first event I attended and the colleagues I met and was even introduced to the joys of Twitter. When the opportunity came up to join the FACE network I jumped at the chance as I have always had an interest in finance training and have a passion for developing engagement with clinical and operational colleagues. Again, this introduced me to a network of enthusiastic like-minded colleagues who have been working incredibly hard to develop finance education. For me FFF has delivered useful tools and resources but the greatest benefit has been the improved networking and the bringing together of people to share good practice. There is a wealth of experience, knowledge and creativity across the country in the NHS finance function and sharing ideas and approaches is something that can help us all. Nobody wants to reinvent the wheel every time you do something new. I have recently been involved in setting up a local Shropshire FFF group to encourage engagement as national and regional events don t always feel accessible to everyone. We also hope to improve inter-organisation communication and sharing of best practice. As Value Maker regional lead for the West Midlands I am keen to encourage all finance teams to engage with FFF and share the good practice that I know is in place across our region. If anyone would like to find out more about becoming a Value Maker or if any current s would like to get involved with the regional network, please get in touch with myself or the FFF team futurefocusedfinance@nhs.net. We also have a West Midlands Value Maker group now on the FFF website so make sure you join in the conversation.

4 Value regional lead East Midlands Value regional lead EAST Midlands Ken Godber! Derek Stewart! I am currently Assistant Director of Finance at Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a post I have held since March 2014, although I ve been employed at the Royal for a total of just over 13 years. My role is Associate Director of Finance Financial Services at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust with responsibility for Financial Accounts, Cashiers, Capital Programme, Payables / Receivables, Payroll and the Financial Systems Team. My current role covers all areas relating to financial accountancy including Payroll, Creditors & Debtors, Patient Accounts, Charitable Funds, Capital, Financial Systems Management, Financial Accounts and leadership to the Finance team. I have spent my whole career in the NHS since August 1990, predominantly in the acute sector at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Chesterfield Royal, working in a variety of roles across both financial management and financial accounts. I became Chair of the HFMA Charitable Funds Special Interest Group in July 2015 and I m also a member of the HFMA Technical Issues Group, a Future Focused Finance Value Maker and a Finance and Clinical Educator (FACE). There are numerous reasons why I became a Value Maker but in brief my key ones are: I have over 27 years experience across the NHS Finance Department and I m keen to use this experience to enable the service to move forward. For me, what the FFF programme does, for the first time in my career, is to present a single 5 year plan of how we will develop Finance across the NHS. I find this extremely exciting and I want to be part of it. I ve had a keen interest in the improvement agenda for many years and have previously been involved in running improvement events. I am keen to continue with this and be part of a bigger network where I can help make a big difference to the services we provide. Across the East Midlands region I have been heavily involved for a couple of years now chairing our East Midlands Making a Difference Group, along with colleagues from across the patch. This is the main vehicle for taking FFF forwards across our region and I hope many of you will join us in our crusade. Amongst many things, we held a very well attended FFF relaunch conference in mid-2016 and I hope with the formalisaton of the regional Value Maker roles I can help make some of the pledges that colleagues across the East Midlands made that day a reality. Having just been awarded Level 1 FFF Accreditation I am keen to support more East Midlands Organisations with the accreditation process. If you believe you work for a great organisation, accreditation will give you the certificate to prove it!!! I look forward to working with more East Midlands colleagues in the near future and, of course, my other regional Value Maker colleagues. I ve worked in NHS finance since 1989, this started with a six-month temporary role in Hull which has since taken me to Sheffield, Leicester and Northampton. I have worked in the East Midlands region since 2002, joined the Trust in September 2007 and prior to this worked at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust dealing with Capital and Charitable Funds. I m also a member of the executive committee of the East Midlands HFMA branch and have been a with Future Focused Finance since June I ve predominantly worked in Acute Trusts other than an 18-month secondment at the Trent Regional Office. I applied for the second tranche of Value Makers and when I attended the launch event, I have never come across so much positive enthusiasm in one room. We had great presentations with a regular input from speakers who clearly reminded us that the NHS is all about being patient focused. We also had an introduction to twitter and outlined the benefits of engagement in social media followed by a series of webinars supported by the HFMA. Twitter provides a key source of information on what s going on with FFF on a national scale. This is a great tool to provide a quick check in with other s and inform you of what they are involved in. Its an easy way to keep in touch with a pro-active network of people and everyone is genuinely happy to share experiences and point you in the direction of a lead for issues if they can t help. At Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust the Director of Finance, Simon Lazarus signed the FD declaration and supported our participation in the Great Place to Work Survey. This allowed the Finance Team to identify key areas for improvement and we all identified a need for a better understanding of each other roles. This led to an introduction of buddying and shadowing sessions which involves area leads providing a session to a group of four colleagues outlining their area and fit with rest of the department. We have now developed sessions in Financial Accounts, Capital Accounts, Cashiers, Payroll, Income & Commissioning, Costing & SLR, Management Accounts and Payables / Receivables. We have since undertaken a survey of users and now have a group looking to develop further improvements to continue our goal of an integrated finance team. From a local FFF perspective we thought that it was key to develop links with both the local East Midlands HFMA branch and the FSD East Midlands network and held a joint East Midlands event in May 2016 to provide a greater understanding of FFF. We invited fellow s from other regions to share their experiences and over 100 staff attended the event including one GP and it was a successful event. We now want to build further on this and have developed a regional group of Value Makers, FACE (Finance & Clinical Educators) and anyone who wants to help us share good practice and make a difference in the East Midlands. We meet on a quarterly basis and there is usually an opportunity to join by conference call if you can t physically attend. We are very interested in how organisations are utilising the tools from the website and can share practical experiences. We regularly hold FFF workshops at local HFMA and FSD / SDN conferences to share the good practice which is being developed. Our goal now is to identify a FFF lead in every organisation and If you d like to get involved don t hesitate to contact us. You can also keep in touch with our local twitter and the East Midlands Value Makers group on the FFF website.

5 Value regional lead East of England Value regional lead LONDON Tiffany Leefe! Simon Hooton! I am the Financial Accounting Manager at NHS North Norfolk CCG & NHS South Norfolk CCG. I have worked in Finance for over 30 years. During this time I have provided FM support to a range of different services across the organisations covering Clinical Services, Corporate functions and Commercial teams. I currently work at Guy s and St Thomas Hospital managing a team of Management Accountants that support the wider Financial Management function. I became a Value Maker with the primary aim of helping to improve working relationships across organisations. I am proud to be working for an organisation with the reputation and track-record of Guy s and St Thomas yet recognise that we are far from perfect and can learn a lot from others so am keen to create a network that facilitates this. Hopefully, there may also be some aspects that we can share more widely that others may find useful. I am the Joint Value Maker Lead for London with Peter Evans and we would love to hear from you if you d like to be involved in the London regional network. Please contact either myself or the Future Focused Finance team futurefocusedfinance@nhs.net for more information. I AM PROUD TO BE WORKING FOR AN ORGANISATION WITH THE REPUTATION AND TRACK-RECORD OF GUY S AND ST THOMAS I joined the NHS in 2012 on a university placement year at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. I then gained a place on the 2014 Intake for the Finance NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme where I complete various placements across Yorkshire & Humber. After graduating the scheme I moved back to my home town of Norwich and starting working in my current role. When I first heard about Future-Focused Finance I was really interested to find out more, and what role I could play if any. However after speaking to those involved, I was inspired by the enthusiasm and passion of the s which in turn persuaded me to apply to become a with the second cohort. I WAS INSPIRED BY THE ENTHUSIASM AND PASSION OF THE VALUE MAKERS. Initially I became involved with the Yorkshire network, and now as the FFF Regional Lead for East of England, I would like to develop a strong network in which we can share best practice. I am keen to get more people involved, and plan to hold our first regional network meeting soon. In addition to this I get involved at conferences in order that I can promote the exciting opportunities including new resources, toolkits and ways people can get involved with FFF. So please contact me if you have any questions and would like to get involved.

6 Value regional lead SOUTH WEST Value regional lead LONDON Tina Clarke! Peter Evans! I m currently a Finance Manager for NHS England in the South West and responsible for CCG Assurance. I have worked in Finance for over 30 years. Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant I have been fortunate to have worked in a number of different Senior Finance roles across different functions, industries and sectors. In the last 13 years I have worked in the NHS at Guy s and St Thomas. My main role has been Process Improvement Manager within Finance Operations working as Finance process owner for Procure to Pay. Recently I have been seconded into the role of Financial and Capital Accounting Manager. I m a renowned for my keen enthusiasm and utter optimism. I was encouraged by my colleagues to become a Future Focused Finance member and since becoming a Value Maker, it has opened up a whole host of exciting opportunities. One such opportunity was creating a forum for finance & non finance staff to communicate best practice across different departments to reduce duplication of work & drive efficiencies. I communicate this on a regular basis using my collaborative networking Facebook page, via quarterly FFF Blog posts and distribute this amongst NHS England South West Team messages, CCG news bulletins, NHS Improvement communications channels & an increasing number of local NHS Trusts. As joint Value Maker regional lead for London with my colleague Simon Hooton, I would like to tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience that exists across London Finance, helping to promote Value Makers and FFF and establish a network and forum for the sharing of ideas and good practice. If like me you are new to Value Making and FFF and would like to become involved in the London regional network, then please contact either myself or the Future Focused Finance team futurefocusedfinance@nhs.net. I WOULD LIKE TO TAP INTO THE WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE THAT EXISTS ACROSS LONDON FINANCE I developed a Collaborative Networking Forum where I piloted my first event in Bristol with the help of two other FFF members in the South West. It was a rocky start when I did a test run with a focus group. Because of their constructive feedback, I was able to revise the content of the event prior to the day and this was an essential ingredient to the success of the event. My event & all the activities surrounding my collaborative networking initiatives lead my colleagues to nominate me for the Everyone Counts Awards in which I recently won. I got to meet Simon Stephens & Sir Malcolm Grant and used the opportunity to pitch my ideas & gain valuable contacts. This is just the start of my journey and I m very excited to be collaborating with NHS Improvement & other s across the South West to set up the second event before mid-september I look forward to trialling new techniques & encouraging others to share the learning.

7 Value regional lead SOUTH CENTRAL Nikki Burnett! Di Ormandy! I am your South Central Regional Network Lead. I am the regional head of the Skills Development Network in the North West and one of the first wave s. I currently work with NHS England as Assistant Head of Finance covering the Wessex area but have worked in a variety of roles since I started with the NHS back in Hull Teaching PCT in For those unfamiliar with Hull (city of culture 2017) it sits within the Yorkshire and Humber region up North and is famous for its patty butties amongst other things. Current engagement across South Central with the national programme is relatively low, however I see on a daily basis people living and breathing the s of FFF that are reluctant to recognise them as such. Since I first began in NHS finance I have be fortunate to be surrounded by individuals who have nurtured and encouraged my passion for learning and process improvement, a culture driven by inspirational leaders within the organisations I have worked. Speaking to other colleagues on my journey this was not always the experience shared by others throughout their careers due My ambition as your Value Maker Network Lead is to promote the benefits of association to FFF through engagement with staff across all levels within organisations and to support those individuals with ideas to shine and take them forward. I HAVE BE FORTUNATE TO BE SURROUNDED BY INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NURTURED AND ENCOURAGED MY PASSION FOR LEARNING AND PROCESS IMPROVEMENT It was my positive experience of working in the NHS along with nagging frustrations around things beyond my control that could be improved that drew me to becoming part of the Value Makers Network. Whilst individually I appreciate we cannot change the world, if I could be part of a network that worked towards exposing the entire finance workforce to a similar environment of empowerment to that I have experienced it had to be a step in the right direction. I am keen to spread the s that underpin the FFF initiative throughout the South Central region. BEING PART OF THE FUTURE FOCUSED FINANCE FAMILY HAS HELPED ME BROADEN MY NETWORKS AND FRIENDSHIPS. If you would like to get involved please do contact me either directly, via telephone or . I look forward to working with you all. Having left school at 15 (Late August birthday!) my NHS career started as an accounts payable clerk, following a number of development opportunities I started to study for my AAT qualifications and subsequently became CIMA qualified. A series of NHS reorganisations brought about a wide variety of opportunities and experience for me where I held a number of finance and general management posts. This gave me a broad insight into the power of teamwork and how working collaboratively as a team you can achieve great things. This experience and wanting to share it with others was why I became a. I have a wealth of financial experience having been the Assistant Director of Finance at the Countess of Chester Hospital where one of my key responsibility was to raise the profile of finance and finance skills both within the finance function and the wider organisation. In my current role as Head of the NW Skills Development Network, I now have the opportunity to encourage others to follow a similar path and shape their own futures by creating high quality educational and training opportunities as well as opportunities to network and share best practice. I want to help others to look forward, be innovative and continue to learn and develop collectively to improve our NHS for the benefits of us all both now and into the future. I am passionate about increasing the knowledge of NHS finance which is why I applied to become a Value Maker and a FACE. I have also been involved in developing the four strengths framework and team assessments as part of the great place to work action area. Being part of the Future Focused Finance family has helped me broaden my networks and friendships both within my own region and beyond. Working with Gayle Wells, Beth Pidduck, Tracey Hebblethwaite and David Pearson who head up the area networks across the North West we have a great team and would definitely recommend getting involved at whatever stage of your career.

8 Value regional leads South East Tracy Stickland! Dena Walker! I am Senior Finance Manager at High Weald and Lewes Havens CCG, producing costing models for QIPP projects and coordinating and reporting on the Better Care Fund. I work for NHS England South East. I have worked in Management Accounting and Audit with 27 years in the NHS across a CCG, an Acute Trust, Community Trust, NHS Property Services and South Coast Audit (now TIAA). Tracy and I will be working together as joint leads for the South East Value Maker Regional Network. We are both proud to work for the NHS and are keen to promote FFF across the region. I wanted to become a Future-Focused Finance Value Maker as I am committed to the NHS and want to share and promote the programme and its projects within Kent, Surrey and Sussex. My role involves liaising with clinicians and project managers which encouraged me to also join the FACE network promoting finance and clinical engagement and financial training for clinicians. I applied to be a Value Maker because I believe that when finance, clinical and commissioning colleagues work together we can make huge differences in driving forward change and achieving excellence of clinical care. Being a Value Maker helps you be part of that process, someone who drives change and improvement, someone who gets involved rather than someone who observes from the side lines. As a finance professional, I don t want merely to record spend, I want to bring my experience to develop and transform services. I believe in sharing best practice to identify and develop processes and see the regional Value Maker network a brilliant tool to achieve this at a local level. I have also recently joined the committee for the Kent Surrey and Sussex hfma and it will be great to link in FFF with the local branch and see how we can work closely together along with FSD to share best practice and ideas across the region. WE ARE BOTH PROUD TO WORK FOR THE NHS AND ARE KEEN TO PROMOTE FFF ACROSS THE REGION

9 Value regional lead Lancashire & South Cumbria Beth Pidduck! Tracey Hebblethwaite! I am a Senior Assistant Financial Advisor at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Finance Manager, Procurement and Projects for NHS Chorley, South Ribble and NHS Greater Preston CCGs. I am an FFF Regional Lead for the North West Lancashire & South Cumbria. I joined the NHS in 2014 as an apprentice, before progressing to be Transaction Processing Assistant and then Income Analyst whilst at Midlands and Lancashire CSU. I DECIDED THAT AS I WAS SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS AREA I WOULD BECOME A FACE NETWORK LEADER, PROMOTING THE NETWORK AND WORKING WITH MY FACE COLLEAGUES TO HELP CROSS BOUNDARIES BETWEEN CLINICIANS AND FINANCE. I firstly became a Value Maker in June 2016 and quickly decided I wanted to be involved in the Close Partnering action area. Despite not working with clinicians at the time, I wanted to join the FACE network to use the resources and adapt for my budget holders, then share my resources for other colleagues to do the same. I decided that as I was so passionate about this area I would become a FACE Network Leader, promoting the network and working with my FACE colleagues to help cross boundaries between Clinicians and Finance. When moving to my new role all I d learnt was so relevant I knew it was exactly the right work stream for me. Being a Value Maker Regional Lead is something I wanted to do as soon as the concept was launched, hoping to engage more people in FFF. I hope to encourage finance and non-finance staff to come together to share best practice amongst organisations and between colleagues. We have already established a strong and sturdy FFF network within the North West and we want to keep this momentum going. Alongside my colleagues Tracey (Lancashire & South Cumbria joint lead), Gayle (Cheshire & Mersey Regional Lead) and David (Greater Manchester Regional Lead), we want to expand this ever-growing network further and widen our FFF community. If anyone would like any further information about our Regional Network or getting involved with FFF, please do not hesitate to contact me or one of the regional team. We look forward to working with you very soon! getting them to understand budget reports and how it all works. When Future Focused Finance gave me the opportunity to become a Finance and Clinical Educator with likeminded people I was excited and intrigued to find out how this network would support me. My main role is providing financial management services for procurements and service change for both our CCGs. I have over 25 years experience providing Finance support within the NHS, having worked up from being a Finance Assistant to a Management Accountant and then finally relocating to Lancashire in September 2014 to my current role. My career has mainly been in Oxfordshire where I worked for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxfordshire PCT, and South Central CSU. During all these roles there has been a large amount of training non-finance managers, I firstly became a Finance and Clinical Educator in January 2015 and only recently in 2017 applied to be a Value Maker as well. The reason I also became a Value Maker is because I had helped to organise a local event to raise awareness of the Value Maker Role within the wider NHS and social organisations across Lancashire and it dawned on me that I was already being an active Value Maker, so applied and got accepted. With the support of the CFOs and FSD working group across Lancashire I am aiming to recruit at least one Value Maker in all the Lancashire NHS organisations. I am fortunate that I have support from my CFO, Matt Gaunt, to be an active Finance & Clinical Educator and Value Maker and that he promotes our work at the local CFOs network. This is probably why the North West stands out within Future Focused Finance with the number of active Finance & Clinical Educators and Value Makers that we have.

10 Value regional lead CHESHIRE & MERSEYSIDE Value regional lead Greater Manchester Gayle Wells! David Pearson! Very proudly, I was the winner of the first HFMA Future-Focused Finance Award in Finance manager for scheduled care at Manchester Foundation Trust (Wythenshawe site). I am the FFF regional lead for the North West Greater Manchester. So it all started back in June 2014 with a PowerPoint slideshow made with Lego, all set to the Lego House song by Ed Sheeran, explaining that I wanted to become a Value Maker because: I M PASSIONATE ABOUT US ALL WORKING TOGETHER AND USING CREATIVE METHODS AND MESSAGES TO DELIVER THE VISION FOR OUR LOCAL PATIENTS, AND THE NHS AS A WHOLE Since then it has become such a huge part of my daily life. I remember the launch meeting so well, and the other Value Makers I met on that day have remained a source of strength and support. But it was the presentations on the day which opened new doors for me, created new paths. Firstly, Matt King O.B.E., who had a very serious rugby accident as a teenager which left him with spinal injuries, talked about how the smallest things make the biggest difference. And then, Teresa Chinn M.B.E who started the Twitter community when she was an agency nurse because she felt isolated from other nursing colleagues. And so it began I left that day completely energised, and ready to get out there and make a difference to the NHS. I started tweeting # during that day, and I haven t stopped since then! #Value now has a reach of millions this is the total number of times the word has been used and seen by tweeters! In early 2015 I was named one of the top 100 Twitter Change Agents by NHS Improving Quality. I ve been out to various events, talking to people about our # community online and encouraging people to join in. I ve also presented about FFF to lots to local CCG meetings, and regional meetings with Directors of Finance and Finance Staff Development Leads. In July 2015 I was offered the opportunity to undertake a 15-day secondment to the FFF Close Partnering team and supported them on the piloting of The King s Fund toolkit for clinical financial engagement. It was a great opportunity for me to work more closely with clinical colleagues from NHS Trusts. Having this experience gave me the confidence to move out of my role in a CCG into a provider NHS Trust and I joined Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in I m now their Finance Staff Development Lead, and a Finance and Clinical Educator (FACE) as well as a Value Maker. I joined the NHS in 2007, straight after university and have been here ever since. I started off working in commissioner organisations, both PCT s and CCGs, and have worked in providers since All the organisations I have worked for have been in Greater Manchester. I successfully applied to be an FFF Value Maker in 2016 for 2 main reasons. Firstly to help improve the finance department at Wythenshawe as a place to work and to improve the services we provide to the hospital. Secondly, as a way of staying connected to with finance colleagues across the NHS as I felt that I was a little disconnected with the outside world working in a provider, particularly compared to my commissioner days. I have found that been a Value Maker does both these things and more. Access to tools and resources that help with wide range of issues has been great, as well as hearing first-hand about experiences of other organisations putting them into practice. Attending events and conferences and meeting amazing people who are also striving to help the NHS be the best that it can is something I have found really motivating and helps me to keep perspective when I am stressed or feeling overwhelmed. In Greater Manchester, with several enthusiastic Value Maker colleagues, we are developing our network to provide support, maximise learning and development opportunities as well as hopefully have some fun and make some friends. We are aiming to increase the number of organisations represented within the GM Value Maker network, as well as working towards hosting our first event. ATTENDING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES AND MEETING AMAZING PEOPLE WHO ARE ALSO STRIVING TO HELP THE NHS

11 To find out who the s are in your regional network check out the map on the Future-Focused Finance website For more information on upcoming events in your region, please check your regional network on the networks section on the website or futurefocusedfinance@nhs.net Future-Focused Finance