LCH named Finance Team of the Year 2023!
The LCH Finance Team were recognised last week at the annual awards ceremony of the Yorkshire and Humber Branch of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) as Finance Team of the Year. This award recognises the contribution that the finance team has made in the last twelve months to promoting and improving teamwork, innovation, collaboration, transformation and governance.
Yasmin Ahmed, Executive Director of Finance and Resources at LCH said “This is an excellent achievement for the team, and we are very proud that our hard work and dedication has been recognised. We would also like to acknowledge Richard Stephenson who wrote the nomination and led on the level 2 OneNHSFinance Towards Excellence accreditation work for his role in achieving this award.”
A highlight for the LCH Finance Team in 2023 has been achieving OneNHSFinance Towards Excellence level two accreditation which was achieved through the team’s pro-active approach to wellbeing, a flexible working environment and positive feedback from budget holders.
Innovation
Innovation is highly regarded at LCH with all staff encouraged to review existing processes and identify if they can be streamlined and automated. Recently, the finance team submitted a Finance Innovation Forum application for an enteral feeding dashboard. The innovation was accepted as it demonstrated excellent business partnering and collaboration with clinical service teams.
Teamwork and collaboration
During 2023, former Executive Director of Finance & Resources, Bryan Machin retired along with Cherrine Hawkins, Deputy Director of Finance and Janet Wilson, Head of Financial Management. This resulted in a significant change in the leadership team, however the finance team rose to the challenge and continued to deliver an outstanding service to the organisation. This included receiving a clean audit report for 2022/23 lead by our new Assistant Director of Finance, Annette Clough, who joined us from NHSE in February 2023.
The vacant roles were appointed into by existing members of the finance team, who were ready for a new challenge. The senior finance team have ensured that all those in new roles have the support they need to thrive, demonstrating our forward-looking approach and desire to retain talent within the team.
The team are also committed to supporting students who are aspiring to a career in finance. They currently have two Student Finance Assistants who joined the team on 12-month placements as part of their university degree. They have developed bespoke training plans for them to ensure they receive the maximum benefit from their time within the team and will be mentored by Marcel Manners, who was HFMA Y&H Student of the Year winner in 2022.
Governance
Payment of invoices on time is an essential part of a finance teams’ responsibility and is a priority of LCH to ensure the strong relationship we have developed with our partners and suppliers is maintained. Julian Kelly, NHS Chief Financial Officer congratulated LCH for being one of the few NHS Trusts to achieve the 95% target of invoices paid within contract terms, as part of the Better Payment Practice Code. The team were thrilled with this achievement and proud of their positive and proactive approach to accounts payables.
Health and wellbeing is highly valued within the team as a key contributor to ensuring excellent morale and the continued achievement of high quality outputs. Ashleigh Troughton-Dalton volunteered to be the teams’ Health and Wellbeing ambassador in 2022 and has been wholeheartedly committed to the role. During the past year, Ashleigh has arranged a series of events including team building activities, quizzes and organising a cake sale in support of Children in Need. Ashleigh has dedicated time to arrange these activities plus the team has protected training and development time each month.
Well done to the team for all their hard work and achieving this award!
