NWSSP team celebrate success at Finance Awards Wales
A collaborative cross-divisional team of Shared Services colleagues were recently announced as winners in the ‘COVID Hero/Heroes’ category in a prestigious ceremony led and hosted by Finance Awards Wales.
Held at City Hall, Cardiff, Finance Awards Wales are is designed to recognise, attract and invest in the talented finance professionals working in Wales. The awards showcase the best in Finance talent from experienced finance directors to unsung heroes leading expert transactional accounting, and importantly to the next generation of apprentices and graduates.
The winning team was made up of representatives from across NWSSP, including members of Velindre NHS University Trust, who demonstrated to the awards judges how the team’s innovative and agile approach in transforming governance enabled the respective Board and those bodies to whom they were supplying, gain assurance and confidence in the quality and supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) across the NHS, primary care contractors and the social care sector in Wales.
As the pandemic began to unfold there was a realisation that a transformation of governance processes needed to take place to secure increased PPE for front line staff, whilst tackling issues of scarcity of supply and working remotely.
A Finance governance group was established drawing upon national expertise from Finance, Procurement, Internal Audit, Counter Fraud, Legal Services, Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory (SMTL), Payments and included the Board Vice Chair. Together, they scrutinised as much information as could be gathered to inform the decision-making process by Government and the Board through the form of a checklist.
The checklist included considerations of the standard of product, company background checks, pricing and payment arrangements and also offered advice and notes of risk to the board in determining their approval. This was undertaken remotely using the newly implemented Microsoft Teams platform with regular Board briefings taking place to ensure they were fully informed in their decision making.
This process was used around 35-40 times during the height of the pandemic. Internal Audit played a key role in reviewing process and recommending improvements on an on-going basis to ensure there was a continuous review and improvements of the processes in place.
This new and innovative process enabled agile and faster paced decision making which ensured front line workers had access to vital PPE. It also enabled mutual aid PPE support to the NHS England and through the approach protected the public purse from potential fraud.
Director of Finance and Corporate Services, Andy Butler said: “NHS Wales shared Services played a key role in ensuring that our front line staff had access to the vital PPE during the pandemic. It was very much a team effort with Finance supporting colleagues in Procurement, Health Courier Services and other across NWSSP divisions and working closely with Welsh Government . I’m really pleased and proud that our collective efforts have been recognised by the prestigious Finance Awards Wales 2021.”
Many features of the revised process will be maintained into the future. The approach taken by NWSSP during the pandemic is one of a suite of case studies of best practice that will be used to continuously improve Shared Services’ governance approaches in NHS Wales Finance.
NWSSP have also welcomed the opportunity to showcase the approach to colleagues in Scotland and Northern Ireland as part of a learning exchange initiative.
