Finance Turnaround

Objective view for the NHSThe West Berkshire Priority Care Service NHS Trust is responsible for providing a complex range of health services over a wide geographical area. These services include community hospitals, hospital-based mental health services, specialist learning disability services and a range of health screening and education programmes. Employing 2,300 staff, the Trust has an annual income of around £56 million.When the Trust's finance director left unexpectedly, finding a suitable replacement was not going to happen overnight. Chief Executive Gareth Cruddace wanted to take time in appointing the right individual for this key role.Impact Executives introduced Philip Sheward, who spent five months in the organisation as acting finance director. Philip has over 25 years' financial management experience in large organisations - the last ten at board level.Philip comments: "I was able to spend time focusing on a steady improvement to procedures and processes. The Trust had successfully tackled a number of issues during its first three years, but the time was right for an outsider to bring a fresh perspective."Amongst his achievements Philip includes acting as a catalyst for a multidisciplinary review of budgeting and forecasting, which led to better resource allocation. In addition, the Trust was in discussions with third parties in relation to PFI schemes for new hospitals and he was able to bring his private sector experience to bear."Philip brought a commercial approach and gave an objective view of our financial health. He provided quality assurance which showed that our internal team was pretty good. Should the need arise, I would most definitely employ interim managers in the future."Gareth CruddaceChief ExecutiveWest Berkshire Priority Care ServiceNHS TrustPreviously published on the Impact Executives website – read the original Finance Turnaround article.