East of England was an early adopter of the One NHS Finance Inclusive Talent Management Strategy. The journey commenced in 2024 where the region aimed to complete a full talent management cycle. Annual progress is overseen by the Finance Academy Board and forms part of a regional update to the National Finance Academy.
What is Talent Management?
In simple terms, it is ensuring that we support the development needs of our finance teams in both the short term and into the future. This involves staff talking with their line managers about future aspirations (which may well be to develop in their current role) and planning development opportunities which will support these aspirations. These discussions take place in a career conversation, which may be part of the annual appraisal, 6 month review or part of a separate process depending on the organisation. The findings of the career conversation are used to develop individual development plans and to help the senior finance team to plan for the future more effectively by holding talent pipeline conversations within the organisation and the wider system.
Pilot Year Progress
Results for 2024/25 were collected via a survey by organisational talent management leads, looking to understand the progress made on undertaking talent management/career conversations and developing the results of these discussions into talent pipeline discussions.
All 29 of our NHS organisations responded to the survey with 20 organisations reporting that Talent Management was fully implemented or in progress. 17 organisations reported that career conversations had been completed for over 85% of their staff, with the total career conversations reported for 1,114 staff (almost 73% of the staff covered).
Latest Position
Progress during 2025/26 is being collated via a survey of organisations. Results will be reported back to the Finance Academy Board in the Autumn.
Organisational Talent Management Leads
Organisational leads provide the key link between the Finance Academy and staff working in finance, helping to share resources and champion talent management in each organisation.
Central East System:
- Bedfordshire Hospitals – Sonya Carey
- Milton Keynes University Hospital – Alan Monks
- Cambridge University Hospitals – Ed Smith (supported by Adrian Goodchild and James Freimanis)
- CPFT -Henrietta Whitlock
- Central East ICB – Louise Jinks
- NWAFT – Kylie Ellis
- Royal Papworth – Phil Hammond
- East & North Herts – Katrina Doyle
- Herts Community Trust – Simon Rudkins
- Herts Partnership – Sam Garrett
- West Herts Hospitals – Rodney Pindai
Essex System
- EPUT – David Goodwin
- Mid and South Essex FT – Nina Van-Markwijk
- Princess Alexandra Hospital – Beth Potton
- Essex ICB – Natalie Brodie
Norfolk and Suffolk System
- James Paget – Sarah Willis
- Norfolk and Norwich – Thomas Woods
- NSFT – Jodi Martin
- Norfolk and Suffolk ICB – Tiffany Leafe and James Grainger
- East of England Community Health and Care- Paul Spencer & Kunal Ruchaya
- QEH – James Knott
- ESNEFT – Daryl Cockman
- West Suffolk Hospital – Imran Shah
- EEAST – Lauren Smith
Region
NHSE – EoE – Lorraine Bromley-Martin
View Resources below
Talent Management Training Box Ideas
Download a summary of the development suggestions for the 9 boxes in the Inclusive Talent Management Strategy.
View ideas here
Open Questions for Career Conversations
Download a set of example open questions developed by line managers at the Positive Career Conversation workshops.
Read them here
HFMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE – TALENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND MODEL LEARNING LAB
Watch back on the NHS Finance Inclusive Talent Management strategy and model learning lab from its launch at the HFMA Annual Conference, delivered by Andrea McGee and Grace Lovelady.
Watch here
Development ideas for line managers
A quick reference guide for managers and staff looking for free development resources in the East of England.
Read it here
Inclusive Talent Management Resource Page
Utilise the strategy and guidance documents provided to initiate dedicated talent conversations with your team and gain insights into the associated processes and opportunities for those seeking development.
Find out more
DEVELOPMENT SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL
A tool that may be helpful for navigating talent conversations. Designed for staff in bands 2 – 8d to evaluate themselves against the NHS Finance Competencies, enabling them to identify areas for further skills development.
View it here
Talent Management Resources – N&W System
Organisations in the former NHS Norfolk and Waveney (N&W) Integrated Care System (ICS) worked together to address Talent Management at a system level. The system has shared a range of practical resources used in the system, follow the link to see their explanatory webinar and access editable tools for implementation
View it here
Development Identification Tool
A simple tool which shows development suggestions for each of the dimensions in the Inclusive Talent Management model
Download the tool here