Introducing the Finance Innovation Forum by Jenny Ehrhardt

I am delighted to have been appointed to chair the Finance Innovation Forum and am also pleased to be working with Mark Orchard, Chief Financial Officer at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust who has been appointed as the vice chair for the Forum. Mark and I were sighted on the feedback from the One NHS Finance campaign and hope to harness and share the best of what NHS Finance already does and to understand and implement future innovations, to support the delivery of great patient care. 

I am really looking forward to working with our Finance Leadership Group to develop this new initiative and feel we have a unique opportunity to significantly improve the value of care the NHS delivers. I am keen for us to deliver tangible and measurable outputs whilst aspiring to transform our whole function to be a data-driven, strategic, engaging, and innovative workforce.

I joined the NHS in 2000 on the Graduate Management Training Scheme and have worked across many different organisations since then, including Ambulance and Commissioning, although mainly in Acute Trusts. I was appointed Group Chief Finance Officer for Manchester University Foundation Trust, the largest Trust in England, in May 2020 and I have always seen the importance of financial teams working extremely closely with clinical and operational colleagues to deliver excellent patient care. 

The Innovation Forum will be a platform of discovery for existing and emerging innovations in NHS Finance. It will connect organisations and systems through sharing best practice and change current processes that compromise the strategic sustainability and agility of healthcare finance. The forum will harness expert steering groups, patient-level data, FinTech solutions and NHS innovations to support the delivery of better value health and care to the patient and taxpayer.

If you would like to register your interest in being involved in future FIF activities, please get in touch with the finance.innovation@nhs.net 

The Innovation Forum will be a platform of discovery for existing and emerging innovations in NHS Finance. It will connect organisations and systems through sharing best practice and change current processes that compromise the strategic sustainability and agility of healthcare finance. The forum will harness expert steering groups, patient-level data, FinTech solutions and NHS innovations to support the delivery of better value health and care to the patient and taxpayer.

Jenny Ehrhardt works as Group Chief Finance Officer at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

Find out more about One NHS Finance here.