Bio:
My name is Kim da Silva and I am the Head of Financial Management at the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM). I have been in my current role for over 18 months and prior to that worked as both Divisional Finance Manager and Divisional Business Advisor at UHNM supporting three different clinical divisions with the hospital. My NHS career started at UHNM and I have always been based in the financial management team but prior to that I worked in the charity sector and qualified in the charity audit sector in London.
I joined the sponsorship programme about 18 months ago (just before being appointed to my current post) as I was keen to develop within my career. I initially met with Natasha who was incredibly supportive and told me about how she had benefitted from being on the programme which inspired me to join. My sponsor is the current CFO of the University Hospitals of Leicester and we meet at least every other month. I have benefitted hugely from being on the programme and have spoken about my experience at Regional events, have been paired with equivalents at other Acute trusts and have received lots of great advice including a skills gap analysis from my sponsor. I also now have a fantastic network of contacts!
I signed up to being sponsor lead for the region because at the moment there are only a small number of sponsees on the programme within the Midlands region are there are so many great NHS organisations within the Midlands and fantastic staff that I really want to encourage others to reap the rewards of the programme. I am more than happy to meet with anybody within the region on a 121 basis who may have a list of questions about the programme or be apprehensive about meeting their sponsor for the first time and everyone is welcome at our regional meetings where we have a great network of sponsees for you to connect with. Equally if you would like me to join any organisational finance meetings within the region to promote the programme or talk through my experience to date then again do reach out as I am happy to support.
Kim da Silva, Head of Financial Management, University Hospitals of North Midlands