Do you work in medical education, and do you manage a budget? As a Medical Education Manager (MEM), managing finance and business planning has always been an important part of the role. This part of the job will only intensify with the recent changes in the new NHS education contract.

Being able to understand the challenges of financial accountability and learn strategies to understand how funding is allocated to your trust, is critical for success as a MEM. If you know how much money is going to be coming into the trust, it’s equally as important to ask where your cut is.

Lesley Sala, an expert with over 13 years of experience in medical education, recently facilitated our live webinar ‘Financial Management in Medical Education’. She provided knowledge and guidance that demystified the financial planning process and helped participants build their confidence by providing them with knowledge so they are able to talk through their budgets and requirements with senior stakeholders.

If you would like to see a clip from this webinar please watch below:

Lesley had three key insights into what an MEM should know to succeed and grow in their role:

“You need to have a seat at the table”

The education contract is critical to business and therefore critical to your role as an MEM. Even if it’s not within your sphere of control at the moment, get around the table with whoever you need to get your opinions heard. For example, as a manager you know how many trainee doctors you’ll have in your trust or how many medical students you will be supporting on placement. As the person who holds the key to that data, you can use that knowledge to leverage your position in terms of putting in requests in for more budget if needed.

“Build a business case based on your activity”

As managers, you know how to acquire the right training or resource within the budget that is has been allocated. Having this intimate knowledge creates a strong foundation on which you can build a business case based on your own activity. Managers already possess the tools to build a strong business case but understanding how to use those tools can help with strategising to improve the transparency of funding and strengthen your position to ask for support.

“Have a line of sight”

Planning requires a line of sight as to what might be happening in the future. It’s not just about managing your current budget, but also what changes might be impacting your current budget. Even if you’re not the decision maker against the budget, have an opinion, tell people what you think and stretch yourself into the role.

Lesley’s knowledge and expertise on this webinar served to empower MEM’s to be able to put together a robust business case. Participants left better able support their team by being able to put forward the case for more staff, funding for courses, or whatever it may be through a better understanding of their budgets.

MEMs should be able to create a strategic plan to gain funding for the services they need. They should have the confidence to go to approach Health Education England and tell them what’s needed for them to be able to improve the service through demonstrable outcomes.

Head to miadhealthcare.com to see other webinars we’ll be hosting soon in the medical education field!