About us
The HPCA transitions from a voluntary collaborative to a sustainable and professional service that can provide advice and respond to the emerging needs of the system.
We have established the Healthcare Project and Change Association (HPCA) to build on the work of the original NHS Project Futures volunteer team. A team that was developed as a community from 2017 onwards by the community of NHS project professionals in a virtual capacity to support each other in their work to deliver on the objectives of their respective organisations.
Originally the people involved were working on a voluntary basis as an add-on to the day job, but now with the help of the HFMA as well as Sponsorship and Seed funding from NHS Organisations and Corporate Partnerships we are about to make the profession support sustainable.
The NHS Project Futures brand will be retained by Health Education England to deliver the policy, capability standards, and workforce strategy for the profession aligned to the Government and the Department of Health and Social Care. Hence the shift to create HPCA to deliver the products and services developed by the community.
We’ve already begun a self-sustaining profession across the NHS
Our aim is to create a self-sustaining profession across the NHS. The existing offer is already extensive, but we want to build on this foundation for the long term. The NHS will always be faced with change and challenges. An investment in the professionals that help us meet this challenge represents excellent value for money.
HPCA’s mission is to represent and support health and social care projects and change professionals through influencing health and social care policy, promoting best practices, and providing high-quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and education.
We will achieve this by:
- Building a strong network of project professionals across the regions and nationally within the NHS, by engaging with heads of project functions and regional leads in NHS organisations.
- Providing education, learning and development, encouraging professional development and enhancing staff satisfaction and retention.
- Continuing to develop policy, standards, guides and other publications.
- Securing volume discounts and benefits for those things which are done best at national level.
- Providing news, communications and a community of practice.
Equality and diversity
Embracing diversity and inclusion is an important part of project management. Value is created from difference and diverse teams can bring about higher performance. This is because project professionals and team members from diverse and different backgrounds and cultures are likely to have different experiences and perspectives they can bring to the team and project.
Embracing diversity and inclusion in the project profession will help HPCA to:
- Promote creativity and innovation.
- Boost productivity, confidence, and collective opportunity.
- Learn and incorporate the unique insights of others.
- Build an inclusive culture of unity, respect, and tolerance.
- Create a safe space for fresh new ideas and dialogues.
- Break negative stereotypes and encourage social mobility.
- Build strong relationships with all team members and the wider NHS system.
- Maximise NHS return on investment.
- deliver improved patient outcomes.