Money
Story
Program Literature –
Final Report into the Money Story
Early on in the story of the Katherine West Health Board, it was realized that the large amount of information that was coming to our aboriginal Health Board from the different government departments, was becoming all too much for our board members, and even our experienced healthcare administrators, to fully comprehend.
Many of our Board members speak English as a second, third or fourth language, which means that it can often be difficult to understand complex financial details. However, it is imperative for our board to make informed decisions concerning healthcare spending, which means that they needed to better understand English and to comprehend the complex financial data that was presented to them at Board meetings.
Katherine West decided to work closely with an external organization, Little Fish, in devising a way of explaining the intricacies of government funding to our people. The Director and the board worked with this organization to ensure that the board was genuinely empowered.
This involved making sure that board members completely understood the organization’s complex finances and that they were clear about practical ‘governance’ issues such as their roles and responsibilities.
The main focus of training throughout the Live Phase has been on financial management, to enable Board members to gain a genuine understanding of the finances. This has been achieved through the utilisation of a sophisticated pictorial tool developed by Little Fish called the Money $tory.
At each KWHB meeting during the Live Phase, monthly financial statements were presented to the Board by a trainer from Little Fish, and more recently by some Health Board members, using the Money $tory. This pictorial tool allows people to clearly identify income, expenditure, budgeted amounts and budget line items and effectively uses color to enhance comprehension. It also allows any over expenditure on budget line items to be clearly seen by utilising a graphical format.
As observers at KWHB meetings throughout the Live Phase, we have witnessed the progress that Health Board members have made in terms of gaining a genuine understanding of the KWHB finances.
It is clearthat the Money $tory and the training provided have been effective. By the end of the Live Phase several Health Board members were able to present the financial report using the Money $tory and in addition several were able to ask questions of the staff when they identified something in the Money $tory which concerned them.
