Senior Management Accountant NHS AfC: Band 8a

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for the role of Senior Management Accountant, acting as the Financial Management lead for one of the Trust’s Care Groups and playing a key role in managing and reporting its financial position. The postholder will provide expert financial advice to operational colleagues and lead their staff in providing an effective financial management and reporting service.

The successful candidate will be a fully qualified CCAB or CIMA qualified accountant with significant financial management experience in a large organisation. They will have experience of managing and developing staff and will have demonstrated the ability to build effective working relationships and deliver timely and accurate financial reporting.

Main duties of the job

The Senior Management Accountant’s main duties will be to:

• Provide expert financial advice and oversight of financial management across their Care Group
• Influence investment decisions and priorities for the Care Group, including providing financial input into business cases and management decisions
• Support operational teams with addressing budget variances and delivering challenging efficiency targets
• Lead the month end process for their area of responsibility, ensuring timely and accurate reporting
• Co-ordinate the budget setting and forecasting processes
• Manage and develop Management Accountants and other support staff

Details of additional duties are provided in the Job Description document.

1 x Full-time 37.5 hours per week Permanent position

1 x Full-time 37.5 hours per week 12 months Fixed Term position

1 x Full-time 37.5 hours per week 18 months Fixed Term position

Interview Date: 27th & 29th July 2021

Working for our organisation

St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is the BEST acute Trusts in England for the THIRD year running!

The Trust is currently the only acute Trust in Cheshire and Merseyside, and is one of few in the entire country, to achieve the title of OUTSTANDING, rated by the Care Quality Commission.

We provide a full range of acute adult services to our local population of circa 350,000 and provide tertiary services across a much wider area in the North West, North Wales and Isle of Man. We are also a Major Trauma Unit and the Mersey Regional Burns Unit.

Our ’5 Star Patient Care’ strategy is at the heart of all that we do; supporting our vision to provide world class services for all our patients by getting it right for every patient, every time.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

To establish and maintain strong working relationships with both key internal and external individuals to ensure effective working. The post holder will be expected to provide advice to the Assistant Director of Operations, Directorate leads and Clinical Leads over financial issues of all aspects of service provision of the Care Group/ Corporate Function.

To influence investment decisions and priorities of several departments within the Division. This could entail a wide range of management decisions including changing skill mix structure within department and new initiatives to improve patient care.

To develop and evaluate formal business case proposals from the Division including presenting financial information to the senior management team. This may include estimating consequential financial and personnel implications on all areas of the Trust.

Support the commissioning process of any service provision to external organisation including costing of such proposed service.

Ensure all aspects of the Trust’s financial policies are adhered to; value-for-money secured and financial stability achieved. Provide training to non-finance managers and Clinicians as and when required, ensuring Corporate Governance is adhered to.

Contribute to the accuracy and production of the corporate financial reporting including statutory returns, final accounts and Reference Costs submission.

Co-ordinate the annual Budget Setting process, ensuring that departmental budgets are developed to take account service pressures in accordance with constraints of funding. This consists of planning and organisation of a wide range of departmental budgets, which requires formulation and adjustment of several variables affecting both income and expenditure.

Ensure financial reports to the Division are developed and amended to meet the evolving information requirements and achieve consistency with corporate reporting to both Finance Committee and Trust Board. Also to ensure these reports are produced timely and accurately in accordance to agreed timetable.

Demonstrate understanding and fully utilise all relevant forms of technology and information systems in order to ensure accurate interpretation and effective use of resources. Continually review fit for purpose compared to organisational requirements.

To monitor the financial performance (both income and expenditure) of the Divisions, identifying and reporting variances; and actively agree corrective management action where necessary.

To participate in maintaining and monitoring the Trust’s General Reserves ensuring that correct distribution is made from these earmarked reserves. To communicate with senior finance team of any forecast slippage/shortage on reserves in order that resources are allocated in an appropriate manner.

To utilise information streams such as SLR / PLICS / IPR / SLAM / PCB / Qlikview within the Division and utilise the information they contain as a lever for change.

To assist the Head of Financial Management with the completion of the Trusts financial plan and its subsequent monitoring throughout the year.

To support service units within own area of responsibility to develop, assess and implement a cost improvement plan (CIP) and to ensure ownership and understanding of the plan by budget holders. To ensure that a clear CIP plan is in place and that variances from plans are fully understood and explained. Promote a positive culture of engagement with operational services on CIP.

Support in the identification and monitoring of divisional cost improvement plans. Provide full costing of such schemes and details of realisation and liaise with Quality leads to ensure all schemes are fully reviewed as part of the Trust policy.

Promotion of greater financial management and financial control amongst the divisional management team. Provide appropriate advice and support with the divisional structure to ensure all efforts are made to achieve financial stability.

To maintain the integrity of the financial ledger and other financial systems to ensure that compliance with audit requirements is adhered to.

To ensure Final Accounts working papers are prepared in accordance with procedures and timescales and comply with audit requirements.

To ensure that all communication with others is conducted in a professional and competent manner and is followed up in writing when required.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Maintain Professional Registration

Adhere to relevant Code of Practice of Professional body

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

To update financial management reporting timetables ensuring synchronisation with statutory, external reporting timetables and internal Trust reporting timetables, keeping relevant departments up dated on changes.

To ensure working procedure notes exist for the post holder duties within this job description (e.g. routine, statutory and non-routine ad-hoc reporting duties are documented). Working procedure notes to be regularly updated to reflect current status and to be accessible to appropriate staff at all times.

To ensure all filing systems are maintained both paper based and electronic.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSBILITIES

All staff are required to be appraised by their line managers at least once a year at a personal development review meeting where progress made over the last year is discussed and agreed. Focus on the following year’s departmental and personal objectives will be identified, discussed and agreed. Where necessary, help and support will be provided and development opportunities agreed in line with service provision and knowledge and skills competency framework.

To provide training to non-financial managers within the Trust on all matters relating to budgetary control and financial management including effective use of information systems/reports. This will include a requirement to undertake the relevant training seminars with non-financial managers from time to time.

To be responsible for the management of staff within the Management Accounts Team and to ensure that these staff receive thorough on-the-job training and coaching in the functions allocated to them.

Act as a mentor for junior staff who is actively undertaking accountancy training. Support and advise the student on the professional competencies that they will be assessed upon by the relevant accountancy body.

To actively participate in the annual performance review to identify personal development needs.

LINE MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISORY / DEPUTISING RESPONSIBILITIES

To directly manage and develop the Management Accountant and other support staff. This will encompass one to ones, staff appraisals, setting & reviewing Personal Development Plan/ Continuous Professional Development, sickness monitoring and Health & Safety.

To ensure that objectives of those staff are reflected through personal development plans through the appraisal process and to give them guidance that will help them deliver.

To ensure that staff recruitment and selection procedures for posts within the Management Accounts teams are applied effectively to ensure the strong candidates are always appointed.

To deputise for the Head of Financial Management or Assistant Director of Finance where necessary.

FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

To continually look to improve by implementing new ways of working and cascading these changes to other Finance Teams where relevant.

RESEARCH & AUDIT

To contribute towards the Trust’s internal & external audit processes.