Finance Officer - Payments to providers/Direct payments

Job overview

• An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Independent Sector Finance team for a full-time finance officer within the Payments to Providers (P2P)/Direct payments (DP) team.  We are looking for a flexible individual who is enthusiastic, willing to learn and a great team player.

Our Finance Officer will provide a high quality and professional financial service in relation to all aspects of services commissioned by Zone Management Teams whilst supporting and assisting the Finance Manager, Independent Sector Finance Lead and the wider Finance Team.

They will be responsible for financial processing of Adult Social Care payments which on an annual basis total circa £90 Million covering Personal Budgets, Supported Living, Residential care, Intermediate care, Nursing care, Domiciliary care, Day Care. They are also responsible for the financial processing of Health-related care payments which on an annual basis total circa of £35 Million covering Continuing Healthcare (CHC) placements, Funded Nursing Care (FNC) placements, Individual placement patients (IPP) and Interim Health funding arrangements.

Main duties of the job

• ·   In respect of the above payments the team are responsible for dealing with a wide range of client / provider payment queries which at times can be contentious and complex.  On average at any point in time there are circa 3000 service users/representatives that the team support including being first port of call for these services.  There may be issues about non-payment, incorrect/late payments or other sensitive issues so need to be able to communicate statutory financial regulations and NHS rules in a simplified form to non-finance people.

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• Production of care home contracts in line with service requisitions from care staff.  The post holder has responsibility to ensure all amounts are correct and paid to the relevant providers.
• Responsible to pay and review own caseload of Direct Payment (DP) service users accounts to ensure they have enough money to pay for the care they require.  Overall, the team bring back circa £1 Million of unspent DP balances.
• Responsible to ensure all providers data is matched up each 4-week period to feed the social care billing process.  Part of this includes investigating issues with potentially complex providers payments and ensure all money owed back to the Trust is processed in a timely manner.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Be able to communicate well at all levels both internal and external to the Trust sometimes with contentious and sensitive information.
• Explain and resolve complex queries, communicating to a wide range of service users, service providers and colleagues.
• Provide an advice and information service to all staff in the care teams in relation to contracting and payments to providers.
• Be able to communicate with care teams when dealing with complex cases/service users/representatives with challenging behaviour.
• Responsibility for analysing any discrepancies where clients potentially misspend their Personal Budget against their Support Plan and manage the conversation with the care teams through investigations in the system where needed.
• Responsibility for ensuring that all Personal Budget clients have been correctly risk managed and that their audit/reviews are diarised/tasked accordingly.
• Responsibility for all general ledger coding onto various finance systems to provide information for statutory returns.  Understanding of accounting procedures is critical to the post.
• Prioritise own workload and balance competing demands from internal and external to the Trust to ensure that financial deadlines and timescales are met under local financial regulations and timetables.
• Prioritise and risk manage own workload depending on existing priorities.
• Manage the timescales of direct payment audit/reviews depending on risk category, client numbers, cost and past experience.
• Ensure all provider data is reconciled each 4 weeks to ensure clients are invoiced for care correctly to avoid any potential loss of income to the Trust.
• Be involved in any work planning and new ways of working in relation to business area.
• Be able to visit clients in their own home in relation to DP’s, with on occasions having to transport large amounts of paperwork and client files.
• Be able to manage numerous applications to resolve queries and carry out daily duties between 2 monitors.
• Inputting large amount of financial data into databases and spreadsheets.  Speed and accuracy are necessary due to payments to providers from contractual information being sent from the work that the team process.
• Responsibility that all service users/representatives receive any care monies that are due to them from a social care assessment.  Also ensure they can have financial assistance as required.  Contact with clients and representatives around Direct payment queries etc.
• Responsibility for ensuring that all aspects of the Personal Budget induction and financial audit/reviews are explained and carried out in a timely manner to clients and representatives.
• Responsibility for dealing with clients/representatives in relation to their Individual Service Contracts (ISC) and ensuring that the relevant authority is obtained.
• Ensure that any concerns are fed back to the social care team if their involvement is required.
• Propose changes to working practices and procedures.
• Implement procedures set by senior members of the team or set by care act legislation.
• Responsibility for ensuring that all relevant training and refresher sessions are completed as and when required.
• Authorised up to £5000 for non-purchase order invoices (Unit 4)
• Responsibility for processing all payment transactions (£125 Million per annum) in relation to:- social Care - Residential, Nursing, Personal Budgets, Domiciliary, Day care. Health Care - Continuing care, Registered Nursing care contributions, Personal Health Budgets and Intermediate care.
• Responsibility to ensure all transactions as above are processed accurately and in a timely manner which feeds the client billing system (social care only) in excess of £15 Million income per annum.
• Responsibility for provider management within PARIS and Finance modules ensuring that all providers are set up correctly as this impacts the care teams in relation to provider tariffs.
• Raising formal debts, recharging external agencies and helping with the debt collection process.
• Responsibility for ensuring the death process is carried out in a timely manner.  This includes contractual and financial information, care management data, completion in a sensitive manner.
• Responsibility of the contract flow processes and procedures to ensure prompt payment and billing and ensuring that any queries that result in payments not being made are dealt with in a timely manner.
• Management and direct involvement of all Personal Budget cases.
• Responsibility for ensuring that excess balances are reclaimed from Personal Budget clients of circa £1 Million per year.
• Responsible for training new or less experienced employees across all parts of the role.
• Day to day co-ordination of the team’s work.
• Delivery of training to non-finance colleagues in the care teams.
• General office duties including scanning, electronic filing, photocopying, post etc.
• Assist in the on-going development and improvement of internal systems.
• Assist with any changes to PARIS, including testing any changes/improvements and providing feedback.
• Inputting large amounts of financial information and formatting spreadsheets to aid reconciliations.
• Continued assistance with the front line and finance functions in line with the Care Act.
• Conducts Direct payment audits on a regular basis to ensure monies are paid back to the Trust.
• Responsibility for using own initiative when making decisions around business processes linked to the finance team.
• Ability to use own judgement in deciding whether an issue/discrepancy needs to be escalated for further investigation or whether it can be resolved by the Finance Manager.  Where it cannot be resolved, make relevant referral to zone management, legal and fraud departments.
• Work is managed, not supervised.