Head of Finance - Clinical Division

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic, highly motivated, enthusiastic professional to work in a high profile role within the Finance Department of St George’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The Head of Finance is the day to day contact for the Divisional Director of Operations on budget and planning relating to their own budgets.

This is an exciting time to join the finance team at St George’s, as the department looks to enhance the service it provides the Trust. This role supports one of the trust's main clinical divisions. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to provide financial support to high profile projects within the Trust, within a challenging but supportive environment.

Candidates must have worked within a complex and rapidly changing environment preferably with previous experience of NHS finances. Exceptional communication skills are a must to allow effective communication with a broad spectrum of stakeholders including executive directors, clinicians and staff of all levels.

Main duties of the job

• To provide leadership within the Division to support delivery of an appropriate Financial Risk Rating as determined by the Financial Compliance Framework.
• To provide expert accounting and business knowledge, analytical support and clear presentation of financial and business information to clinical and non-clinical colleagues.
• To constructively and positively challenge all aspects of divisional financial and business performance
• o be accountable to the Director of Financial Performance for the Division’s adherence to Trust financial policies and procedures, statutory requirements and requirements from Department of Health, and NHS Improvement.
• To provide cover for the Director of Financial Performance on a rotational basis for the final sign-off of Divisions and non-Clinical Directorate financial reports and plans
• o provide cover on a rational basis for the Head of Finance - Reporting in the quality assurance of financial reports and annual plans
• To actively contribute to the Trust’s financial management training programme for non-finance staff including the design of training material and facilitation and presentation at training events

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Lead the development of a 5 year integrated income, expenditure, workforce, activity and capacity plan for the Division. This will include planning for Key Performance Indicators.
• Ensure that datasets required for the production of the 5 year plan are uploaded accurately within the Trust’s finance system.
• Co-ordinate the development of a monthly forecast for income, expenditure, workforce, activity and capacity.
• Prepare detailed bridging statements reconciling year on year performance and validating key movements. •    Maintain a detailed schedule of “normalising adjustments” to ensure the underlying trend analysis and year on year comparison can be clearly reported. •    Identify financial risks and produce a downside financial plan and identify mitigations. •    Lead the development of activity based costing as the basis for planning direct cost budgets and forecasts. •    Represent the finance department and board sub committees as required.
• Reporting
• Undertake a comprehensive analytical review of monthly, quarterly and annual historical and forecast reports to ensure the veracity of information and highlight and substantiate key issues.
• Provide an executive reporting pack for Division Board and Trust Committees to ensure that key financial issues are clearly and professionally presented in a format which is tailored to the recipients. •    Work with the Information team to maintain and develop a suite of Tableau business intelligence applications to support the Division in detailed analysis and discovery of business issues. •    Develop a collaborative and visual style of presenting financial and business information to Divisional Colleagues. •     Provide a segmented analysis of Division performance distinguishing between Clinical activity, Research & Development, Education & Training and other trading activities. •    Provide cover for the Director of Financial Performance on a rotational basis for the final sign-off of Divisional and non Clinical Directorate financial reports and plans •    Lease with internal and external audit as required •     3.    Productivity & Efficiency
• Lead the planning and reporting of the Cost Improvement Programme (CIP) for the Division. •    Reconcile CIP delivery with year on year comparisons and distinguish between cost avoidance, cost reduction, income generation and increased use of capacity. •    Develop and maintain benchmark information. •    Promote a culture of innovation and productivity and discourage an incremental and budget focused approach for CIP planning. •    Take a lead of the benchmarking of services to allow productivity opportunities to be identified and delivered •     4.    Expert Advice & Training
• Provide expert advice to the Division on any change in local or external policy, legislative changes or opportunities and risks that may have an impact on the Division’s financial performance •    Research and network effectively to ensure the postholder’s knowledge and awareness of the impact of local and external policy changes and opportunities and risks is maximized •    Provide a comprehensive training programme across all areas of financial and business activities tailored to the requirements of Divisional colleagues •    Take a lead on elements of the Trust’s financial management training programme for non-finance staff including the design of training material and facilitation and presentation at training event •    Design and deliver bespoke training sessions within the division and/or Trust wide, as training needs are identified.
• Clinical Engagement •    Promote a modern and collaborative approach to engaging clinicians in financial management. •    Work collaboratively with clinicians using the Patient Level Costing to support the development of effective and efficient clinical pathways.