St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals Hiring for Assistant Director of Finance – Surgical Care NHS AfC: Band 8c Job at Prescot, England Full Time

Job overview

The Care Group Assistant Director of Finance (ADoF) will provide financial leadership to the Care Group, sharing the objective with the Assistant Director of Operations (ADO) and Clinical Director (CD) for the overall financial management and financial performance of the Care Group. The post holder will develop awareness and provide expert business and financial management advice playing a key role in the development of the Care Group’s operational and financial plans to ensure the long-term financial stability and viability of the Care Group.

Interview Date: 28th March 2022

Main duties of the job

To achieve this, the post holder will be expected to work closely with Clinicians and Managers both within and outside the Care Group to model financial and non-financial information, incorporating market intelligence where appropriate, to enable informed decision making on business processes and plans, which improve and enhance the overall profitability and productivity of the Trust.

Working for our organisation

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is the only acute Trust in Cheshire and Merseyside, and one of the 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 360,000 and provide tertiary services across a much wider area in the North West, North Wales and Isle of Man. We are 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.

Our latest achievements include:

• Acute Trust of the Year – HSJ Awards November 2019
• Trust rates Outstanding by the CQC – Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers and Health Service Journal)
• Best acute Trust in England for quality of care for the 3rd year running (NHS Staff Survey)

In the NHS Staff Survey 2020 the Trust scored the highest marks in the following areas;

• Quality of care
• Staff engagement
• Support from managers

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Financial and Information Management

• To lead on all aspects of financial management of the Care Group to ensure financial viability and to work with Clinicians and Managers to assess and improve the profitability and productivity of the Care Group.
• To provide the Care Group and the trust with comprehensive financial information and advice relating to all service aspects to enable and support managers to plan and monitor delivery of their services efficiently and effectively.
• To oversee the preparation of Care Group budgets in accordance with guidelines and deadlines provided by the Director of Finance
• To be the finance lead in the Care Group performance management structure, working with the ADO and Directorate Managers to identify reasons for variations in financial performance and identify actions to address the variation
• To lead and be responsible for reviewing cost-based management information for the Care Group to ensure that the cost of delivering the service is accurately reflected. To undertake benchmarking to enable comparison and evaluation when necessary.
• To support the Trust in business forecasting for the annual business planning cycle and in year monitoring for both income and expenditure, in terms of modelling and analysing future scenarios around changes in demand, activity and resultant capacity requirements.
• To lead the financial and economic appraisal of business cases developed by the Care Group at the same time as challenging the Care Group to ensure value for money is delivered. Ensure that financial risks within the cases are fully understood, and that benefits realisations and performance are monitored once the case is operational. The post holder will lead on Care Group strategic business cases
• To provide the Executive Team and Senior Managers with high quality and timely information on changing trends in the financial viability of the Care Group, along with other bespoke analysis to ensure the Trust adopts a consistent and “data-based” approach to decision making.
• To work with the Care Group to ensure changes in policy/strategy, systems and processes relating to PbR and the NHS operating framework are implemented across the Care Group.
• To support clinicians and managers within the Care Group in having access to financial and non-financial business intelligence information through the development of increased levels of automation of performance data.
• To develop the financial information analysis skills and expertise across the Care Group to support clinicians and managers in using a consistent and “data-based” approach to business decision making.
• To oversee the development and use of Service Line Reporting and Patient Level Costing within the Care Group
• Ensure that financial information produced meets the individual and changing needs of its recipients
• Ensure that Care Group objectives are affordable within available resources and consistent with organisational financial strategy.
• Proactively assist colleagues in managing budgets. Continually act to promote financial control and stewardship to safeguard the use of funds and promote value for money. Ensure the appropriate use of funds within the Care Group.
• Work co-operatively across the finance function and the Care Group to ensure that common standards of accounting practice are maintained within the Trust. Share information and best practice to achieve more effective use of resources or enhance productivity.
• Exercise independent judgement and initiative when problems arise and take appropriate action to resolve areas of concern.
• Lead on the development and implementation of policies, procedures and protocols for the provision of financial management information to ensure the trust complies with statutory and internal requirements, in conjunction with the Deputy Director of Finance.
• To liaise with auditors and ensure all requested information is supplied in a timely manner and that all relevant audit recommendations are implemented.
• To investigate all possible means and methodologies for Private Patient Costing, drawing on best practice wherever this may be found (e.g. in different industries & countries.)
• To establish a network of various relevant external comparators / organisations, and routine mechanisms for the exchange of data.
• To provide the financial and activity/information input to develop the Care Group’s Business Plan and to develop option appraisals for different programmes of work to maximise the Care Group’s contribution.
• Liaise with external advisors for specific expertise e.g. Taxation and Legal considerations.
• Monitor the market share and demand to ensure activity and income.
• Develop comprehensive business plans when required liaising Trust-wide as appropriate.