Assistant Financial Accountant

We love what we do and we think you will, too!

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.

We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.

We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.

Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.

It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for an Assistant Financial Accountant to join the Finance Directorate on a full time basis. The team are currently operating a hybrid office-based and working from home model.

The role of the Finance Department is to provide support and advice to managers on all financial matters, ensuring that statutory and reporting requirements are met, financial controls are in place, and all financial transactions are properly accounted for.

The Assistant Financial Accountant will work as part of a team, contributing to the timely delivery of financial information relating to Capital and Cash.

To ensure you fully understand how the Trust, as a Data Controller, will process and store your data please read the attached document ‘Applicant and Staff Privacy Notice’ prior to applying for the role.

Main duties of the job

The role of the Assistant Financial Accountant is to produce accurate, reliable and timely capital accounting information in order to support managers and budget holders; provide financial support and monitor the Trust’ cash position.

This will involve working to strict deadlines and using a variety of software as well as liaising with a wide range of contacts.

The post holder will need to have experience of Microsoft computer packages including, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft Outlook and experience of finance ledger systems.

The successful applicant may be required to display a degree of flexibility in their weekly working pattern due to the variable needs of the post.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

• Responsible for day to day maintenance of fixed asset and cash accounting
• Carry out monthly analysis of capital transactions, preparing papers and appendices for the monthly Capital Management Group meeting
• Responsible for daily cash reporting
• Responsible for accounting for direct debits
• Responsible for petty cash including training of the petty cash holders and reviewing reimbursement to ensure expenditure is in line with the petty cash policy and is correctly signed by budget holders
• Responsibility for reconciling various balance sheet accounts
• Post general ledger journals and assist in month-end close
• Provide accounting advice to internal stakeholders, e.g. General Ledger Coding, capital bid process
• Support the implementation of valuation changes to assets in the asset register and calculate the financial impact
• Assist with the Financial Accounting Team’s monthly reporting processes
• To support the Head of Financial Accounts & Financial Accountant carry out financial accounting duties
• Liaise with external and internal auditors gathering evidence and providing audit working papers
• Support the annual accounts process
• Assist in the implementation of policies and work on projects within the department, contributing to the development of new or amended policies within the scope of responsibilities
• Assist in the review of processes within the scope of responsibilities to identify improvement areas
• Ensure that work is completed and in line with financial timescales and legal requirements
• Help to ensure that information is processed in accordance with procedures and is available to support statutory returns and financial reporting requirements
• Assist and provide cover where necessary under the supervision of the Head of Financial Accounts, for other members of the department as appropriate
• Write and maintain procedure notes for own area of responsibility, and support section as appropriate

Person specification

Qualifications

• Level 3 AAT, part qualified CCAB/CIMA or significant equivalent accounting experience

Experience

• Significant experience in a management or financial accounts role for a complex organisation.

• Experience of working in finance role in NHS or other public sector organisation

Skills

• Excellent communicator - able to communicate effectively at all levels and explain complex financial information to non-finance colleagues
• Good organisational and planning skills, enabling deadlines to be met
• Significant knowledge of finance computer systems, ledgers and coding structure and their application

When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:

• Free car parking at many of our sites
• 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
• A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
• A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
• Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
• Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
• Recognition and long service awards
• Fast Track physiotherapy
• Our Wellbeing line
• Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date. Good luck with your application.

For more information please see the attached 'Additional Information for Applicants' document.