Band 8D Head of Finance - Barnet Site

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.

Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

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Job overview

This is an exciting time to be joining the Trust as it expands its group model and with the finance department currently going through a transformation to build a best-in-class Group Finance function focussed on delivering all financial operational targets and continuously striving to exceed stake holder expectations.

Barnet Hospital is a medium sized district general hospital with c.459 beds, an operating expenditure budget of c.£271m and c.3,569 WTE’s providing with a wide range of acute services including a busy A&E department. As part of the group clinical strategy, Barnet Hospital’s core clinical strategy focuses on supporting the needs of an ageing population and transforming same day and integrated care.

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s biggest and most innovative trusts. Across three main hospitals, our dedicated army of staff care for over 1.6million patients, treat more than 200,000 in A&E, deliver over 8,000 babies and carry out more than 17million tests.

Our size, scale and influence offer you unrivalled career opportunities and a forward-thinking approach to working that works around your lifestyle. From flexible hours and generous benefits, to next level training, we make it easier to take your career to the top

For more information please follow link https://www.royalfreelondonjobs.co.uk/

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

In the Barnet Hospital role, the post holder will have responsibility for supporting the Director of Financial Performance and wider executive team to help inform the strategic operational and financial development of the business unit; and ensure plans are in place and delivered to achieve the business unit strategy; underpinned by the delivery of short to medium-term objectives.

The post holder will be responsible for leading the business partnering team and be a critical interface between the group central finance and other functions, and the business unit finance team. They will be pivotal in fostering a culture of high performance and ensuring the delivery of the annual planning/budget setting cycle at the business unit level and ensuring strong Financial Control across the business unit.

The Trust is also operating in a financially challenged environment; therefore, the post holder will be a confident individual, that can influence and be the ‘critical friend’ with the wider business unit leaders to ensure strong grip and control and delivery of a very ambitious Financial Improvement Plan (FIP) target.

Person specification

Values

• Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values

Qualifications

• Professional qualification in accountancy (CIMA, ACA, CIPFA, ACCA
• Experience of working in a senior finance role, advising Executive Directors and other senior management
• Expert knowledge gained through further post-qualification specialist training or experience. Evidence of maintaining and developing technical accounting expertise and of staying up to date with current accounting rules since qualification

Experience

• Experience of business partnering, supporting senior managers and/or directors in service developments
• Experience of using complex financial models for assessing risk and informing decision-making
• Experience in making or advising on complex decisions involving financial risk
• Experience of leading on large business cases or developments and assisting internal customers in understanding the assumptions and risks inherent in those business cases
• Experience of having worked with large, complicated sets of information, drawing inferences and developing strategy on the basis of the analysis
• Experience of presenting complex financial information to non-finance managers and directors
• An understanding of the Payment by Results financial regime
• Understand the concepts underpinning the development of a strategy and some of the elements which can be arranged to gain competitive advantage
• Leadership qualities and influencing skills: o Ability to understand complex situations o Ability to work in a professional and positive manner and meet challenging deadlines o Able to challenge effectively while maintaining relationships o Pro-active, Dynamic and flexible o Ability to work autonomously. Demonstrating initiative to work as an individual to meet deadlines.
• Ability to operate as part of the leadership of the department, proactively identifying ways to improve and working with others in the department to initiate these changes
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to solve highly complex financial problems
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• The ability to manage time, meet deadlines and prioritise delivering to tight deadlines and managing the demands of senior stakeholders simultaneously
• Ability to make use of systems (initially Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word) to prepare and present accurate, clear information and to identify what can be produced from other financial systems
• Strong organisational skills and ability to proritise
• Flexible and able to manage workload to ensure delivery of both regular commitments and the support of Trust wide initiatives
• The ability to provide advice and support from across all of the accounting disciplines is essential.
• Able to influence others, and be able to present a coherent case in support of a desired strategic outcome or plan
• Ability to challenge assumptions, and articulate alternative interpretations, scenarios and strategies
• Must be able to set and negotiate priorities for themselves and others and subsequently programme workload to achieve results and meet deadlines. They should understand what motivates people to perform, and be able to gain the respect and support of other staff and managers
• Ability and credibility to represent the Trust at off-site meetings
• Requires standard keyboard skills

Personal Qualities

• Strong sense of quality and customer focus.
• Self motivated
• Pro-active and positive
• Resilient to cope with challenge and criticism
• Prepared to lead on the operational issues of the department and to take responsibility for policy and service development for financial reporting for clinical and corporate departments.
• Ability to inspire confidence when presenting
• Team player, willing to ‘roll up sleeves’ where necessary
• Positive ‘can do’ attitude.
• Highly organised approach and ability to prioritise own work in order to meet strict deadlines and targets.
• Embraces change.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to work closely and effectively with staff at all levels within the organisation, including ability to persuade as well as be diplomatic
• Excellent persuasion and negotiation skills are required to ensure delivery of balanced financial plans
• Covid-19 Vaccination

• AT* - Apprenticeship Training. Where AT* is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.
• By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers. Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.
• If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.
• Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
• If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
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