Employer: Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Barnet Hospital
Town: London
Salary: £93,903 - £107,412 per annum inclusive of HCAS
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 06/02/2025 23:59
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.
Royal Free is recruiting for a Head of Finance role to support the Barnet Business Unit. This would ideally suit an ambitious and dynamic candidate looking for the next challenging role that will allow them to gain exposure to working in a large acute trust with a group model that is continually evolving and growing. 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 focused on delivering all financial operational targets and continuously striving to exceed stakeholder expectations.
The Royal Free London group currently comprises three hospitals: Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, and the Royal Free Hospital. The Barnet Business unit is a health unit within the Royal Free group, with its own local leadership teams responsible for managing its own delivery, quality, risk, and operational and financial performance. Barnet Hospital is a medium-sized district general hospital with approximately 459 beds, an operating expenditure budget of approximately £271m, and around 3,569 WTEs providing 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
1. Develop productive partnership working with other function leads to drive profitability and return on investment, developing short and medium-term financial plans to support the realization of the group strategy.
2. Maintain a professional reporting line into the Director of Financial Performance while working closely with divisional and business unit management leads and directors, utilizing professional judgment to progress business needs.
3. Drive improvements in financial productivity within the divisions – leading on identification, advice, and challenge for efficiency plans.
4. Support directors, managers, and clinicians in accessing and understanding financial information for their areas of budgetary responsibility. Provide support to build understanding of complex financial information.
5. Support commercial propositions and undertake or oversee the financial management of key contracts, providing advice as necessary to leadership teams on any actions required to realize opportunities and mitigate risks arising.
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 1.6 million patients, treat more than 200,000 in A&E, deliver over 8,000 babies and carry out more than 17 million tests.
Our size, scale, and influence offer you unrivaled career opportunities and a forward-thinking approach to working that accommodates your lifestyle. From flexible hours and generous benefits to next-level training, we make it easier to take your career to the top.
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 who 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 meet deadlines.
* 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 prioritize 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 organizational skills and ability to prioritize
* 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 present a cohesive 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 program 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
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 organized approach and ability to prioritize own work in order to meet strict deadlines and targets.
* Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work closely and effectively with staff at all levels within the organization, including ability to persuade as well as be diplomatic
* Excellent persuasion and negotiation skills are required to ensure delivery of balanced financial plans
Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defense against COVID-19. We encourage and support staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.
* 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 organization where your employment transfers within the NHS.
* 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.
* 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.
* The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details.
* The Trust will request a DBS (CRB) if the post involves regulated activities.
* By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system.
* Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and will never ask you for any payments.
Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
Please note:
* Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification.
* Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
* Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.
Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
Name: Rashel Ahmed
Job title: Interim Director of Financial Performance - B. H.
Email address: rashel.ahmed3@nhs.net
Telephone number: 0208 216 5351
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