This is a new role at QTS responsible for our finance function. They will lead on key areas such as our monthly financial reporting processes & financial reporting of all services.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is primarily responsible for:

• Leading on the financial reporting of all services, ensuring an expert financial management service is provided by the QTS and CNWL finance teams to the QTS services.

• Leading on the monthly financial reporting process, ensuring that the information produced is accurate and delivered within agreed timescales.

• Supporting contract negotiations and the development of business cases.

• Supporting the development of long-term financial plans for QTS.

• Providing effective leadership to QTS Finance Team, including staff development and process improvement.

• Supporting in the development and submission of QTS's financial plans and reports.

• Supporting the Director of Finance, Contracting and Procurement in ensuring that statutory obligations are met and delivering effective planning and monitoring of QTS's financial position.

• Actively participating in decision making that leads to the delivery of financial targets and statutory duties.

• Maintaining high quality financial management services that support the short- and long-term planning processes.

About us

QTS operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL). Established in 2017, QTS provides a broad range of Estates and Facilities services, spanning strategic operational delivery through to estates maintenance and repairs, primarily within mental health and community healthcare settings.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Financial Management

• To implement and maintain the highest standards of financial reporting, ensuring provision of comprehensive financial management information suitable for use as a tool by service managers to effect changes in business processes and to improve overall operational efficiency.

• To lead the Finance team in providing accurate year to date and forecast income and expenditure reports, ensuring operational involvement and understanding. Lead service managers in developing and implementing action plans where necessary in order to ensure that available resources are not exceeded, with engagement from the relevant operational leads.

• To act as finance lead for the monthly closedown process, ensuring Finance teams produce and review the financial position for their areas within agreed timescales. Provide QTS level reporting for review by Director of Finance, Contracting and Procurement in line with monthly timetable in order to support achievement of monthly reporting deadlines.

• Ensure Finance team provides timely and accurate monthly finance reports to budget holders, operational management teams to inform decision making.

• To act as finance lead for the annual budget setting process, ensuring robust and realistic budget proposals are agreed with budget holders within QTS deadlines.

• To monitor performance against CIP targets and provide oversight and leadership to the Budget Managers in their development of CIP schemes alongside operational colleagues. Ensure ownership and understanding of CIP plans by budget holders and that variances from plans are fully understood and mitigations implemented where possible. Promote a positive culture of engagement with operational services to support achievement of CIP targets.

• Together with senior members, contribute to creating a financially aware organisation with a culture of strong financial stewardship.

• To support the Finance team in providing challenge and scrutiny to business units in respect of financial performance in order to ensure robust control and management of expenditure by business unit leads.

• To escalate issues to Director of Finance, Contracting and Procurement as appropriate and to work with them to ensure the Financial Management service meets their needs and those of the operational teams.

• Maintaining Contract Invoicing and profitability schedules, tenant invoicing and costing/true ups, aged debt monitoring.

• Costing and executing Contract Change Notices (CCNs) between QTS and CNWL NHS.

• To jointly deputise for the Director of Finance, Contracting and Procurement, in partnership with the Deputy Director of Procurement & Contracting, but with a responsibility for elements that relate specifically to finance.

Financial Planning

• To lead Finance team in supporting QTSs service managers to develop financial and business plans, ensuring full understanding and ownership of those plans by operational teams.

• To influence managers across the organisation, with the support of the Finance team, to ensure that QTS is planning ahead in terms of delivering savings and that the importance of delivering savings to ensure organisational progress is understood at all levels of the organisation. This will include ensuring that focused analysis is provided by the Finance team on areas of services viewed as high business risk.

• To lead the Finance team in providing expert technical and strategic financial support to all business cases for capital investment or service development. Use a range of communication skills to overcome barriers to understanding and, when necessary, to explain/justify a contentious decision. This will require a thorough understanding of the activity and cost profile of services, as well as the external market environment influencing each service.

• To provide input into QTS planning submissions as required.

Financial Control

• To ensure adherence to the QTSs Standing Financial Instructions/Scheme of Delegation and other financial policies and procedures by budget holders, ensuring the Finance team promote this in their areas of responsibility. To maintain the integrity of the ledger at all times.

• To support the implementation of internal and external audit recommendations, ensuring these are supported by robust Management Accounts processes where relevant.

• To support the Director of Finance, Contracting and Procurement and Local Counter Fraud Specialist in promoting an anti-fraud culture, identifying potential cases of fraud and ensuring internal controls are adhered to, to minimise the opportunities for fraud.

• To complete monthly reviews of reserves and accruals, taking action to mitigate risk as necessary and escalating issues to the Director of Finance, Contracting and Procurement as appropriate.

Quality and Leadership

• To manage and lead the Finance team, constantly reviewing procedures and taking responsibility for ensuring that the team is kept up to date with and follows best practice.

• To ensure through good management and team leadership that all members of the Finance team are properly guided, supervised, appraised and developed so that departmental objectives are achieved alongside personal development of the individual.

• The effective performance of this post will require up-to-date technical and management knowledge. The post holder will therefore need to evidence ongoing professional development themselves in order to offer appropriate leadership in a changing environment.

• To support the organisations management of risk, including review of divisional risk registers as appropriate, and ensuring financial information is presented in the context of financial, clinical and operational risk.

• To support the organisation as it grows and evolves, which may include restructuring, transfer, transition and due diligence activities.

• To maintain own professional development, including taking part in the appraisal process, and maintaining membership of a professional body.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Applies existing policies, procedures, best practice guidance and compliance requirements in relation to financial services delivered.

• Attends mandatory training and any other training appropriate to the role. This is to maintain existing and develop new skills as required to carry out the work.

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

Essential

• Full Professional Accountancy qualification (CCAB or CIMA qualified).
• Bachelors level education or equivalent or relevant professional experience.
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

Previous Experience & Skills

Essential

• Excellent communication skills both verbally and in writing to convey highly complex financial processes and practices and to allow managers to better understand their responsibilities.
• Ability to convey complex information which is understood by the target audience
• Ability to make effective decisions and judgements involving highly complex facts or situations
• Ability to respond to challenge within situations in which there are conflicting priorities and strongly expressed opposing views.
• Ability to communicate with and influence Executive Directors, Board members and external stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight and often changing deadlines
• Effective organisation and time management skills
• Complex problem solving, decision making and analytical skills
• Confident in the use of the Microsoft Office Suite, including keyboard skills, use of IT equipment and systems.

Desirable

• Experience in making a major contribution to corporate policies and strategy
• Experience of developing performance management reports and accountability/responsibility for performance management.
• Experience in being accountable for a major area of heavily compliance activity requiring the autonomy to act independently, interpret NHS policy and strategy, and to set goals and standards for others.
• Experience in understanding complex information and/or data relating to service improvement or performance management.
• Experience working either with or for a wholly-owned subsidiary.
• Experience of working within the NHS
• The delivery of financial skills training to others
• Experience in making a major contribution to corporate policies and strategy.
• Experience in being accountable for a major area of heavily compliance activity requiring the autonomy to act independently, interpret NHS policy and strategy, and to set goals and standards for others.

Behaviours

Essential

• Committed to the QTS Way.
• A commitment to knowing and understanding the business and supporting change and improvement.
• Self-motivated, tenacious and able to work on own initiative and commitment to reviewing own performance while taking responsibility.
• Demonstration of effective stakeholder influence and management.
• High level of integrity and able to develop credibility with colleagues and members of professional groups
• Highly organised, creative, innovative and personally effective
• Has a personal coping strategy for dealing with colleagues who oppose and challenge the requirements of good corporate governance.
• Commitment to behaving honestly, openly, impartially and fairly

Employer details

Employer name

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

350 Euston Road

London

NW1 3AX

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

333-C-HQ-QTS-0703