Deputy Head of Financial Services

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Deputy Head of Financial Services to join our team at Harris Burns Ltd. The successful candidate will be responsible for providing expert financial input, advice, and support in all areas of financial accounts, ensuring the provision of an efficient, effective, and professional financial accounting service to deliver the Trust's financial duties, statutory accounts, and financial returns.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the production of the Trust's statutory annual accounts, providing comprehensive procedure notes, high-quality working papers, and a detailed plan and timetable to all finance and appropriate non-finance staff to ensure completion of the accounts in line with local and national deadlines.
• Responsible for the month-end and year-end processes as required across a broad range of financial accounting tasks. This will involve producing schedules for both external statutory accounts, returns to the Department of Health, and internal reporting, ensuring these are high quality and timely.
• Work with the Trust's external auditors during any audit of the statutory accounts and ensure that responses to queries raised by the auditors are dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner.
• Lead on the analytical review of accounts ensuring that highly complex information and financial concepts are interpreted and conveyed clearly and persuasively to internal and external stakeholders.
• Liaison with internal and external audit to implement best practices as recommended to the Trust. This will involve the timely implementation of audit recommendations and liaising with colleagues to ensure audit actions are communicated and implemented within the Finance Department and across other departments of the Trust where applicable.
• To be operationally responsible for the preparation and management of the balance sheet, cash flow, and working capital financial metrics and the reporting of these both internally and externally. This will involve identifying risks and appropriate mitigating strategies where applicable and conveying this complex information in a clear and persuasive way.
• Assist with monitoring the Trust's cash flow, providing forecasts on expected future cash flows, and ensuring that the Trust has sufficient cash to meet its expected outgoings.
• To be the finance lead with respect to treasury management procedures ensuring accurate and timely cash flow reports support treasury management activities.
• To be operationally responsible for the production, implementation, and review of detailed financial policies and procedures for the financial accounting functions carried out in the Trust. Ensure financial procedures are updated in line with Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions and widely communicated across the Trust.
• Play a lead role in implementing systems and management actions in support of ensuring statutory financial performance targets are achieved.
• Ensure that Control Accounts, Suspense Accounts, and other Balance sheet entries are reconciled and cleared on a monthly basis with any issues investigated and resolved.
• To coordinate the implementation of VAT regulations across the Trust and facilitate maximum recovery, working alongside the Trust's tax advisers. This will involve providing advice and guidance to finance and non-finance managers across the Trust on matters relating to VAT and other accounting issues.
• To support the Trusts LTFM (Long Term Financial Model) and annual Financial Plan, ensuring they accurately reflect the balance sheet and financial details. This will involve supporting the capital teams to ensure capital plans are accurately reported and forecast to provide cash flow details.
• Provide technical support on capital and revenue business cases as required including finance charges.
• To operationally lead the Trust's PFI accounting ensuring all modeling and reporting is maintained and developed in an appropriate manner.
• Responsibility to ensure that a periodic revaluation of the Trust's estate is undertaken and reported appropriately in the Trust accounts.
• Identify ways of improving processes and procedures to ensure the finance functions are efficient and effective and to manage the necessary changes in the business processes in conjunction with the Head of Financial Planning and Financial Services.
• Responsible for providing, implementing, and maintaining a range of complex computerised and manual accounting systems.
• Ensure that transaction authorisation levels within financial systems comply with the Trust's Standing Financial Instructions and Scheme of Delegation.

Requirements:

• Maintain and recommend any changes to the Scheme of Delegation and Standing Financial Instructions.
• To be the line manager in respect of accounts payable and systems, reporting and liaising with other senior colleagues as required.
• Ensure staff receive appropriate training to meet their professional needs and the needs of their post, and ensure that all mandatory training required by the Trust is undertaken and maintained.
• To actively participate in the departmental review of policies and procedures, suggesting changes and improvements to processes and procedures whether within the postholders' work area or the wider department.
• To check and ensure appropriate response and action on all audit report comments, and responses to FOI requests relating to the section.
• Support the wider Finance team as required and agreed with the Assistant Director of Finance. Deputise for the Head of Financial Planning and Financial Services.

Working Relationships:

The post holder will be responsible for working closely with the following teams and individuals:

• Executive Directors
• Divisional Management Teams
• Clinical Directors, lead clinicians & Matrons
• Directorate Managers
• Departmental / ward managers
• Internal Audit
• Corporate Functions staff
• Finance Department
• ICB and other NHS Bodies
• NHSE/I
• External Audit
• External Consultants
• Private Providers

Equality and Diversity:

The Trust promotes policies and practices that challenge discrimination, promote equality, respect individual needs, preferences, and choices, and protects human rights. A range of equality & diversity policy initiatives are in place, and all successful applicants are expected to familiarise themselves with these. It is therefore the duty of every employee to comply with the detail and spirit of these policies and the law at all times.

Confidentiality:

The post holder must maintain confidentiality, security, and integrity of information relating to patients, staff, and other Health Service businesses.

Records Management:

All employees of the Trust are legally responsible for all records that they gather, create, or use as part of their work within the Trust (including patient, financial, personnel, and administrative), whether paper or computer-based. All such records are considered public records and all employees have a legal duty of confidence to service users.

Health and Safety:

Employees must be aware of the responsibilities placed on them under the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Manual Handling Operations Regulations and all relevant Trust Health and Safety Policies and Guidance. Employees should ensure they are familiar with, and comply with, all relevant Infection Control policies for minimising the risk of avoidable 'Health Care Associated Infection'.

Children and Vulnerable Adults:

You have a responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of the children/young people/vulnerable adults that you come into contact with or are responsible for in your job role and sphere of competence.

Disclosure and Barring Service:

The Trust aims to promote equality of opportunity for all, with the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. Criminal records will be taken into account for recruitment purposes, only when the conviction is relevant. As the Trust meets the requirements in respect of exempted questions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, all applicants who are offered employment will be subject to a criminal record check from the Criminal Records Bureau before the appointment is confirmed.

General:

To adhere to trust policies regarding confidentiality and information security.