Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Associate Director of Planning, Productivity & Costing, Band 8c

The closing date is 08 April 2026

Job summary

The primary purpose of this role is to provide effective support to the Trust in delivering financial sustainability and in the provision of accurate, timely, engaging information around financial sustainability and productivity.

This is an exciting, fast-paced role within a small productivity and efficiency team within finance. The team provides the assurance of the savings programme, alignment of savings targets, monitoring of the programme, provision of benchmarking tools and design and communication of up-to-date productivity information at all levels within the organisation, as well as providing the business planning rigour for the Trust.

The role is also responsible for the costing function of the Trusts ensuring that annual returns are accurately completed and using the outputs to support the development and usage of Service Line Reporting to help inform decision making across the Trust

Additional working pattern details: Flexible working available

The proposed interview date is: 23rd April

Main duties of the job

Productivity and efficiency

The post holder's primary focus will be on identifying areas for improvement and implementing best practices to achieve cost efficiencies without compromising the quality of patient care. The post holder will collaborate closely with senior leadership, service leads, and stakeholders to develop and execute comprehensive action plans that address financial, operational, and cultural challenges.

Planning

The post holder will lead the business planning process for the Trust, they will work across the professional leads to ensure all elements of the organisation proactively participates in the process. The post holder will present updates and the final plan to the programme board and where necessary to sub committees of the Board and to the Trust Board.

The post holder will be the key point of contact across the health system to ensure the Trust is proactively engaging in the system wide planning process.

Costing

The post holder will oversee the costing process for the Trust, working with the Head of Costing to fulfil the annual costing returns and the use of Patient Level Costing information to develop and implement Service Line Reporting (SLR) across the Trust. They will work with operational professional leads to support understanding and use of costing and SLR information to support decision making. The post holder will present updates on costing and SLR to the Finance & Resources Committee as needed.

About us

We take pride in placing people at the centre of everything we do, working together as a united team. Driven by a shared ambition to continually grow, develop, and learn, we recognise and value every contribution. By combining our experience and skills, we not only support our vibrant, diverse communities, but also support one another.With a team of over 9,000 employees, we are proud to be the largest employer in Gloucestershire and rank among the top 10 largest Trusts in the South West region. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities and the chance to gain valuable experience in one or both of our innovative hospitals.

As well as generous annual leave allowance, you will have access to the excellent NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, access to two on-site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Date posted

25 March 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8c

Salary

£76,965 to £88,682 a year (pa pro rata if part-time)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

318-26-T0197

Job locations

Riverside House

College Baths Road

Cheltenham

GL53 7QB

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. Key Responsibilities

The post holder will take specific responsibility for day-to-day oversight of business planning

Day-to-day oversight of the Financial Sustainability Programme from a financial point of view.

Ensure the Trust has access to benchmarking, GIRFT and any other tools to help generate efficiency plans

Facilitate effective clinical and professional dialogue ensuring change is based on evidence and strong professional leadership

Lead the team to identify opportunities to enhance productivity and optimise operational efficiency across the organisation.

Develop the costing and SLR approach across the organisation ensuring that the outputs are used to inform decision making

Collaborate with divisional and directorate leads to identify opportunities for productivity improvement, performance and operational efficiencies across all areas of the Trust. This will include supporting colleagues to refine existing transformation and change plans to consolidate opportunities into robust plans, establishing and/or translating metrics and improvement analytics to add value and link with Trust established performance monitoring systems.

Lead the team and support Directors, General Managers, Clinical Leads and other colleagues with the development and implementation of initiatives that relate/contribute to productivity, efficiency and cost reduction

Collaborate with divisional leadership teams, directorate leads, clinicians, and other stakeholders to identify areas of inefficiency and waste and develop plans to deliver improvement opportunities.

Provide regular updates and reports to the Executive Team on the progress of the service change, productivity and efficiency plan, highlighting achievements, challenges, and recommended adjustments as needed

2. Professional Development, Education and Training

Professional knowledge acquired through degree or equivalent experience

Specialist knowledge acquired through post graduate courses and/or experience to masters level

Leadership qualification or equivalent experience

Project management qualification or equivalent experience

Highly analytical and numerate

Evidence of continuing professional development

Member of a professional accountancy body e.g. ACA, CIMA, ACCA is essential

Proven experience in leading quality improvement initiatives within healthcare settings

Formal training or certification in Quality Improvement Methodologies e.g. IHI Model for Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma, or NHS Improvement QI training

3. Management and Leadership

Act as a senior role model for compassionate, inclusive and improvement-focused leadership.

Promote a culture that values learning, reflection, and the continuous pursuit of excellence.

Leverage external networks, partnerships and thought leadership to inform local innovation.

Work flexibly across the hospital and wider group to ensure resource is targeted where it can have greatest impact.

Lead with integrity and empathy, encouraging ownership, accountability, and professional growth.

Provide clear direction and day-to-day support to transformation team members and programme staff.

Line management responsibility for a multidisciplinary team, with a strong focus on individual development and performance.

Support staff development through coaching, structured feedback, and regular appraisals, tailored to individual needs.

Ensure that team members feel empowered to lead and innovate, with access to ongoing learning and professional development opportunities.

Promote a psychologically safe, inclusive and equitable working environment that supports wellbeing and fosters a culture of trust and collaboration.

Champion continuous improvement within the team, modelling curiosity, learning, and positive challenge.

Significant evidence of chairing and leading successful meetings

4. Planning and Organisation

Lead and support in the translation of national / local external planning requirements into GHFs annual plan

Lead the team to work across corporate services and divisions to ensure a signal and unified planning process encompassing finance, people, activity, operational and change / improvement elements

Proactively project-manage the design production of the Annual Plan by analysing the requirement and setting out and publicising the timeline for what needs to be done by whom and when.

Responsible for ensuring project documentation is of high quality and accurately recorded on relevant systems

Secure the input of senior staff from across the organisation into the planning process and make clear to them their expected contributions and the format they will be made in.

Analysis of highly complex and conflicting contributions to plans into a clear written style for the intended audience Board, Executive team or commissioners.

Responsible for identifying any risks or issues ensuring mitigations are in place to monitor and resolve.

Ensure the Director for Finance and Planning who is the executive sponsor for plans, is briefed on progress and any difficulties. Ensure he or she signs off plans before submission.

With advice from the trusts communications team to design active dissemination, providing written material and contributing directly to communications.

Present the planning process and plans verbally and in writing to various audiences including senior staff, other staff and service users.

Be aware of developing best practice in business planning across the NHS and social care.

Evaluate success of business planning process and content and make changes for future plans

5. Communications and Working Relationships

Lead, present and manage highly complex, sensitive and challenging and often contentious information to the organisation, where there may be significant barriers to acceptance/understanding.

Communicates service-related information to senior managers, staff, external agencies

Lead the development of the business planning programme to include workshops, seminars etc

Present confidently to large groups and public consultations/forums.

Demonstrate excellent report writing skills

Demonstrate the ability to persuade and negotiate when conflicting views need to be brought to a conclusion to achieve appropriate outcomes

6. Other

Analyse and interpret a range of highly complex qualitative and quantitative information gained from a wide range of sources such as performance metrics, financial reports and a range of other business intelligence

Able to create and utilise highly developed and complex analysis and judgement especially where opinion may be inconsistent.

Ability to consider qualitative and quantitative information to inform decision making

Provide timely, accurate and strategic reports on programme delivery to hospital leadership and Trust boards.

Manage a broad and complex workload effectively, adapting priorities in response to organisational needs.

Champion innovation, sustainability and high-value care in all areas of responsibility.

Contribute to personal and team development by sharing knowledge, mentoring others, and identifying learning opportunities.