Income & Contracting Accountant

Job description

Job responsibilities

Financial Planning & Budgeting

Work with the Divisional Accountants to ensure that the Trusts income streams are accurately identified, costed and translated into budgets, and that they are realistic yet challenging and are appropriate for the service they are funding, including consideration of inflation and overheads.

Responsibility for the maintenance and reconciliation of the recurring and non-recurring budgetary position on a monthly basis.

Responsibility for providing financial advice, analysis and reporting of the Trust income position, using information from the ledger and SLAM system.

Responsibility for providing direction on the divisional Income budgets, consistent with the overall financial framework

Responsibility for maintaining a robust reconciliation of deferred income, including supporting the Divisions in understanding their deferred income position and forecast.

Invoicing and Commissioner Income

Responsibility for ensuring that all invoices to Commissioners are raised in a timely manner with appropriate backing information, and that any queries are resolved to support swift payment to support the Trusts cashflow position.

Support the Agreement of Balances exercise through accurate and timely invoicing, reviewing statements and resolving any queries as they arise.

Work with Financial Accounts to forecast Commissioner income, as a key component of the Trust cashflow forecast.

Responsibility for allocating all Commissioner income to the correct codes in the ledger, to support meaningful run rate and variance analysis, and for ensuring that income received reconciles to contractual values.

Provide advice to Divisions on Commissioning matters e.g. what additional services or activities can be invoiced, what backing information is required, what further information is required to ensure payment

Provide advice to Divisions on how to maximise income within appropriate contractual arrangements and whilst adhering to guidance, e.g. ensuring that all costs are correctly captured, ensuring that patient activity is correctly recorded.

Contracting

Actively participate in and contribute to the review of Commissioner contract offers in accordance with the Trusts strategic aims and objectives.

Support the Head of Contracting & Costing in reviewing and updating draft Commissioner contracts, in particular populating the Postholders and Trust Policies sections, and co-ordinating relevant Trust functions in reviewing Schedule 4 (Governance) and Schedule 6 (Information), to ensure the Trust can comply with contract conditions.

Provide advice to Divisions on appropriate contractual arrangements for new or changing services, including whether a sub-contract, Service Level Agreement (SLA) or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) should be used.

Responsible for drafting sub-contracts, SLAs and MoUs under the direction of the Head of Contracting & Costing.

External Reporting

Responsibility for populating and checking relevant sections of the monthly Monitoring Return (PFR) to report the Trusts total income position and forecast to regulators, including addressing any errors/validations, reconciling to ledger and explaining any variances.

Business Planning

Actively participate in and contribute to the formulation of the Divisional Income Budgets in accordance with the Trusts strategic aims and objectives.

Responsibility for coding Commissioner contract values in the ledger, to support meaningful variance analysis.

Income and Activity

Lead the Income Analyst in the production of monthly SLAM information for the reporting of priced patient activity information to Commissioners.

Review SLAM outputs to ensure that all activity is correctly captured and priced, by working with the Income Analyst to embed robust control processes.

Lead the process to reflect SLAM income in the ledger, to promote visibility within Divisional budget statements.

Undertake monthly triangulation of Pass Through Drugs and Devices costs to ensure that all expenditure is being correctly captured and reimbursed by Commissioners.

Support General Office with the income aspects of Private Patients and Overseas Visitors, including reviewing and updating Trust policies as necessary.

Ensure that the divisions and directorates adhere to the Trust Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions and financial procedures.

Ensure that authorised signature lists are maintained for the division and directorate in respect of both exchequer and charitable funds, consistent with the scheme of delegation established by the Divisional General Manager.

Review the divisions business processes and where appropriate identify and implement improvements to efficiency and internal control, for example, stock control routines.

Work with Trusts internal and external auditors as required ensuring that agreed recommendations are implemented in a timely manner.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• CCAB/CIMA Qualified and evidence of continued professional development

Experience

Essential

• In depth experience (usually 3 years) and expertise in a range of accounting areas including reconciliations, finance ledgers and coding structures
• An advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel
• Extensive range of post qualification experience

Desirable

• Extensive experience in NHS finance, usually around 3 years

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Excellent analytical and reasoning skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Technical ability in the compilation of, analysis and reporting of financial information
• An ability to be organised and methodical in their work
• An ability to discuss financial issues with non-financial managers across the Divisions
• An ability to interpret, analyse, investigate & resolve financial queries
• Have the ability to communicate complex financial information effectively, using verbal, written, or presentation skills required to inform decision making
• Capable of working independently with limited supervision, within the context of a wider team
• Flexible and adaptable approach. A proven ability to cope under pressure and work to deadlines

Desirable

• An advanced knowledge of Oracle with proven working experience
• A wider knowledge of Health Service finance and of issues affecting the wider NHS
• Knowledge of NHS Income and Contracting Guidance

Other

Essential

• Confident approach, hardworking and committed
• Flexible approach to working hours to meet the demands of the department

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Royal Blackburn Hospitals

Fusion House

Blackburn

BB2 3HH

Employer's website

http://jobs.elht.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)