Senior Finance Officer

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder is a key member of the team whose overarching goal is to enable, promote and support the effective use of financial data, information, knowledge and technology to improve, inform and support a portfolio of projects, services, and initiatives.

They will be a creative and innovative individual who will provide specialist knowledge and have the ability to work autonomously within clearly defined professional policies.

The post holder is required to undertake complex financial reporting: amending budgets, calculating income and expenditure accruals and maintaining the integrity of the financial ledger.

The post holder will be required to investigate specialist complex financial enquiries, providing assistance and advice as required with internal and external service users and providers.

They will also be required to lead on the provision of specialist financial advice and support for relevant area under matrix working arrangements.

The post holder will also be expected to prepare and assist in the completion and production of statutory and NHS returns, such as IFR, AoB exercises, and benchmarking as part of the monthly. Quarterly and annual reporting cycle.

Key Relationships

Key relationships will be with the following teams, departments and organisations:

Colleagues within Sub System, Portfolios and across the ICB

Sub-contractors e.g. Commissioning Support

Budget holders, Senior Leadership and other staff members and teams within the portfolio and sub-system, and other ICBs

Colleagues in both NHS & Non NHS Provider organisation and other ICBs

Colleagues in NHS England and NHS networks

Colleagues from the Local Authority and other local stakeholders

Primary Care including GPs, Primary Care Networks, GP Federations and Practices

Contracting / Business Intelligence teams/leads both internal and external

Specialist advisors, for example, HMRC, legal, financial, procurement

Professional bodies

Internal and External Auditors

Core Functions

In accordance with monthly timetables, the post holder will prepare accurate monthly financial reports including management accounts, year-end forecasts, variance analysis, commentary and staffing / pay reports.

Prepare and post complex financial ledger entries each month, including accruals and prepayments, ensuring that these are support by comprehensive working papers.

Be responsible for invoice co-ordination, coding, checking and comparing to the budget set to ensure they can be sent to relevant manager/director for authorisation.

Preparation of ad hoc reports and analysis of complex financial information as required.

Discuss and resolve financial queries with Senior Managers/Directors which are often complex, including reasons for variances and other sensitive issues. This may include difficult conversations related to complicated queries and may require negotiation with suppliers and providers.

Analysis of data from multiple sources and provides advice on complex financial issues such as effective budget management within a forecast deficit and other areas which may be contentious.

Liaise with the contracting team to ensure that accurate contract positions are included within financial reports and work with contracting to investigate variances from plan where necessary.

Monitor the financial impacts of developments within the nominated programme area (including efficiency schemes), providing robust data to evidence these impacts.

Continuous monitoring of financial conduct to ensure full adherence to standing orders, standing financial instructions and the required standards of probity.

Work effectively with the rest of the finance team to contribute to the production of the annual accounts

The post holder will be required to produce key documents and working papers for the External Auditors as well as respond to queries, throughout the accounting year and particularly at the yearend.

This will require a well developed understanding of accounting standards, an ability to handle sensitive issues, negotiation and persuasion skills often where there are conflicting and complex views to gain the agreement and ensure that there are a minimal number of Audit recommendations.

The post holder will deputise for their line manager, as required. This will be particularly relevant in respect of management accountants and budget review.

Maintain an active role in improving and strengthening the functions and processes of the finance team, and in particular the management accounting function, in order to provide the ICB with a strong and resilient finance service.

This job description is not intended to be exhaustive. It describes the main duties and responsibilities of the post. It may be subject to change in accordance with developing organisational and service needs and wherever necessary, will follow appropriate consultation with the post holder. The post holder may be directed to complete other duties according to organisational requirements. These duties will always be reasonable and commensurate with the skills of the post holder and level of the post.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Part qualified accountant with a professional accountancy body (eg CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAEW), or
• relevant degree / qualification / recent, relevant professional experience.
• Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist area.
• Actively committed to personal and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and participation in relevant education and training events.
• Specialist knowledge of relevant financial management and accounting principles and relevant legislation.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages including Teams, Outlook and Word.
• Competent in using Microsoft Excel (spreadsheets including formulae, pivots, lookups, data manipulation).

Desirable

• Fully qualified accountant, with a Professional Accountancy body (eg CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAEW).
• Understanding of Accounting Standards, particularly where relevant to certain aspects of the role.
• Understanding of NHS financial management and the NHS financial regime.
• Knowledge of Oracle finance software / system.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in NHS finance, or equivalent multi-stranded large organisation.
• Experience of working within financial management in a Finance department.
• Experience of working successfully in a multi- disciplinary team.
• Knowledge and understanding of financial and accounting practice and procedures e.g UK GAAP, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), NHS Manual for Accounts etc..
• Experience of interpreting national guidance and able to translate into local policy.
• Experience of dealing with complex and detailed financial information.
• Co-ordination, preparation and presentation of financial monitoring and performance reports based on analysis and interpretation of data, at the appropriate level relevant to the audience (ie; finance and non-finance colleagues), inline with reporting deadlines (monthly, quarterly annually).
• Ability to support in developing solutions to solving problems.
• Experience of budget management, understanding, and interpreting variances between budgets and actuals within the financial planning, in-year monitoring and forecasting process.
• Working on your own to a given brief and timescale.
• Ability to plan own work load and delegation of work across the team, based on reporting cycles and demands inline with required deadlines set.
• Experience of motivating oneself, and staff within immediate team, often in a virtual environment and continuous improvement through personal development.
• Ability to work autonomously.

Desirable

• Understanding of the future direction of the NHS, particularly from a finance perspective, and what this means for the organisation.
• Relevant, significant experience of financial management in a Finance department in the NHS or other public sector organisation.
• An appreciation of key issues and targets for monitoring performance of the organisation.
• Supported operational and strategic financial planning within own area of expertise.

Skills and competencies

Essential

• Good communication skills both written and oral.
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills.
• Ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
• Achievement of challenging deadlines within own team.
• Prepare complex data or information to support the work of the finance team in delivering information to individuals or groups of people with different levels of understanding of the subject matter.
• Intermediate Excel skills.
• Experience in the use of computerised ledger systems.
• Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information appropriately.

Desirable

• Management of staff and effective leadership.

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (857)

Address

Health House

Grange Park Lane

Willerby

HU10 6DT

Employer's website

https://humberandnorthyorkshire.icb.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)