Head of Finance

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.

Financial Planning & Strategy

Interpret national NHS and NHSE policies and develop appropriate protocols and frameworks for the Collaborative to work with to ensure financial probity.

Overall responsibility for the regional specialised mental health commissioning budgets for multiple service lines, delivered across the Collaborative’s six NHS Trusts for the East of England region.

Responsibility for developing policies and procedures for the Collaborative to effectively manage and account for the regional specialised mental health services budget devolved from NHSE.

Prepare and manage the Collaborative 4-year Long Term Financial Model (LTFM) to forecast Income & Expenditure, integrating financials with activity, and including risk quantifications.

Responsibility for providing financial advice and developing and monitoring the budgets across the Collaborative’s six NHS Trusts

Develops an integrated financial plan, and the design and implementation of an integrated performance dashboard and report for providers. This will include, but is not limited to, finance, activity, and quality.

Ensure all statutory / NHS returns are true and meet legal requirements.

Ensure that the Collaborative’s Financial Model and its Financial Strategy reflect the Collaborative’s Clinical, Transformation and Business Development Plans.

Lead for finance in the development of the Collaborative Business Plans. Assist in identifying savings plans and ensuring consistency with the Collaborative’s strategic direction.

Oversee the annual budget setting and business planning cycle, ensuring that budgets are set in line with the activity and financial plan.

Responsible for the update of the Collaborative’s Financial Strategy as agreed with the Managing Director and for explaining and presenting the Strategy to the Collaborative Board, other groups and to external stakeholders as required e.g., ICBs and NHSE

Prepare and manage key financial models and forecasts, including running multiple risk scenarios and sensitivities.

Provide advice and support to the Managing Director and Head of Commissioning in contract negotiations with NHSE by providing data on finance, activity, capacity, and productivity.

Business Cases

Develop business case policy, procedures and best practice on required levels of information financial, activity, risk & benefits quantification, and other business case elements affecting financial assessment, ensuring it is updated to reflect changes in the regulatory framework governing NHSE business case approvals and funding mechanisms.

Set up and maintain a central database of key Business Case data for all cases in progress, mapping planned investment, capacity (beds etc), demand, activity and outcomes. Develop approaches to integrate this information into annual Business Planning and Budget setting cycles.

Play a key role advising on relevant business case and capital financing matters as required.

Critically evaluate and quality-assure all financial outputs produced to ensure accuracy, validity, consistency and integrity of the work. Ensure clear and comprehensive documentation is maintained on each case to facilitate review, audit and post project evaluation.

Critically evaluate highly complex data, analyses and business cases for service development and capital investment involving significant resource implications for the Collaborative

Review any service costings or business cases produced within finance, to ensure that they are in line with national policy and guidelines.

Present highly complex and contentious information and data in a manner appropriate for the audience, ranging from formal presentations to large audiences to one to one meetings with staff or external stakeholders.

Put in place mechanisms to ensure high-quality information submissions across the Collaborative and submit collated information to NHSE as and when required.

Produce regular reports and analyses for the Collaborative Board, member Trust Executives and NHSE

Analyse and interpret complex data to make reasoned and logical deductions and plans.

Provides and receives highly complex and sensitive information relating to service delivery, workforce issues and political imperatives. Professionally manages knowledge of a personal nature relating to staff internally and at client organisations.

Ability to absorb and process information from a variety of sources including internal and external professionals to determine and formulate appropriate action plans.

Regularly demonstrate and deploy a wide range of personal attributes e.g., the ability to lead, motivate, consult, negotiate and mediate to overcome significant barriers to acceptance or understanding.

Regularly communicate and negotiate with EoEPC Executives, Chief Finance Officers, external and internal professionals, both verbally and in writing often on highly complex subjects.

Ability to advise and persuade senior finance staff within partner trusts and NHSE on particular courses of action.

Regularly presents complex and contentious information to large groups and effectively communicates financial concepts clearly and persuasively to senior managers, who are not finance experts.

To line manage a team providing a range of functions: financial management and reporting, budget setting; financial accounting and business analytics.