Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services. Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients. In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research. We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit. Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’. The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients. We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS. Job overview The Finance Directorate is currently working through significant change, bringing together the finance teams across Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals (RBH) and Guy’s and St Thomas’ (GSTT) following the merger of the two Trusts on 1 February 2021, the alignment with the new Clinical Groups from April 2022, and the integration of the RBH and GSTT systems. The changes will create a single unified Finance Directorate supporting the merged Trust, integrating the legacy finance directorates and creating a structure that will deliver the vision of being a best-in-class function. This role will support delivering the Finance team’s vision for the future. The role reports to the Deputy Chief Accountant, has direct line management and provides support to the whole team. The successful candidate will be CCAB qualified or with equivalent experience and have excellent communication skills and clearly explain complex financial matters to non-finance stakeholders. The role requires strong negotiation skills and the ability to effectively challenge and influence senior stakeholders to maintain a sustainable financial performance. Strong analytical skills and a keen eye for detail are critical, along with excellent organisational and planning abilities to enable the team to deliver a high quality service in a fast paced environment. Main duties of the job · To oversee the Finance team processes, advising on improvements and ensuring that the processes are documented, efficient and well-understood · To be responsible for the finance processes in areas traditionally outside of the Finance team: in Private Patients billing and the Assisted Conception Unit (ACU) · To lead the Private Patients billing and ACU finance teams. · To develop and improve the performance of these Teams, including the continued integration of the of the PP Billing Teams based at Royal Brompton/ Harefield and the GSTT PP Billing Team. · To provide strategic direction to the Teams including the transition to Compucare 8 · To develop and form strategic working relationships with colleagues in the Private Patient and Assisted Conception Unit departments. · To lead on insurance for the Trust · To lead on the Skills Development Network across Finance Working for our organisation Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation. We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark. We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs. We strive to recruit and retain the best staff as the dedication and skills of our employees lie at the heart of our organisation and ensure that our services are of the highest quality, safe and focused on our patients. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Processes To document processes across the Finance teams and to maintain a comprehensive directory of Finance processes, to enable continuity of cover, transparency, training and where appropriate closer working with other organizations. To act as the expert for the maintenance of financial procedures across the team, ensuring that the processes reflect appropriate accounting guidance and are in place to address all risk areas To work with staff across the Finance teams to ensure that end-to-end processes are coherent and efficient. Responsible for the provision of high-level support, advice and training to other teams within the Finance department on all financial process matters including using lean techniques and electronic functionality to create quality improvements and efficient processes. · Carries responsibility for creating and developing policy and procedures in Private Patients Billing and ACU, which will impact the service development across the Trust. Private Patients billing and Assisted Conception Unit (ACU) To be responsible for the Trust’s approach to billing PP and ACU activity To manage the function of the teams in order to maximize the Trust’s cashflow To ensure that there are clear and efficient standardized processes for the PP Billing and ACU finance team to manage regular timely billing that captured all income for all services performed. To develop strategic relationships with colleagues in the Private Patients and Assisted Conception Units to ensure that the billing function is as efficient as possible and to ensure compliance with the billing processes and controls To be responsible for a programme that seeks routine feedback from end users in order to continue to improve processes and customer delivery To ensure that Compucare / EPIC / Oracle interfaces are operating / set-up as efficiently as possible, reducing the need for manual interventions in the billing teams. To be the finance process owner for the Compucare 8 upgrade project, including ensuring that the new system complies with financial controls, that the system enables a continuity of service when implemented so that PP and ACU billing continue to be raised in a timely manner and that transactions reconcile across the Compucare systems with Finance Cloud To ensure that billing, including ACU related storage billing, and other related finance transaction processing such as customer payments, requisitioning, supplier invoice processing and activity reporting are complete and up to date. To report to management on the state of finance activity processing To be responsible for the ACU finance team’s compliance with HMRC rules including VAT and IR35. To present and advise the Clinical Leads and other key stakeholders with regular ACU and PP billing service performance, including the billing and recovery of monies owed. Insurance To oversee the Trust’s insurance arrangements, ensuring that appropriate cover is agreed with the CFO / Director of Finance and is in place. To coordinate the annual renewal process. To provide advice and guidance as required on the Trust’s existing insurance cover, which may involve interpreting highly complex, sensitive or contentious information for a non-expert audience. To seek additional insurance cover in order to manage the Trust’s risk where required. To prepare Board papers as required relating to insurance renewal / specific areas of concern. To maintain and monitor a log of claims To develop and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders e.g insurance brokers / NHS Resolution Management / Leadership To lead the Private Patients (PP) Billing Team and the Assisted Conception Unit (ACU) Billing Team and to provide strategic direction to them in support of the Directorate’s overarching strategic aims. To manage the teams of staff, including ensuring that they are appropriately trained and developed, have twice yearly appraisals and PDRs and that the work of the department is appropriately allocated. To develop and monitor the budget for own department and authorise spend against it. Ensure that the department lives within the budget allocated by the Chief Accountant. · To design & develop major information systems to meet the specifications of Finance, ACU and Private Patients billing, to ensure that there is accurate and consistent reporting of financial positions. Ensure that the team provides a high-quality service to its customers, carrying out customer satisfaction surveys and implementing changes as a result. To ensure that sickness and performance issues are managed appropriately within the teams. General To take an active role in developing an awareness of financial performance requirements and of the need for budgetary control within the Trust. To contribute to the financial training of budget holders / clinical staff involved in the billing process and finance staff. To lead on the Skills Development Network across Finance, including operating work placement schemes and the delivery of the regular training programme to all Finance staff. To lead on the Trust finance staff data returns required by the Skills Development Network. Any other duties as may be required from time to time. Person specification Knowledge/Qualifications Essential criteria CCAB qualified or equivalent experience with a significant period of post qualification experience and able to demonstrate sound accounting knowledge. Desirable criteria Able to create complex spreadsheets and documents Skills Essential criteria Demonstrate a thorough understanding of accounting and reporting issues, cash management and capital funding arrangements. Acquired through a significant experience in several financial departments at a senior level. Desirable criteria Knowledge of NHS insurance arrangements Experience Essential criteria Experience of working in a senior Financial Operations role and driving improvement within a team Strong experience in providing advice and guidance to a senior management team Experience of and proven skills in the initiation and management of process change in a controlled environment Experience of managing large, multi-site finance teams Significant experience of managing and developing computer based financial systems in a complex environment including defining reports and an understanding of the system hierarchy. A significant period of experience at senior management level, motivating and developing a team and able to lead a team to achieve objectives. Desirable criteria Experience of negotiating and agreeing deadliness and standards and quality of work with other departments. Able to interpret statutory and DHSC guidance and recommend necessary actions Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership. Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy. As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends. Flexible working We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process. Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis. Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now." Further details / informal visits contact Name Victoria Macleod Job title Deputy Chief Accountant Email address [email protected]