Management Accountant

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Based off experience, this job role may be offered as permanent/ fixed term/ secondment. An opportunity has arisen for the role of Management Accountant, playing a key role in managing and reporting the financial position of the organisation. We are looking to recruit a motivated and enthusiastic individual who is ready to develop their career in an acute healthcare provider with a strong track record of delivering five-star quality care for its patients. The postholder will provide expert financial advice to operational colleagues and play a key role in providing an effective financial management and reporting service. They will support and work closely with the Senior Financial Management team to generate, analyse and report financial information to stakeholders internal and external to the Trust. The successful candidate will hold financial management experience in a large organisation and knowledge of the NHS finance regime. They will have excellent I.T. and communication skills and experience of managing and developing staff. They will have demonstrated the ability to deliver timely and accurate financial reporting. Please be aware that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated, should a sufficient number of applications be received. You are therefore advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

Main duties of the job

The Management Accountant's main duties will be to:

• Provide expert financial advice and oversight of financial management for their areas of responsibility.
• Lead aspects of the month-end reporting process, ensuring timely and accurate reporting of the monthly financial position both internally and externally to the organisation.
• Monitor financial performance against agreed budgets, analysing and reporting on variances and assisting in formulating corrective actions.
• Co-ordinate the budget setting and forecasting processes for their areas of responsibility.
• Ensure the provision of high-quality financial reporting to budget holders and other non-finance managers in order to support delivery of the Trust's strategic, corporate and financial objectives, including delivery of Cost Improvement Programme (CIP) efficiencies.
• Establish and maintain strong working relationships to enable effective working.
• Manage and develop staff.

About us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites. We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services

Acute Care : Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites. Primary Care : Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital. Community Services : Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre. Specialist Regional Services : We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales. Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

Corporate Governance

• To establish and maintain strong working relationships with both key internal and external individuals to ensure effective working.
• To ensure the provision of high-quality financial advice to budget holders and other non-finance managers to enable the delivery of the Trust's strategic, corporate financial objectives.
• To monitor financial performance against agreed budgets; analysing, reporting on variations and assisting in formulating corrective actions.
• To take the lead on ensuring accurate financial information is maintained for all budgets relating to the Care Group.
• To ensure that external financial monitoring returns and reports are prepared and submitted in a timely and accurate manner.
• To attend the relevant divisional and specialty business meetings on behalf of Financial Management and provide relevant financial support, advice and information.
• To maintain the integrity of the financial ledger and other financial systems to ensure that compliance with audit requirements is adhered to.
• To contribute to the formulation of the annual budget setting for the Trust and ensure pressures are reported and monitored.
• To promote effective financial management and financial control amongst the divisional management teams.
• To evaluate and monitor saving schemes including maintenance of detailed working papers to ensure accurate records are kept.
• To accurately cost development and other operational change proposals as requested by divisional teams.
• To contribute to the annual reference cost process as and when necessary, providing support to the cost accountant.
• Responsible for the production and monitoring of timely and accurate financial information and reporting to strict deadlines.
• To contribute to the development of financial management information and communicate ideas and suggestions for departmental improvements.
• To allocate work to staff members within the department and provide training within own areas of work.

Education & Development

• To provide training to non-financial managers within the Trust on all matters relating to budgetary control and financial management.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• CCAB/CIMA Qualified or equivalent

Knowledge

• Experience within a finance function of a large organisation
• Experience of income and expenditure budgets
• Knowledge of accountancy policies and procedures
• NHS Finance experience
• Experience of contract monitoring and reporting

Other

• Strong IT skills and experience using Microsoft Office suite

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 name

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust #J-18808-Ljbffr