Divisional Finance Manager

at  The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

We are looking for a candidate who is keen to start or to continue their career in NHS finance.
The successful candidate will be a highly motivated and an enthusiastic CCAB/CIMA qualified accountant, who has extensive experience in effective financial management, possess strong management and communication skills, as well as excellent analytical, technical and IT skills from within the Public or Private sector. You will have the ability to operate at a strategic level, work under pressure and to manage multiple and conflicting deadlines.
As a Financial Management team we offer a dynamic, diverse and developmental environment in which to nurture and enhance your career within the NHS. We have embedded a culture of strong teamwork, and ensure we get quality time together to build and enhance inter-team relationships.
The Finance Directorate actively promotes training and development within the team, we have developed a comprehensive finance education strategy and hold Level 2 accreditation in Towards Excellence and Future Focused Finance. We are an active member of the FSD (Finance Skills Development) Network, Future Focused Finance, and Towards Excellence scheme.
The Divisional Finance Manager role is accountable to a selection of Corporate Divisions, as well as being the lead accountant for all aspects of internal and external reporting, supporting the Trusts financial planning process, managing a small team, and reporting into the Head of Financial Management. In addition to working closely with other areas of the Finance Directorate.
The role provides high quality, accurate and timely professional financial management advice, monitoring and reporting services to a range of divisions.
You will be the lead Finance contact to a number of Divisions, being the key point of contact for budget holders and managers.
You will also provide support and input to projects, business cases and service developments.
We recognise how important a modern working practices to enable our employees to maximise their performance and productivity whilst maintaining an excellent work life balance and so have adopted a hybrid office/home working approach where employees have the opportunity to work either from home or flex their time between both.
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.
We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.
We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.

1. Provide support to the Assistant Director of Finance (ADoF) and Head of Financial Management (HoFM) in providing an effective monitoring and reporting service to the trust in accordance with the agreed timetables, procedures and standards prescribed within the trust.
2. Provide a high quality professional financial management advice and support service, acting as lead accountant and contact point for a range of clinical and non-clinical divisions. To ensure that these divisions/directorates achieve financial balance and that financial pressures are highlighted at an early stage and appropriate action identified. Continue to develop financial reporting and planning to reflect the needs of the divisions/directorates and improve accountability.
3. Provide specialist strategic, financial and business skills input into the planning of any service development including strategic change within the division/directorate as appropriate, ensure that divisional/directorate objectives are affordable within available resources consistent with organisational financial strategy.
4. Provide support and input to projects within finance or across the Trust as assigned.
5. Provide support to the HoFM and ADoF, ensuring the HoFM is kept informed of divisional and team issues.
6. Co-ordinate the production of divisional monthly financial management information in line with agreed timetables and to feed into the trust reporting framework with reports taken to internal committees as well as reported externally. Internal committees to include divisional board, capital and workforce planning group, drugs management committee, research committee, charitable funds committee, management board and trust board of directors.
7. Co-ordinate the budget setting process for division(s)/directorates by establishing and maintaining systems and procedures and ensuring the production of working papers to enable the formulation of the Trust budget book. Contribute to the financial planning process to enable the formation to the Trust’s annual plan.
8. Interpret financial information and communicate variances from budget and any areas of potential risk to senior managers and offer guidance and advise to enable action plans to be formulated which maximise the financial resources available.
9. Proactively assist colleagues in managing budgets and continually act to promote financial control and stewardship to safeguard the use of funds and promote value for money and ensure the appropriate use of funds within the division/directorate.
10. In conjunction with the division(s) and the Programme Management Office, proactively identify, monitor and evaluate schemes to ensure achievement of Cost Improvement Programme (CIP) targets, and contribute to CIP working groups by being the nominated finance representative.
11. Accurately forecast the year end financial position of the division/directorates on a monthly basis to enable the year-end position for the trust/charity to be provided to the board.
12. Act corporately, upholding the professionalism, position and focus of the Finance Directorate, whilst also being an integral and trusted member of the divisional team(s).
13. As a member of divisional board(s), develop a close working relationship with other members of the board and divisional senior management team. Present financial information to clinicians, managers and other staff to improve financial awareness and efficiency.
14. Provide the division with information on the links between the achievement of performance targets and the financial performance of the division. This will include advising the divisional board on Local Delivery Plan’s; cost and price implications of service changes and advising of financial implications of changes to local tariff and payment by results.
15. Link with the Income, Costing and Contracting team in the production of profitability reporting through divisional/directorate agreement of cost and income allocation and understanding of service contribution to the running of the trust.
16. Link with the Financial Services Manager to ensure the accurate reporting of the trust balance sheet and cash flow statement, to also ensure the trust maximises its cash balance on a daily basis.
17. Contribute to and where appropriate lead on identified corporate financial projects, for example the preparation of elements of the Annual Accounts process.
18. Work co-operatively across the finance function to ensure that common standards of accounting practice are maintained within the Trust and to share information and best practice to achieve more effective use of resources or enhance productivity.
19. Authorised signatory for cheques and bank payment transfers ensuring requests meet the Standing Financial Instructions and Standing Orders of the Trust.
20. Exercise independent judgement and initiative when problems arise and take appropriate action to resolve areas of concern.
21. Responsible for prioritising own work and that of specific sub-teams(s) within the divisional financial management team (the post requires no direct supervision). To line manage specific sub-teams(s) within the divisional financial management team including appraisals; training and development; sickness absence; disciplinary matters; recruitment and selection decisions; personal and career development and workload allocations.
22. Provision of financial training to managers, clinicians and all budget holders within the division/directorates and the Trust.
23. Provide input to the development and implementation of policies, procedures and protocols for the provision of financial management information to ensure the trust complies with statutory and internal requirements, in conjunction with the ADoF/ HoFM.
24. To provide cover for other financial management team members’ absences, including supporting other divisions.
25. Work with the HoFM to agree Personal Objectives, and a Personal Development Plan and keep up to date professionally through mandatory continuing professional development.
26. Ability to demonstrates the Trust values and behaviours.
27. To be accountable for own attitude and behaviour