Senior Assistant Management Accountant

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for a Senior Assistant Management Accountant, acting as a key member of the Financial Management team.

The post holder will provide accurate and timely financial information and reporting to colleagues internal and external to Finance, including providing support to budget holders across the organisation.

The successful candidate will have completed their Diploma Level of CIMA/CCAB qualification or have a relevant degree in Accounting or have equivalent experience. They will have strong numeracy skills and attention to detail, alongside excellent I.T. and communication skills.

The department currently has a hybrid working policy, so the successful candidate will be required to work a minimum of 3 days a week in the office. With sites at both Southport and Knowsley.

Interview date: 15th of January 2025

Main duties of the job

The Senior Assistant Management Accountant's main duties will be to:

1. Ensure the provision of high quality financial information and accurate advice to budget holders and other non-finance managers.
2. Develop good working relationships with budget holders, regularly meeting with them to review their financial information and provide advice.
3. Assist Financial Management colleagues in ensuring income and expenditure is monitored and is recorded accurately, including monitoring variances from planned income and expenditure and resolving queries with budget holders and Finance colleagues.
4. Use Excel and other software to provide financial reports and conduct financial analysis, using formulae and other functionality as required.
5. Complete regular tasks accurately and in line with the monthly timetable, including where relevant internal recharges between departments and updates to the ledger to reflect an accurate financial position.
6. Ensure most effective use of the Trust's financial resources, including assisting with the annual budget setting/financial planning process by updating and reviewing information for the new financial year, including staffing information. To liaise with budget holders as part of this process, to ensure accurate information is used.
7. Proactively review regular tasks within their areas of responsibility, identifying opportunities for improvements and more efficient working to support continuous improvement of the Finance function.

Working for our organisation

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

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

1. To establish and maintain strong working relationships with both key internal and external individuals to ensure effective working. The post holder will be expected to liaise with both internal departments and external bodies.
2. 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.
3. To monitor financial performance against agreed budgets, analysing, reporting on variations and assisting in formulating corrective actions. Proactively support the delivery of targets by sharing good practice, identifying areas for improvement, and agreeing and monitoring action plans.
4. To have specialised knowledge within the division supported by the team, gained through relevant theoretical knowledge and experience of other financial areas.
5. To validate output from the monthly payroll process to ensure all payments are coded correctly in accordance with the budgets. Identification and correction of errors to ensure financial data is correct.
6. To contribute to the completion of statutory returns, adhering to strict timetables.
7. To attend the relevant divisional and specialty business meetings on behalf of Financial Management and provide relevant financial support, advice and information.
8. To maintain the integrity of the financial ledger and other financial systems to ensure that compliance with audit requirements is adhered to.
9. To contribute to the formulation of the annual budget setting for the Trust and ensure pressures are reported and monitored.
10. To promote effective financial management and financial control amongst the divisional management teams. To provide appropriate advice and support with the divisional structure to ensure all efforts are made to achieve financial stability, including the review and monitoring of establishment information.
11. To assist in the delivery of financial awareness training to all levels of management within the Care Group. informal training will be provided to budget holders and managers in relation to financial issues on a regular basis.

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

1. Responsible for the production and monitoring of timely and accurate financial information and reporting to strict deadlines, enabling the proactive management of budgets by budget holders.
2. To contribute to the development of financial management information and communicate ideas and suggestions for departmental improvements to the Management Accountant(s) and Senior Management Accountant.
3. To allocate work to staff members within the department and provide training within own areas of work enabling them to develop in accordance with their KSF outline.
4. To deputise for the Management Accountant(s) as required.
5. To train new and existing staff within the team, providing induction materials including accurate up to date procedure notes, demonstrating working routines and coordinating work between the Assistant Management Accountants as necessary.

Education & Development

1. To provide training to non-financial managers within the Trust on all matters relating to budgetary control and financial management; including effective use of information systems/reports.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

1. Completed AAT Level 4 or equivalent experience
2. Diploma Level CCAB/CIMA qualification or relevant degree in Accounting or equivalent experience

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

1. Financial management experience
2. Experience of income and expenditure budgets
3. Knowledge of accountancy policies and procedures

Desirable criteria

1. Staff management skills
2. NHS Finance experience
3. Experience of contract monitoring and reporting

Skills

Essential criteria

1. Ability to analyse, investigate and interpret financial information and queries
2. Ability to report and present financial information to both finance and non-finance individuals (internal and external)
3. Well organised, able to prioritise own workload to deliver to tight deadlines
4. The ability to manage conflicting priorities

Other

Essential criteria

1. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
2. The ability to maintain effective working relationships, both internal and external
3. Strong IT skills and experience using Microsoft Office suite
4. Evidence of continued professional and personal development and learning through the PDP process

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. You are part of an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people's race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under-represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader , we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [email protected]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here.

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description ( PDF , 160.6 KB )
• Person Specification ( PDF , 128.6 KB )
• Important information for candidates ( PDF , 128.6 KB )
• Helpful tips to complete your application form ( PDF , 1.2 MB )
• MWL Recruitment Journey ( PDF , 884.1 KB )