The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Costing Analyst

This job is now closed

Job summary

This is a non-clinical role, responsible for supporting the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income on all issues relating to costing, including patient level costing, service line reporting and reference costing.

To develop the Trust's systems for the use of cost accounting and service line reporting information, with the ultimate aim of improving business awareness, planning and performance within the Trust.

Previous applicants are not required to apply please.

Main duties of the job

Continued development and refinement of SLR and costing data working closely with Directorates
Ensuring clear and transparent apportionment methodologies understood at all levels of the organisation
Development of information flows to a range of senior manager and clinicians
Continued improvement of reference cost and PLICS data
Supporting the roll-out of SLR to end users in Directorates

The post holder will have close working relationships with the Service Managers and Commissioning Leads, providing complex financial support on matters relating to costing.

This will largely undertaken from within an office environment, and the tasks undertaken from a physical perspective will be in line with these working conditions.

About us

The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest specialist orthopaedic units in Europe. We offer planned orthopaedic surgery to people locally, nationally and internationally.

Our Trust is a very special hospital; big enough to deliver world class services and small enough to offer exceptional patient and staff experience. We offer a working experience unique in the West Midlands and we're always on the lookout for passionate people to join our award-winning team.

The ROH is an equal opportunities employer. We employ people of difference and are committed to growing an inclusive culture, where difference is celebrated, and people feel able to bring their whole and authentic self to work.

We are a Disability Confident Leader and offer a range of inclusive, family friendly and flexible working arrangements and policies, to support our people in the workplace. Flexible working requests will be considered.

The Trust is committed to the Disability Confident Interview Scheme and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a vacancy and consider them on their abilities.

If you have a disability and need any support with your application or require any reasonable adjustments to be implemented please do get in touch with the Recruiting Manager for this position so that the team can support you.

Date posted

02 January 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£37,338 to £44,962 a year Per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working, Home or remote working

Reference number

303-6861733

Job locations

The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS FT

Bristol road south

Northfield, birmingham

B312AP

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. To work with the Income Analyst to prepare accurate and timely monthly Service Line Reporting information on the income and expenditure position for budget holders. The costing information should be provided on a monthly basis out to the relevant individuals in the organisation. This will include significant data analysis, and a good eye for detail to ensure that the information is highly accurate. It will also require significant expertise in the advanced use of spreadsheets and databases, alongside being comfortable with the use of IT hardware.

2. To provide sufficient evidence for the completion of the financial accounts, including robust working papers which are able to be evidenced for internal and external audit.

3. To support the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income in the preparation, and monitoring of costing through the processing and analysis of PLICs data, understanding and explaining variances and trends. This analysis will involve taking significant volumes of sub-specialty or patient level data, and analysing it in a manner which draws out themes and areas for potential action at a more macro level.

4. To support the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income in developing clinical engagement with SLR and PLICs.

5. To assist the management accountants with costing information to assist with year end forecasting using highly complex and sensitive information, for example working with informatics and divisional representatives to understand drivers of costing movements and likely outturn.

6. To work with, and to communicate to, other members of the finance department to ensure that a consistent message and decision making process is maintained across the different Directorates.

7. To assist the Head of Financial Management and Financial Business Partner for Financial Planning, Performance and Improvement with the annual budget setting process with regards to the costing.

8. To work with the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income to prepare accurate and timely monthly Service Line Reporting information on the income and expenditure position for budget holders, being flexible and innovative in approach to make the information understandable and useful for the reader.

9. Analyse complex financial trends from many streams of data and forecast strategic and operational income forecasts and be able to explain key costing metrics within service line reports in a clear and concise way, and being able to interpret and analyse key issues and trends within these reports to enhance operational decision making.

10.Assisting Directorate Accountants, Clinical Directors, Directorate Managers and other budget holders in the preparation of the costing considerations in business cases, for example by using procedure level data to provide educated estimations of future costs.

11.To review, improve and update all policies and procedures regarding costing and other relevant areas of financial management which will impact on the finance department, and may also impact on other departments throughout the trust.

12.To provide costing training to members of the finance team to ensure appropriate cross cover opportunities

13.To provide training to non-finance managers, emphasising the links between activity, income and expenditure alongside other members of the finance team as appropriate.

14.To produce and assist in the production of costing returns within NHS Timetables, including the production of the MAQs Score and the Education and Training Cost Collection.

15.Make improvements to the cost pool allocations and improve the MAQs score in accordance with Monitors guidance.

16.To produce the Trusts Reference Costs, in line with the Department of Health guidelines.

17.To produce patient level costs and service line reports for each directorate, applying and improving on appropriate allocation methodologies for income and costs, in order to provide accurate information to allow Directorates to make robust business decisions.

18.To produce the quarterly PLICS returns.

19.To perform a regular sense check of patient level costs, identifying and correcting outliers and applying learning to refine the costing model and reduce future outliers.

20.To produce accessible and adequate evidence, calculations and procedure notes to support reference costs and SLR. This should be sufficient to allow review by third parties such as audit if necessary.

21.Produce information to enable identification of reasons for variances of costs from national tariff, enabling appropriate decision-making to place regarding service provision.

22.To provide support to the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income in the calculation of private patient contracts with insurance companies.

23.Produce benchmarking comparisons on a basis which facilitates the identification of options for efficiency and Value for Money gains.

24.Assist the Directorate Accountants and Directorates in the identification of Cost Improvement Programmes.

25.To review and understand any relevant guidance on changes to costing in the NHS, and be able to provide expert advice to the Trust on these changes.

26.Introduce, adapt and improve financial systems in the area of responsibility, improving data quality in conjunction with Information staff.

27.Whilst the role does not have direct line management responsibilities, the post holder will be expected to delegate processing and other appropriate tasks to the Assistant Accountants, and work with the wider Finance Team to maximise efficiency within the department. This will include providing feedback and potential objectives to the relevant line managers to aid their performance monitoring discussions. As such, exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances through staff discussions are expected to be rare.

28.To support the vision and strategy of the finance department and wider trust, helping to improve the working environment within the finance department. This would involve supporting and developing a culture of team-working and innovation with a positive outlook.

29.Generally the post holder is expected to be able to work with a large degree of autonomy, with support from the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income where required. For example, the Costing Analyst would be expected to proactively complete the appropriate costing returns, with review and guidance provided by the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income.

30.To be able to provide cover for release of payments from the Trust bank account.

31.To carry out other duties compatible with the post as directed by the Head of Costing, Contracting and Income, but not limited to, support for other Directorates where required.

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and a regular review will take place with the postholder as part of their ongoing development and performance management.