Income and Contract Manager-WRH

Job responsibilities

Key Duties:

This role focuses on income reporting and the contract environments for the Trust.

Within the Income reporting element of the role the following responsibilities are important.

To be prepare the month and year end income finance position of over £600m for the Head of Income & Contracts and then onward to Board level.

To understand the most recent NHSE financial and contracting policies and guidance and be able to explain how these complex pricing and income rules changes apply for any particular user being financial or non financial. The users range from lead nurses to senior budget leaders to Execs. The method can be written, one to one or group setting presentation.

Be able to apply new NHSE finance and contracting policies resulting from NHS legislation to complex accounting procedures whilst maintaining integrity of the reporting.

Take the highly complex and patient level data recorded for patient attendance from Trust systems and price that activity per the NHSE pricing rules for PbR or fixed as appropriate and provide income statements to each commissioner. The reporting of the income position will be to the Trust Management Executive, Finance and Performance Committee and Trust Board on a monthly basis.

Prepare the income sections of the monthly NHSE Financial Return.

Liaise with internal and external auditors to ensure that appropriate financial aspects of Corporate Governance are in place. Document, review and regularly update financial systems and procedures in order to develop and maintain a sound environment of financial control both within the department and throughout the organisation.

To enable managers to manage resources within financial limits and to ensure that the Trust meets its statutory financial obligations.

To monitor the income being charged and paid to the regional ICB Commissioners, identify trends & variances and then constantly seek to improve underlying understanding of our service.

To provide business units with constructive advice and guidance on how to attain the NHSE or ICB designed contractual incentives and mitigate penalties.

Provide expert level advice to the Trust CFO and Head of Financial Planning on technical accounting issues with Income and NHSE reporting of Income. Also act with the Head of Income & Contracts to explain impacts and implement reporting changes to meet Accounting Standards.

Keep operational plans to deliver an income plan under review and proactively adapt to changes in NHSE guidance, contracts and Commissioner positions to deliver a quality plan on time. Then deliver the forecasts and annual commissioner income plan.

Be able to interpret and apply trust strategy and then explain how the income finance plan and the underlying assumptions meets short term goals, medium term and long term plans. Where underlying assumptions do not meet the strategy be able to identify and explain to senior decision makers with recommendations.

Develop and maintain current and new systems to produce a comprehensive integrated method of financial reporting. Demonstrate innovation and developing new systems and challenging existing methods to ensure that the Finance Department and Trust is well placed to deliver high quality financial information to assist in the decision making process.

Maintain and update the monthly performance reporting to Commissioners also known as SLAM.

Interpret and advise on the likely implications of income changes as a result of the new NHSE guidance and support the process by which this is managed.

To take a lead role in the completion of routine and ad hoc returns which are required internally and externally, by the commissioners, NHS Improvement / England and the Department of Health.

Move towards encompassing all income within the department.

Monitor Trust performance on activities that drive income. Advise Ops Directors & Managers on risks of underperformance and negotiate with commissioners for resources or deferred resources to meet the commissioner healthcare policies and objectives.

To provide contract monitoring information (activity, finance and quality standards) for each Commissioner.

To provide expert and accurate analytical services regarding current and future income incentive models.

Within the Contracting element of the role the following responsibilities are important.

Management of the main healthcare contracts and relationships

Working with the Head of Income & Contracts be able to take the lead in negotiating the NHSE Specialised Commissioning Contract and take the lead in negotiating agreements and contracts with other parties working with Operations. This will include the construction and agreement of contractual terms and conditions with Commissioners in line with NHSE guidance.

To be able to understand and explain the cost/opportunity and risk/reward in the contracts being negotiated. Ensuring the users understand these key points is fundamental to good governance. These contracts will range from simple to complex.

Negotiate a range of contracts in a range of areas and complexity with Commissioners and external contracts/legal/commercial senior management

To be responsible for financial issues Contracts, including investigating and advising on highly complex and sensitive issues and providing corporate reports/strategic financial and business planning advice in this area.

To be able to present risk and financial analysis to support business decision making in business cases where no precedent or incomplete information exists. To be able to think indepently, understand the decisions needed and then present advice and recommendations on complex healthcare issues.

To be comfortable in debating situations and presenting supporting evidence that have competing or different conclusions with others that have different priorities to come to a decision understood by the group.

To recognise and advise on overlaps/interactions between multi-faceted business cases / contracts.

To be responsible for the provision, interpretation and modelling of the financial impact of Service Level Agreements, from negotiation through to monitoring and reporting on operational performance.

Regular meetings with Commissioners to assess performance and ensure appropriate managers are involved to meet Commissioner and contract requirements.

Provide income and contracts related briefings to financial, operational and clinical staff. This can be written, verbally or presentations. The ability to convey complex and sometimes overlapping contract principles with their risk and financial impacts to a non financial or Executive audience is required.

Maintain full awareness of national, regional and local health economy guidance and priorities with respect to performance issues and objectives.

To establish systems and processes to ensure the Trust recovers income due and that it is reported appropriately both internally and externally.

To develop and maintain the contracting information database.

Understand existing Trust policies that apply to a contract and then be able to advise on how they apply to the running of that contract or advise on gaps in Trust policy in order to achieve that contract. Ops Directors and managers can require commercial, contracting and financial advice and guidance in writing Trust policies.

To lead the development of procedures and system documentation within the Commissioning function and provide appropriate system development environments, standards and controls.

To support both the income and contracting elements the following responsibilities are relevant.

Assess new SLA proposals based on commercials and risks and advise accordingly

Data queries range from the month end hospital activity to be priced to be able to drill down with specific enquiries for ad hoc reporting and business cases.

Provide Senior support and guidance in the production of business cases. Develop system and modelling tools for use in advising operational managers and clinicians.

The post holder would be expected to demonstrate initiative in interpreting new guidance and then acting upon it.

To ensure that all members of staff within the section receive adequate on the job training and coaching in the functions allocated to them. Ensure that this training remains up to date in the light of changing financial and non financial procedures and the introduction of new techniques.

To be responsible for the recruitment selection and appointment of staff working within the department in accordance with the Trusts employment policies and procedures and legal requirements.

To ensure that the Trusts standing financial instructions and codes of procedures are adhered to at all times.

Management experience as there is one direct report. This involves recruitment, appraisals and implementing Trust employment policies.

Support the Trusts R&D department when presented with material value or risk contracts.

To utilise at a sufficiently advanced level all the relevant software required to successfully undertake this role, including Microsoft Office, ORACLE, MS SQL Server and the BI system

To maintain knowledge of best practice and developments in areas covered by the post

General Duties:

The role will involve managing, analysing and presenting the results of large volumes of data. Experience of a 'big data' environment would be an advantage.

To represent the Head of Contracting and Income in various internal and external meetings as and when required.

To assist generally in the financial management of the Trust.

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Highly numerate and able to work accurately on complex work areas.
• Achieve tight deadlines.
• Capacity to make informed decisions.
• Negotiation.
• Problem solving ability.
• Ability to motivate staff.
• Excellent team worker.
• Self-motivated.
• Tenacity.
• Ability to adapt to rapidly changing priorities.
• Willingness to participate in personal development.
• Communication Skills.
• Ability to communicate highly complex concepts to specialist and non specialist staff.
• Confidence to contribute in meetings with more than 10 attendees, both internal and external.
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to read, interpret and implement national policy (including data set change notices) which can impact beyond own area of activity.
• Ability to write and update operational instructions for the department.
• Ability to comment on highly complex information reports.

Desirable

• Negotiation of larger contracts with complex and mixed services.
• Broker win/win solutions.
• Working with and managing commissioner or government body relationships.
• Presentation skills to a wide audience.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Big data experience including analysis and manipulation is essential.
• High degree of competency with Excel.
• Able to interpret data to identify the impact on income and strategic plans.
• Attention to detail and reconciliations between data sources.
• Able to dissect issues and identify root causes and provide effective solutions.
• A high level of technical and accounting skills will be required on a consistent basis.
• Communication and problem solving skills are required to a high level. This is particularly relevant to being the contract negotiator to get the Trust and other party to agree on a process or a price or a KPI or specification.
• Lateral thinking and the ability to use communication skills to seek the win/win for smooth contract operation.
• A high level of organisational and prioritisation skills are required in successfully completing multiple ad hoc assignments alongside the business as usual.
• An ability to switch between tasks of different nature during the working day. This role will be managing several objectives at the same time whilst responding to commissioner needs promptly as they arise.
• Proven mathematical reasoning skills.
• Experience in options appraisal and cost benefits analysis.
• Commercial and Risk assessment.

Desirable

• Data warehouse tools and SQL.
• Knowledge of NHS Payment by Results definitions, application and process.
• Understanding of the commissioning process and NHS key performance indicators.
• Project Management skills.
• Knowledge of HRG grouping, OPCS procedure codes, diagnosis codes and how these impact payment.
• SQL database and query writing.
• Negotiation.

Other Job Requirements

Essential

• Management/ Supervision/ Co-ordination Skills.
• Supervision.
• Ability to organise and co-ordinate work flows and allocate duties across the team to ensure objectives are met.
• Ability to resolve staff queries, both technical and other.
• Proactive guidance, training and support.
• Support the appraisals and recruitment process.
• Office conditions and home working with frequent VDU use.

Desirable

• Car driver.
• Staff management experience.

Qualifications

Essential

• CCAB Management or Accounting qualification
• Degree or equivalent professional qualification

Experience

Essential

• Management of a finance team.
• Business support and advisory skills for finance, non finance managers and then Director to Staff grades.
• Ability to assimilate and interpret highly complex and ambiguous information across a wide range of data.
• Experience in producing information reports for senior level audiences.
• Proven ability and confidence to work with, numbers, formulas, percentages, variances, trends and graphs.
• Proven experience of validating figures on complex reports.
• Experience with managing contracts.

Desirable

• Wider NHS Experience such as working in an Acute Trust, Commissioner and other provider organisations.
• Reviewing, challenging, understanding and implementing new Government and NHS guidance / commissioning.
• Highly developed specialist knowledge and expertise of NHS activity and income information.
• Evidence of detailed specialist knowledge of Acute Hospital data and processing.
• Experience of applying Payment By Results regulations from NHSE.
• SQL-Server query writing.
• Contract writing using NHSE templates.
• Responding to competitive tenders.
• Contract drafting within the NHS.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).