Accountant

Necsu; North East; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous holidays

NHS pension

Free car parking

NHS discounts

Job summary

NHS North Of England Commissioning Support Unit in the North East is seeking an experienced Accountant to support the BSA Finance function. The role focuses on financial management, risk, and providing robust financial information to enable informed decision-making while working across home and office locations.

You will partner with service leads and budget holders, help manage forecasting and costing, and contribute to continuous improvements in financial processes.

Qualifications

• Experience of financial management within health/public sector.
• Proven ability to analyse financial information and risks.

Responsibilities

• Manage budget reporting, forecasting and financial planning.
• Produce statutory/NHS accounts and returns on time.
• Provide financial advice to service leads and budget holders.
• Partner with divisions to improve financial performance.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Organisational skills

Education

CCAB finalist level or similar

Tools

Excel

Job description

The closing date is 18 November 2026

Accountant

Are you an enthusiastic and self‑motivated finance professional looking for an opportunity to use your skills in a varied and customer-focused role?

We are looking for an experienced Accountant to support the BSA Finance function. The Accountant is a key role in supporting effective financial management, helping ensure financial targets are achieved and financial resources are used effectively. Working with service leads and budget holders, the postholder will provide financial advice and support, help manage financial risk and provide robust financial information to support effective decision‑making.

This is a hybrid working role, with the successful candidate working across a mixture of home and office locations.

This vacancy is restricted to employees currently working within a Commissioning Support Unit (CSU). The role is being recruited to support services moving to NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). The successful applicant may therefore potentially transfer to NHSBSA as part of the relevant service transfer arrangements. Further information will be provided as part of the recruitment and transfer process.

This role will close Wednesday 18th November and interviews/selection are expected to take place during the week commencing 23rd November.

For an informal discussion, please contact Dave Welch at [e-mail].

Main duties of the job

This role will be responsible for:

• Support budget management, forecasting, costing and financial planning.
• Produce accurate and timely financial information and reports.
• Investigate complex financial queries and provide advice to managers and budget holders.
• Analyse financial performance and support managers to understand and address variances.
• Maintain effective financial controls, reconciliations and processes.
• Support business cases, service developments and financial improvement initiatives.
• Build effective relationships with finance and non‑finance colleagues.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of financial processes and systems.

About us

At NECS we are very proud to be part of the NHS England family. We are one of the very few truly customer‑owned entities within the NHS. We have grown from our roots in the North East to be an NHS business with customers the length and breadth of the UK and further abroad. Our customer base has diversified significantly over this period, and we are now very pleased to be serving NHS providers as well as commissioners, NHSE regions, Local Authorities, General Practices and national NHSE Directorates.

NECS combines specialist skills and expertise with scale and resilience to achieve required results. We combine core NHS values with a sharp focus on customer care and a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. We very much see ourselves as a key partner in the future success of the healthcare system and we take our share of the responsibility for shaping effective delivery.

Our people are the heart of our organisation. We strive to ensure they feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that as well as an excellent benefits package including generous holidays and pension plus free car parking and access to NHS discounts.

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

The Accountant will contribute to ensuring that the financial management of the CSU is effective. The post holder will be pivotal in ensuring that the CSU meets its financial targets in terms of both income and margin generation. The role will be responsible for ensuring the effective use of financial resources by working with service leads and budget holders in order to manage financial risk.

The post holder will also be expected to provide financial advice and support to non‑finance managers, discuss complex, contentious and / or sensitive issues with budget holders, managers and other senior officers within the CSU together with other stakeholders as appropriate. A key element of the role is to act as a business partner helping to advise and support services in their development and challenges they face, escalating where necessary to the Head of Finance‑Corporate.

Key Responsibilities

CSU Financial Management and Control

• Responsible for the overall management and performance of a finance section.
• Ensures financial information is processed in accordance with procedures and investigates complex enquiries providing assistance and advice as required.
• Prepares and completes statutory/NHS accounts and returns, ensuring that work is completed in line with financial timescales and legal requirements, interpreting these where necessary.
• Ensure an efficient finance function and to contribute to its day to day management.
• Provision of financial advice on the CSUs financial position, including responsibility for financial planning, budget‑setting, forecasting and costing activities for agreed areas of responsibility. Review and maintain the integrity CSU general ledger/balance sheet in relation to all financial management aspects.
• Support the development of short, medium and long term financial plans.
• Generation and maintenance of standard operating procedures and ensuring their adherence to.
• Production of internal reports on financial performance incorporating commentary on variances to plans and forecasts.
• The role holder provides plays a key role in the success of the financial performance through the following across an number of Divisions.
• To provide an outward facing, high quality and customer focused Finance Business partnering service to the Divisions and SBU teams.
• To provide financial information that is robust and accurate and to be able to explain, discuss, recommend, persuade/ influence and prioritise required actions to budget managers.
• To provide high quality tools, information and data to enable budget managers to effectively and efficiently manage budgets and to support development of strategies to improve financial performance.
• To provide support and drive within the Divisions to support delivery of an appropriate contribution margin leading to improved financial performance.
• To provide accounting and business information to clinical and non clinical colleagues.
• To constructively and positively challenge all aspects of Division financial performance.
• To ensure that there is a robust control environment in place within the Divisions so as to ensure compliance with corporate governance procedures.
• Support services in developing business cases for investment/disinvestment and pricing services.
• Responsible for ensuring accurate sales invoicing and reviewing the status of the sales ledger including cash forecasting and management.
• Line management of the Finance Analyst including all aspects of staff management.

CSU Development Plans

• Support the development and monitor the implementation of cost improvement plans without compromising financial management and control.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives to improve processes and systems, including greater automation, duplication elimination, consolidation and standardisation.
• Produce financial plans and costings for procurements, service development proposals and skill mix changes for designated budget holders. Provide financial analysis for new and existing Service Level Agreements.
• Support the development of a financial and commercial training to non finance staff.

Other

• Help ensure that financial and other systems are fit for purpose and to generate reliable and accurate reports to allow stakeholders to make appropriate financial decisions and to assess financial risks.
• To ensure effective internal control is maintained, advising the Head of CSU Finance of any weaknesses and to help to correct any problems.

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience of financial management.
• Experience of liaising with senior staff within and external to the organisation.
• In-depth knowledge of the NHS finance regime.
• Experience of working in the private or 3rd sector.
• Experience of managing and developing staff.

Qualifications

• CCAB finalist level or similar qualification by experience.

Personal Qualities

• Excellent analytical/numerical skills.
• Excellent communication and inter personal skills.
• Organisational skills able to plan the work of self and others.
• A thorough knowledge of financial management processes and reporting requirements.
• Ability to analyse and solve complex problems.
• Advanced Excel.
• Ability to build effective working relationships.
• Able to interpret national guidance and the ability to communicate this simply to non-financial personnel.
• Ability to produce formal reports to a professional standard.
• Theoretical and practical knowledge in financial/other legislation and NHS financial policies.

Employer name

NHS North Of England Commissioning Support Unit