Band 6 Assistant Financial Accountant

NHS; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare trust in the UK is seeking a Band 6 Assistant Financial Accountant to join their team. The role involves capital accounting, charity accounting, and strong reconciliation skills. Candidates should be actively studying for a CCAB qualification with substantial relevant experience. The position offers career development opportunities in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Actively studying Part Qualified CCAB Accountant or substantial relevant experience.
• Evidence of continued professional development.

Responsibilities

• Capital accounting including IFRS 16 leased assets.
• Knowledge of VAT in the health service.
• Strong reconciliation skills.
• Ability to liaise with external partners.

Job description

Overview

Job title: Band 6 Assistant Financial Accountant at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Closing date is 29 September 2025.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the small team responsible for the delivery of financial service level agreements at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS FT (UHB). The team forms part of the UHB Financial accounting department, delivering services to, amongst other organisations, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham for which this post relates. In order to succeed in this role, you will be a quality-driven individual with a strong customer service focus, having the ability to build strong relationships with the client organisation and have accounting experience. The role is varied, and you will be exposed to both Management Accounts and Financial Accounts relating to the Trust itself and their charity. If you are looking for career development through exposure to providing a wide variety of financial services, to progress and lead staff, to developing proactive decision making and are able to demonstrate meticulous attention to detail this role could be for you.

Main duties

We are looking for an individual willing to progress their professional accounting career. Through this hands-on role, the key deliverables to show success in this role are:

• Capital accounting including IFRS 16 leased assets as well as owned assets
• Charity accounting, knowledge of the Charity SORP for both management and financial accounting
• Knowledge of VAT in the health service to produce the VAT returns
• Strong reconciliation skills
• Maintenance of the financial accounting working papers throughout the year
• Ability to liaise with external partners e.g. auditors regarding responses to audit requests and VAT advisors regarding reviews

About us

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust strives to have an inclusive culture where everyone feels like they belong, can thrive, knows that they add value and feels valued. We do this by developing compassionate and culturally competent leaders, being values driven in all that we do and by creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace that thrives on the diversity of our people. As such we want to attract and recruit talented individuals from all backgrounds, and for each of you to feel supported for the diversity you bring, to achieve your full potential. For those staff with a disability, including physical disability, long term health condition, mental health or neurodiverse condition, this also means being committed to making reasonable adjustments needed for you to carry out your role.

Job responsibilities

Please note: For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Actively studying Part Qualified CCAB Accountant or substantial relevant experience
• Evidence of continued professional development

Experience

• Knowledge of VAT legislation applicable to the NHS
• Knowledge of PAYS, NI, Pension
• Ability to produce working papers to auditable quality
• Familiarity with computerised finance systems; including ability to create and manipulate complex spreadsheets and databases
• Experience of producing reports for delivery at senior management level
• Experience of analysing, interpreting and presenting complex financial data and producing robust forecasts
• Experience of management accounting processes, full absorption costing
• Experience of providing training and support to others in own specialist area
• Evidence of planning and organising tasks required to achieve a specific outcome within a specified timeframe, without direction from line manager
• Experience of working in a busy financial accounting environment
• Experience of accounting for VAT
• Experience of Tax Payover procedures
• Experience of managing staff

Additional Criteria

• Good standard of communication skills including the ability to effectively communicate complex financial and technical information to non-finance colleagues both orally and in writing
• Acts professionally in all dealings with colleagues and in liaising with external bodies; must be able to adapt style appropriately to deal diplomatically with senior personnel in NHS, University and MOD organisations
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Good standard of written communications
• Evidence of practical application of accounting principles including management accounting and costing
• Ability to work as a core member of a team and deputise for Senior Finance Manager as required
• Excellent problem solving, organisational and analytical skills; must be a self-starter and able to deliver a required outcome from an initial framework without specific guidance or intervention from line manager
• Ability to work under pressure and to meet tight deadlines
• Ability to work independently using own initiative; must be able to plan and prioritise own workload and take responsibility for quality assuring results
• Accurate and methodical
• Excellent IT skills, including Excel, Access, Outlook, Word and PowerPoint
• Be willing to learn new skills and develop knowledge; committed to own and others continuing personal and professional development
• Ability to work effectively as a team player and the ability to work under own initiative
• Ability to travel to fulfil the role involving travel both between hospital sites and offsite elsewhere, as required

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.

Employer name

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust