Directorate Management Accountant

Blmk Icb; Bedford; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a dynamic Directorate Management Accountant (Band 6) to provide management accounting support across service lines. You will produce monthly statements, advise budget holders, and help drive service improvement.

The ideal candidate will have NHS finance experience, be professionally qualified or working towards it, and demonstrate strong communication and teamwork under tight deadlines.

Qualifications

• Management accounting experience including income and expenditure accounting and reporting.
• NHS finance experience and professional qualification or working towards it.
• Strong communication and team-working abilities.
• Capable of working to strict deadlines and using initiative.

Responsibilities

• Produce monthly financial statements for directorates.
• Provide financial advice to budget holders to meet financial targets.
• Support negotiations with NHS and external organisations on cost/service issues.
• Report Directorate financial position to Finance Manager for monthly consolidation.
• Assist in Directorate procurement strategy to minimise costs.
• Analyse trends and forecast expenditure using relevant data.
• Support senior finance staff with financial decision making.
• Prepare annual Directorate budgets and monitor changes.

Skills

NHS Finance experience

Communication skills

Team working

Self-motivated

Education

Graduate or equivalent

CCAB / CIMA Qualified

Job description

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Directorate Management Accountant

The closing date is 21 October 2026

At Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust we are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace and pride ourselves on being a supportive team. We are a level 3 accredited One NHS Finance employer. We value our diverse workforce and our finance staff are pivotal in shaping how we address the financial challenges we face going forward.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic and enthusiastic individual to join our Financial Management as a Band 6 Directorate Management Accountant. This post provides financial advice and management accounting support to a number of service lines within the Trust. The ideal candidate will have NHS Finance experience and be professionally qualified or working towards it. They must demonstrate strong personal qualities including communication skills and team working.

The successful candidate will be dynamic, energetic, enthusiastic and self -motivated and will work within the Financial Management team to assist in the provision of management accounting information and financial advice to service lines. This is a role for a candidate who is self-motivated, likes a challenge and wants to use their skills to add value to support service improvement. The successful candidate will have the ability to work on their own initiative and work to strict deadlines. We are committed to developing our staff and these posts have in the past been successful stepping stones to more senior roles.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will be responsible for the production and analysis of monthly financial statements for a number service lines. They will provide financial advice to general managers and other budget holders that will assist them in the preparation of annual budgets and business plans. The post-holder will also provide ad hoc support to other members of the finance team as required.

About us

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.

Job responsibilities

The Finance Team has over 50 members of staff working in Financial Accounts, Management Accounts and Contracting across the Bedford and Luton Sites. It is a great place to work where we support learning and development of our staff. We have an excellent track record of supporting, developing and promoting our staff internally.

We are also proud to hold the following employer accreditations

Level 3 accredited One NHS Finance employer

AAT Employer Scheme

Main responsibilities include:

To produce timely and accurate financial statements for Directorates on a monthly basis.

To support budget holders in managing their financial position such that the Trust is able to achieve its financial targets. This will include providing complex and sensitive information, and will require skills of negotiation and persuasion.

To support negotiations with NHS and external organisations over cost / service issues.

To report Directorates financial position to the Finance Manager (FM) to allow aggregation of the Trusts financial position on a timely monthly basis.

To assist in the Directorates procurement strategy to minimise cost incurred.

To analyse complex financial trends involving many streams of data and forecast financial expenditure, using own initiative to make appropriate assumptions.

To assist senior financial managers & clinicians with financial decision making and risk mitigation through in depth analysis of activity / income.

To prepare annual Directorate budgets for service planning, supporting budget holders through the budget setting process.

To monitor & control budgetary changes throughout the year for relevant Directorates and to propose changes to the control procedures which impact on other team members areas.

To provide ad hoc support to FM, Director of Finance & other team members in planning projects that impact across the department and the organisation.

To help co-ordinate work of other staff members in section and to allocate and check the work to junior staff members and to deliver appropriate training to new / junior staff members.

Review of activity and income on a monthly basis, to ensure activity is recorded and reflected on SLR.

Costing for business cases, including for activity, income and expenditure.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Graduate or equivalent experience


• CCAB / CIMA Qualified

Experience

• Management accounting experience including income and expenditure accounting and reporting.


• Forecasting and analysing financial trends


• oExperience of analysing financial trends, forecasting expenditure and using initiative to make appropriate assumptions


• Management accounts experience in an NHS provider


• Building effective working relationships with senior leaders

Personal Skills

• Written and verbal communication skills


• Ability to explain financial information to non finance professionals


• Prioritising both predictable and unpredictable workloads


• Good report writing skills


• Access database skills

Other skills

• Plan, Manage and ability to prioritise.


• Manage both predictable and unpredictable workloads


• Computer literate with good spreadsheet skills and knowledge of GL


• Good report writing skills work as part of a team

Knowledge

• Knowledge of financial processes and practices gained through practical experience.

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.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust