Head of Finance

Whittington Maternity Voices Partnership; Greater London; On-site; GBP 88,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Whittington Health NHS Trust in London is seeking a Head of Finance (NHS AfC Band 8c) on a full-time, 1-year secondment. You will lead the development and delivery of organisation-wide financial strategies and business plans, working with senior managers to shape the financial direction of the Trust.

The role requires extensive NHS finance experience, strategic budgeting, and the ability to present complex information to senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Masters level degree or equivalent.
• Substantial experience delivering financial advice to senior managers and directors.
• Operational and strategic financial planning, budgeting and service costing.
• Experience leading an NHS finance team.
• Strong communication and presentation skills for diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to persuade, influence, and work cross-functionally.

Responsibilities

• Provide financial leadership and guidance across ICDUs.
• Lead a NHS finance team delivering professional financial support.
• Ensure robust financial control and value for money.
• Present business cases and financial plans to Trust executives.
• Drive productivity, quality and efficiency programmes.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Presentations

Persuasion

Stakeholder management

Education

Masters degree or equivalent

Job description

Main area Finance Grade NHS AfC: Band 8c Contract Secondment: 1 year (1 year from start of contract) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 220-WHT-8375148

Employer Whittington Health NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site Highgate Wing Town London Salary £88,250 - £100,355 Per Annum Including HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 02/11/2026 23:59

Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3 rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of Whittington Health NHS Trust.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

Whittington Health NHS Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website.

The post holder will act as a Trust wide expert leading on the development and implementation of organisation wide financial improvements and efficiencies. The role requires both clinical and non clinical finance experience, working with senior Trust key stakeholders, persuading and influencing the financial direction of the Trust.

Responsible as a leading expert on the strategic financial planning agenda and programme for the nominated Integrated Clinical Service Units (ICSUs), including the financial lead on developing financial strategies and business plans. To provide professional guidance in support to Senior Trust managers, including the presentation of business cases and financial plans to Trust Executive Directors.

Identifying opportunities for financial efficiencies and high-lighting areas of risk and reporting on progress of these whilst indicating other opportunities in year.

The Head of Finance will be responsible for the development, implementation and delivery of the procedures, policies of the department. To ensure that all Trust wide financial policies are adhered across the Trust.

Main duties of the job

Responsible as a Trust leading financial expert for the provision of financial services across the nominated ICDU’s. Responsible for leading a financial management team, delivering professional financial support that meets the needs of the Trust. To ensure that the team delivers a fullfinancial service to include:

financial leadership
analytical support
Financial commercial acumen
Full business suite financial reporting
Clear presentation of financial and business intelligence to a ICDU’s to support the delivery of an approved financial plan
Ensuring proper financial control is maintained and value for money achieved.

Responsible for ensuring that the ICDUs financial direction is robust and fit for purpose. To ensure that as a financial expert, you manage and constructively and positively challenge all aspects of the ICDUs financial and business performance.

The post will attend the ICDU Boards and Performance Review meetings and will make a positive contribution to debates on service provision and ICDU’s priorities.

Responsible for the provision of financial leadership and guidance in delivering Trust wide programmes concerned with improved productivity, quality and efficiency programmes

Working for our organisation

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description for further information about the responsibilities of this role.

If you want to know more about the role please contact:

Nirupa Narine - Assistant Director of Financial Management

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

• Evidence of recent and ongoing professional development
• Educated to Masters level or equivalent

Knowledge and Experience

• Substantial experience of delivering financial advice and guidance to senior managers and directors.
• Operational and strategic financial planning, budgeting and service costing
• Experience in producing a wide range of financial information, reports and analyses
• Experience of leading a NHS finance team

Skills and Abilities

• Developed communication skills for delivering key messages to a range of stakeholders
• Good presentational skills for conveying complex concepts
• Ability to use informed persuasion to influence others
• Ability to work within and lead cross functional working and project group
• Excellent listening, communication and presentation skills
• Excellent writing skills, including the ability to summarise information and key issues

Personal Qualities

• Excellent leadership skills
• Strong communication and engagement skills. Positive attitude and highly self-motivated and can motivate others
• Ability to work without supervision, providing specialist advice to the organisation, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:

• Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with theLondon Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
• Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
• Participate in required training and supervision.
• Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Our processes –

• Closing dates are given as a guide; we are within our right to close adverts early so please ensure you submit your application as soon as possible to avoid delay.
• If you do not hear from us up to 3 weeks after the closing date of the job unfortunatelythis means you have not been successfullyshortlisted for interview. If your require feedback on your application please contact the appointing manager detailed in the body of the advert.
• Please check your emails regularly as all correspondence from us will be via trac.systems – occasionally these emails will go into your Junk folder.
• Employment at Whittington Health is offered subject to successful completion of a 6 month probationary period for all staff with the exception of GMC Registered Doctors.

Other important information –

• You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, please click here
• Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
• In submitting an application form, you authorise WhittingtonHealth NHS Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process should you be appointed to the post.

If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre‑employment checks youridentity and right to work documentation will be verifiedremotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

Please note that during the recruitment process your Identity Documentation (i.e. passport, driving licence, visa, etc.) will be scanned using a device which recognises UV, Infrared and Machine Readable Zone security features of the documents provided

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We would welcome applications from individuals who are from underrepresented groups in the organisation

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.

Name Nirupa Narine Job title Assistant Director of Financial Management Email address [e-mail]