Lead Costing & Productivity Accountant

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust; Salisbury; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Lead Costing and Productivity Accountant to drive the Group's costing framework, interpret national guidance, and ensure robust costing information for planning and performance. The role leads major costing programmes and collaborates with finance, informatics and clinical teams to improve productivity through costing insights.

You will develop and communicate costing intelligence to senior managers and clinicians, support performance management and

Qualifications

• Significant post-qualification experience in a senior finance role.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience in NHS costing and productivity analysis.
• Experience managing staff and training.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of the Group costing strategy and methodologies.
• Establish costing steering/assurance groups and share best practice.
• Lead continuous improvement for service line reporting and patient costing.
• Ensure national cost collection deadlines are met and data is robust.
• Roll out costing data and support decision making across the Group.

Skills

Post-qualification experience

CPD evidence

Leadership abilities

Education

CCAB or CIMA qualified

Job description

Job summary

The Lead Costing and Productivity Accountant has significant financial reporting responsibility. The role helps lead the costing function, in particular the processing, analysis and interpretation of the Group's income and costs for national mandatory returns, internal reporting and strategic decision-making. It covers patient-level costing, service line reporting and benchmarking, and ensures that costing intelligence is used to inform productivity analysis and improvement. The role does not hold responsibility for productivity reporting in its own right.

The post holder will develop robust costing information that enables the Group to understand the cost drivers underpinning productivity, identify opportunities and communicate meaningful costing insights to internal and external stakeholders.

They will influence and support senior managers, finance colleagues and clinicians to use costing data effectively for performance management, business analysis, benchmarking and decision‑making.

The role will improve the use of data and digital tools across Group Finance, including Power BI reporting and visualisation, to strengthen costing analysis, benchmarking and the use of costing information to identify and assess productivity opportunities.

Working with clinical and finance teams, the post holder will support the identification and clear communication of opportunities across the BSW Hospitals Group.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will lead the development and implementation of the Group's costing framework, ensuring that policies, methodologies, controls and governance arrangements are applied consistently across all organisations within the BSW Hospitals Group. They will provide expert interpretation of national guidance, oversee compliance with mandatory costing requirements and establish robust assurance processes to support the quality, integrity and auditability of costing information.

The role will be responsible for leading major costing programmes and coordinating activity across Finance, Informatics, operational services and external partners. This includes managing national costing submissions, overseeing the development and maintenance of costing systems, leading the implementation of new methodologies and digital solutions, and ensuring that data flows, processes and reporting arrangements remain effective, resilient and fit for purpose. The post holder will also represent the Group within regional and national costing networks and contribute to the development of best practice.

The post holder will provide professional leadership to the Costing team, including line management, workforce planning, performance management and staff development. They will build effective relationships with senior clinicians, managers and external stakeholders, provide specialist training and advice, lead change initiatives and support internal and external assurance reviews.

About us

We are proud to be part of BSW Hospitals Group - a formal partnership between Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. With a combined workforce of over 17, 600 colleagues, and budget of 1.6 billion the Group is united by a common purpose to deliver the best possible care to over 1 million people.

We are creating a health and care system that works with the people we care for, reducing the differences people currently face in access, experience and outcomes, improving the experience of our colleagues and tackling shared challenges like sustainability and finances. Every improvement we make across our Group will be guided by what creates the greatest benefit for our colleagues, our patients, our communities and our partners.

Job description

Job responsibilities

• 1. Act as the Groups specialist lead for costing and lead the development of the Group costing strategy, interpreting national requirements and determining the methodologies, technical approaches and priorities needed to improve the quality and value of costing information.
• 2. Establish the membership and operation of appropriate costing steering or assurance groups through which the Group can develop the use of costing information, including its application to productivity analysis, provide assurance and share best practice using appropriate frameworks and approaches.
• 3. Lead a continuous improvement process for service line reporting and patient-level costing, co-ordinating input from finance and service managers to review and challenge highly complex source information and produce regular costing information for planning and performance management.
• 4. Ensure that the Group meets national cost collection deadlines by co-ordinating the work of the Costing team with Informatics, service managers and finance colleagues in producing robust, accurate and auditable costing data.
• 5. Ensure that costing and service line reporting data is rolled out effectively and used widely across the Group to support decision-making and analysis, including cost improvement programmes and national initiatives.

Please see attached Job Description for further details.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• CCAB or CIMA qualified
• Significant post-qualification experience in a senior finance role
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

• HFMA membership
• Acute NHS experience

Experience

Essential

• Experience in NHS costing, including the National Cost Collection, and in using costing information to support productivity analysis and improvement
• Experience of costing and computerised accounting systems
• Proven record of strong performance and development
• Experience of managing staff, including objective-setting and training

Desirable

• Awareness of the current NHS agenda and challenges
• Experience of management accounting, cost accounting, financial planning and financial accounting in a large, complex organisation
• Experience of working with external costing partners, system suppliers or benchmarking organisations.
• Knowledge of NHS payment mechanisms, tariffs and clinical coding

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. .

Employer details

Employer name

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust

Address

GWH, RUH Bath, Salisbury District Hpsital

Bath, Swindon, Salisbury

SN3 6BB

United Kingdom