Senior Management Accountant

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust; Brierley Hill; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Senior Management Accountant to support the Finance Business Partner and deliver comprehensive management accounting services across Trust services. You will prepare timely management accounts, forecasts, and variance analyses for Budget Managers, contributing to year-end processes and financial governance.

The role requires an accounting degree and ongoing CCAB progress, with experience in NHS finance and team

Qualifications

• Currently actively working towards a recognised CCAB qualification with recent examination success.
• Experience of working to deadlines and with confidential material.
• Familiar with current accounting policies.
• Experience of ESR.

Responsibilities

• Prepare budgets and forecasts for Budget Managers across Trust services.
• Enter budgets into the finance systems once agreed, ensuring accuracy.
• Coordinate forecast and budget adjustments and required documentation.
• Prepare monthly monitoring reports including management accounts and year-end forecasts.
• Meet with Budget Managers to discuss position and provide guidance on financial issues.
• Post required journal entries monthly and maintain backup documentation.
• Ensure accruals and prepayments are accurate with supporting papers.
• Provide financial and business support for service changes and cost recovery.

Skills

Communication

Interpersonal skills

Teamwork

Planning and scheduling

Driving licence

Education

Degree or equivalent

CCAB qualification in progress

Job description

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Management Accountant

The closing date is 13 November 2026

Following an internal promotion an exciting opportunity has become available for an experienced Senior Management Accountant to join our well established Finance team.

The principal duties for this post are to assist the Finance Business Partner in the provision and comprehensive financial management accounting service to Budget Managers across a specific range of Trust services. You will prepare timely and accurate management accounting reports and year-end forecasts for presentations to and discussions with Budget Managers.

Applicants must hold a related degree or equivalent relevant qualification and must be currently working towards a recognised CCAB qualification along with having significant demonstratable management accounts experience including NHS Finance

Please note, artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting ideas and experiences of others or generated by AI as your own) applications may be withdrawn.

Main duties of the job

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive, and accessible workplace for everyone where our colleagues feel empowered to succeed.

Each person plays a vital part to ensuring our organisation meets the differing needs of our communities ultimately enabling us to save lives. We acknowledge that a workforce that reflects the communities that it serves provide better patient care and we are therefore looking for self-motivated, enthusiastic people from all backgrounds that care about making a difference to our patients.

We are committed to diversity and inclusivity at all levels. We are proud to have maintained Disability Confident Leader status and as part of our commitments to this we guarantee to invite all applicants who meet the essential criteria for a role to attend assessment or interview. If you have a disability or learning difficulty, and prefer to disclose it, please feel free to do so in your application. We can also contact the Recruitment Team via email at [e-mail] if you wish to have a confidential discussion. We use this information, with your permission, to ensure you are fully supported during the recruitment process.

The Trust is proud to hold the Silver Award for a Dyslexia Friendly workplace and are committed to supporting our Armed Forces community and have signed up to the Step Into Health initiative. We welcome applications from Armed Forces Veterans and Service leavers.

About us

If this position involves a regulated activity it will require an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check. The disclosure will, where appropriate to the role, include information against the Independent Safeguarding Authority barred lists for working with children, adults or both

Where a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is required for the post, all applicants are required to cover the cost of the check.

The cost of a Standard or Basic check is £26.26 and is payable to our online provider at the time that the DBS application is submitted.

We do endeavour to respond to all candidates on an individual basis. Therefore we do ask for your co-operation and patience whilst the short listing process takes place. After the closing date please ensure you check your emails (including junk mail) regularly as contact is usually made via this method.

We are proud to offer flexible working options to support or colleagues to have a greater choice in when, where and how they work. During your interview we will explore this with you and discuss your individual needs and how this could be facilitated for this role to benefit patient experience, service delivery and the work-life balance of colleagues.

Job responsibilities

To assist the FinanceBusiness Partner to:

Compile and maintain the budgets andforecasts for their respective areas, liaising with Budget Managers to ensurethe correct application of the Trusts budget setting guidelines and to ensurethat budgets are set within the available financial resources and are finalisedwithin the Trusts agreed timetable;

Input allbudgets into the Trusts finance systems, once they have been agreed, ensuringboth accuracy and completeness;

Co-ordinateand reconcile forecast and budget adjustments in their respective areas andcomplete required documentation for all agreed environments;

Inaccordance with the monthly timetable, prepare accurate monthly monitoringreports for their areas, including management accounts, year-end forecasts,commentary, staffing and projects and deal in the first instance with queriesarising.

Meetmonthly with Budget Managers to discuss their reported position-comparingbudgets against actual expenditure, activity and manpower and providingdetailed guidance and advice on complex / contentious financial issues.

Prepareand post required journal entries each month and maintain back-up documentation;

Ensuremonitoring reports include accurate accruals and prepayments supported bycomprehensive working papers;

Analysefinancial data, prepare exception reports for Budget Managers on variances fromplan, including developing recommendations for corrective action and supportthe Budget Managers in the implementation and monitoring of agreed financialrecovery plans;

Provide financial and business supportand advice to Budget Managers including costing up the implications of anyservice changes, cost efficiency plans, service developments and ProjectInitiation Documents;

Create new reports to meet the changingneeds/additional requirements of Budget Managers;

Ensure that all Budget Managers are aware of and are working to the requirements set out by the Trust in its SFIs,Standing Orders, Scheme of Delegation and other financial procedures andpolicies. Proactively assist in the training of Budget Managers and other Truststaff in financial management and in the interpretation and application of theTrusts financial governance framework;

Ensure that all appropriate invoicinginstructions are produced both promptly and accurately and that all income isreceived in line with budgets and processes are in place to achieve any incomegeneration targets;

Ensure that payroll transactions areaccurately coded and reported, where necessary in liaison with Budget Managers,and other relevant staff. This includes liaising with HR and the ESR team toagree staff coding changes and to ensure that Financial Reports accuratelyreflect operational and Trust Workforce Plans;

Assist with maintaining within thefinance system an appropriate coding structure which meets the needs ofmanagement and create new codes within this structure on an ad hoc basis, asrequired. Create new links between existing codes within this structure on anad hoc basis, as required. Ensure that all appropriate members of staff haveaccess to accurate and up to date finance coding information;

Support the Debt Management function byproviding information to support claims against other organisations/debtorinvoices, and where appropriate liaise with debtors to resolve queries thatprevent settlement;

Support the Creditor Payment function byassisting the payments team to resolve queries that prevent payment and to codepayments correctly;

Supervise the work of the ManagementAccountant(s) for their respective area, including allocating/delegating tasks,monitoring performance and providing instruction where necessary and where particularskills and knowledge are held;

In addition, the post-holder will berequired to:

Deputise for the Finance BusinessPartner as required within their respective area;

From time to time perform other tasks ofa similar level as requested/agreed with the Finance management team and carryout special projects with other staff as required;

Attend meetings with senior managers andother staff, as appropriate;

Liaise with other members of the FinancialManagement team and act on their behalf during their absence in relevant areas;

Notify the Deputy Director of Financeand the Head of Financial Management at the first opportunity whenever items ormatters of significance arise;

As directed by the Chief FinancialAccountant, support the Financial Accounts process by maintaining/clearingControl and Suspense Accounts as required and by producing working papers aspart of the Final Accounts process;

Work in accordance with the documentedprocedures, financial regulations and Standing Orders of the Trust. Assist withthe periodic review of all such procedures to ensure that they continue toremain accurate and relevant. Create and maintain methodologies for undertakingroutine procedures within the finance system, especially with regard toyear-end closedowns;

Contribute suggestions for improving theefficiency of the Trust;

Be responsible for their professionaldevelopment and participate in the Trust Performance Review process. Thisincludes attendance at mandatory training sessions and any other session ortraining module which line management believes will contribute to personaland/or team growth.

Communication & WorkingRelationships

Create and maintain effective working relationships withother individuals within the Finance Directorate, other Officers and Managerswithin the Trust, and members of external organisations including internal andexternal auditors;

Work with other Officers and Managers within the Trust whenundertaking costing and tendering exercises, both for sources of Income andareas of Expenditure. For Incomegeneration, this will include preparing data for presentation to a third partyand being an integral part of the tender presentation team;

Actas Finance Directorate representative on committees / projects, as required;

Supervise, support and motivate Managements Accountsstaff within the Team

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge

• Ability to communicate effectively
• Good interpersonal skills
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to plan and schedule work to adhere to procedures and deadlines
• Full UK Driving Licence.

Experience

• Experience of working to deadlines and with confidential material.
• Familiar with current accounting policies
• Experience of working with ESR

Qualifications

• Currently actively working towards a recognised CCAB qualification and with a record of recent examination success

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

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust