Finance Business Partner - Income

Job overview

Responsible for managing income, National Tariff implementation, and reference costs; monitoring and reporting on NHS Clinical Income; preparing financial analysis and reports; overseeing the development of income and costing systems; and managing the Income and SLR Accountants team.

Main duties of the job

• Responsible for assisting the Head of Income and Costing in providing expert advice on all issues relating to Income, the National Tariff and reference costs.

• Ensure National Tariff guidance is implemented accurately within the Trust and activity is priced correctly using national or local prices.

• Monitoring and reporting on income, both internally and externally.  Dealing with queries from Divisions and Commissioners in relation to pricing, activity and income.

• Working with operational teams and the information department to ensure all activity data is collected.

• Monitoring of all NHS Clinical Income to ensure all income is correctly invoiced and reported in the finance ledger including accruing for income yet to be billed.  Responsible for ensuring invoices for clinical income are paid and, working with the Accounts Receivables team, ensure income is received promptly.
• Assessing the impact of tariff changes and providing feedback to both               financial and non-financial managers.  Providing analysis, including written        explanation, on actual and potential changes to income.
• Liaising with Divisions on the financial impact of planned service changes.  Ensuring that planning and costing systems are continuously improved.  Responsible for the continual development and implementation of National Tariff guidance.
• Day to day management of the Income and SLR Accountants.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Commissioner Service Level Agreement (SLA) – Preparation and Monitoring

• Responsible for the calculation of activity and cost proposals for commissioners, in accordance with national guidance, collecting and forecasting activity and costs.

• Providing financial information direct to Commissioners and Trust management as required.

• Support the Head of Contracts in all elements of contract negotiation on the financial elements of SLAs with commissioners. This will require assisting the Head of Contracts on the negotiating of the baseline SLA at the start of the financial year and having full responsibility of monitoring activity against the SLA during the year to identify under- or over-performance.

• Continual development of SLA monitoring systems, interpreting, and implementing National guidance.

• Ensuring that activity and finance systems are “fit for purpose” in addition to other monitoring and analysis tools. This encompasses improving the accuracy and quality of the activity information submitted to Commissioners and clinicians.

• Being a Trust lead on the National Tariff and responsible for training finance and non-finance managers on the financial impact of the National Tariff and the significance of good accurate clinical coding.

• Ensure all clinical income is invoiced correctly and invoices are settled in a timely manner.

• Prepare income data to agree quarterly closedowns with Commissioners.

• Assist with the development of Commissioners plans and ensure they are loaded into the CSL accurately.

Trust Reporting

• Oversee the preparation of the NHS Clinical Income submission to the monthly internal Trust reporting, advising on accruals for income not yet billed.

• Preparing monthly Revenue Statements and reports to the Trust Board on NHS Clinical Income and Activity.

• Analysing trends and assessing the cause of variances from plan.  Providing regular reporting to Managers and the Board to understand changes in activity and income.

• Preparing the Trust’s NHS Clinical Income budget for the year and agree profiling of budgets.

Divisional Reporting

• The preparation of reports to the Divisional Teams identifying variances against plan.

• Answer complex and highly sensitive queries from the Divisional Management teams on activity and income.

• Setting baselines against which Divisional performance will be monitored.

Service Line Reporting

• Ongoing reviews of local costs comparing with the national averages and analysis of the variances. Identifying areas where our costs significantly vary from the National average and determining drivers.

• Ensure that divisional teams and The Trust Board are provided with regular service line management reports and effectively communicate with Senior Managers and Clinicians the components within service line reports.

• To ensure the continual improvement of service line reporting and speciality trading accounts to support performance monitoring and strategic and operational decision-making within the Trust.

• Oversee the production of monthly SLR reporting.  Responsible for the development of SLR systems to ensure Trust management teams understand their costs in relation to income.
• Oversee the preparation of the Trusts annual Reference Costs return, ensuring it accurately reflects the activity and costs of relevant services within the Trust.

Analysis

• Ensure National Tariff guidance is implemented accurately within the Trust and activity is priced correctly using national or local prices.

• Monitoring and understanding policy from NHSE, Monitor and other relevant organisations as it relates to income and planning.  Ensuring relevant information is disseminated in a timely manner.
• Assessing the impact of tariff changes.
• Developing local prices for services outside the National Tariff such as critical care, overseas and private patients in line with national guidance.  Ensure price lists are updated and distributed appropriately.
• Preparing financial models and forecasting future income.
• Preparing the Trust’s income budget and setting baselines against which Divisional performance will be monitored.
• Prepare monthly / quarterly submissions to monitor on behalf of the Deputy Director of Finance.
• Input into the month 9 submission and year end reporting.

Other Income

• Responsibility for billing and monitoring of other clinical income including Provider to Provider arrangements.
• Ensuring that tariffs are set and income billed for private patients and overseas visitors.

General duties

• Day to day line management of the Contracts Accountant, Income Accountant and SLR Accountant, including recruitment, training and appraisals.
• Attend monthly Finance and Information meetings with Commissioners and provide reports and analysis as requested.
• Deputise for the Head of Contracts and provide support on contracting issues.
• To oversee the effective recruitment, training and development of staff within the department, ensuring that each member of staff has regular appraisals, a personal development plan and adequate support.
• To ensure that financial transactions are undertaken in accordance with Standing Financial Instructions and Standing Orders. The postholder is responsible for informing the Director of Finance or Deputy of any breach of SFI's or SO's and reporting incidences of fraud.
• To ensure all sensitive information is distributed in line with Information Governance policies and procedures.
• To undertake any other duties as reasonably requested.