Senior Financial Controller | South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust

An exciting new opportunity has arisen for an experienced financial accountant/controller looking to enhance their career. The post holder will be one of two Senior Financial Controllers supporting the Head of Financial Services to ensure that all internal and external reporting is completed in an accurate and timely manner.

The post holder will be an important leader within the Finance Directorate and in the wider organisation, responsible for Financial Accounts, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Treasury Management & Cashiers, Capital Accounting/Planning, Charitable Funds and Financial Systems

The post holder will gain a variety of experience including the opportunity to influence change and strengthen financial control at a leading Mental Health provider within the NHS. We are a dynamic team and with the objective of delivering a ‘right first time’ service, with a customer focus. We are committed to the Trust’s values of being Respectful, Open, Collaborative, Compassionate and Consistent.

The finance team are now looking to enhance how it operates, working smarter, more efficiently and effectively, minimising manual tasks. We are committed to embedding automation in the way we do things, so that we can improve our reporting times and concentrate on strengthening our roles to support our operational service managers in the services they deliver, to ultimately improve patient care and ensuring we deliver best value for money.

The postholder is responsible for all aspects of financial control within the financial services team to ensure that the team provides a quality financial service for the Trust including:
• monthly and annual NHS financial reporting requirements including statutory financial returns
• ensuring internal control procedures, including reconciliations are followed.
• ensure the timely and accurate processing of transactions and completion of control checks to enable the Trust to provide key variance analysis on trends and forecasts
• day to day management of the financial services function including Accounts Payable, Treasury, Financial Accounts and Financial Systems teams
• managing and developing staff
• responsible for delivering world class financial systems
• supporting annual budget and long-term financial planning

Technical accountancy, I.T literacy and staff management skills are crucial. We are looking for an individual who can bring previous experience and enthusiasm to our established team. You will be a CCAB qualified accountant (passed finalist/qualified), preferably with previous NHS experience. You will have strong leadership qualities, communication, presentation and analytical skills and have experience of dealing with difficult situations in a professional manner.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.
• Lead the production of the Trust’s statutory annual accounts, providing comprehensive procedure notes, high quality working papers and a detailed plan and timetable to all finance and appropriate non-finance staff to ensure completion of the accounts in line with local and national deadlines.
• To produce the year end timetable and procedures to enable the production of the annual accounts within the Department of Health and Social Care timetable and in accordance with statutory and accounting (GAAPs and IFRS) requirements, as well as ensuring compliance with the General Accounting Manual (GAM) both as part of year end and for any in year changes to accounting standards.
• Ensure all finance staff have up to date knowledge of the current accounting standards and that the Trusts accounts are compiled in line with them.
• Be responsible for the quarterly Agreement of Balances exercise, including submission of templates to national deadlines, organising statements to be sent out and reconciliation of values to the ledger.
• To be responsible for the month end and year end processes as required across a broad range of financial accounting tasks. This will involve producing schedules for both external statutory accounts, returns to the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, ICB etc.
• Work with the Trust’s external auditors during any audit of the statutory accounts and ensure that responses to queries raised by the auditors are dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner.
• Lead on the analytical review of the SOFP/SOCF and Capital areas of the accounts ensuring that highly complex information (which may be contentious and sensitive) and financial concepts are interpreted and conveyed clearly and persuasively to internal and external stakeholders.
• Be responsible on explaining complex auditor queries to non-finance staff involved in the audit to ensure timely responses to information requests.
• Liaison with counter fraud, internal and external audit to implement best practice as recommended to the Trust. This will involve the timely implementation of audit recommendations and liaising with colleagues to ensure audit actions are communicated and implemented within the Finance Department and across other departments of the Trust where applicable.
• To be operationally responsible for the preparation and management of the balance sheet, cash flow, working capital and capital financial metrics and the reporting and submitting of these both internally and externally. This will involve identifying risks and appropriate mitigating strategies (including cash) where applicable and conveying this complex information in a clear and persuasive way.
• Support the Head of Financial Services in monitoring the Trust’s cash flow, by providing forecasts on expected future cash flows, and ensuring that the Trust has sufficient cash to meet its expected outgoings.
• In conjunction with the Head of Financial Services and Deputy Director of Finance, to manage the Trusts cash and balance sheet in order to meet the internal solvency ratios, including cash holding, net assets and working capital ratios.
• Lead on the administration, authorisation and receipt of Public Dividend Capital (PDC) / New Business Loans relating to various capital schemes ensuring that they are accounted for correctly.
• To be the finance lead in respect to treasury management procedures ensuring accurate and timely cashflow reports and supporting treasury management activities in conjunction with the Senior Accountant – Treasury
• Building up stakeholder relationships with bank, key debtors and creditors and VAT consultants. This includes, but is not limited to responsibility for ensuring there is cover for sending payment runs, adding new payment approvers, bank mandates are up to date and being an administrator/approver for the Trusts bank accounts.
• To be operationally responsible for the production, implementation and review of detailed financial policies and procedures for the financial accounting functions carried out in the Trust. Be responsible for ensuring all financial procedures are updated in line with Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions and widely communicated across the Trust.

This advert closes on Sunday 28 Sep 2025