Job overview
North East London (NEL) has a richly diverse population of around two million residents, with significant health inequalities and some of the fastest demographic growth in the country. BHRUT serves around 40% of this population and spends over £1bn of revenue and approximately £50m of capital each year. The Trust is looking to further improve value for money from this expenditure and drive the organisation to a sustainable, breakeven financial position.
You will provide compassionate leadership within the finance function and more broadly as a senior leader within BHRUT and the NEL Integrated Care System. They will drive delivery of financial sustainability through an uncompromising focus on value for the benefit of patients and residents. As a Finance function we are aiming to provide outstanding customer focused services, maximising opportunities from collaboration and digital.
The Deputy CFO for Financial Strategy, Insight and Delivery is responsible for:
1. Developing and maintaining the Trusts 5-year sustainable financial improvement strategy, based on evidence of waste.
2. Converting this insight into robust delivery plans through the Finance Business Partners, working with operational, clinical and corporate teams to deliver recurrent financial improvement.
Main duties of the job
It is increasingly important that we are patient/customer focused and guided by evidence – an approach that is well developed by some of the most successful organisations in the world. This means leveraging value from big data, converting it into actionable intelligence and developing the compelling case for change which engages our leadership teams, Trust Board and system partners in a way that drives positive and successful change. The Trust is implementing a new Electronic Patient Record in November 2025 putting BHRUT on the same platform as other providers in NEL which will materially increase the volume, complexity and speed of data but will equally increase the opportunity and demand for data driven insight.
This is a highly specialist area requiring a Deputy CFO with advanced analytical understanding, sound judgement and excellent communication skills to guide the organisations sustainable financial improvement journey. Through the Financial Strategy and Insight team we will replace ad-hoc and externally supported pieces of work such as drivers of deficit, instead being able to answer the question, how much do we waste, where and why? This knowledge will drive improvement in productivity which is crucial to sustainable finance given existing NEL underlying deficits and population growth of 300,000.
Working for our organisation
We’re an organisation that is getting better and better and our improvements are driven by a determination to deliver care we’re proud of and our patients are happy with. We’re no longer in special measures; we’ve opened two new theatres at our Elective Surgical Hub in King George Hospital (KGH); and, in recognition of our progress, we’ve been shortlisted for Trust of the Year at the Health Service Journal Awards.
We operate from two main sites – KGH in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford. We have two busy emergency departments with more than 330,000 people visiting them last year. We’re campaigning to secure the £35m we need to transform the A&E at Queen’s and get rid of corridor care.
Our patients are benefitting from our Women’s Health Hub in Ilford; an Ageing Well Centre in Hornchurch; and Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC) at Barking Community Hospital and at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub.
These CDCs are open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and are providing an extra 94,000 scans a year.
The majority of our 8,000 staff – who come from 146 different countries - live in the three diverse London boroughs we serve and are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. Many can work flexibly and more than 400 of them are on our Ofsted accredited apprenticeship programmes. We’re proud to be a London Living Wage employer.
We’re looking forward to introducing an electronic patient record that will be transformative for our staff and beneficial for our patients.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For further information on this role, please see the attached detailed Job Description and Person Specification.
The person specification listed below is not the full specification requirements for the role. Please ensure you review the full specification on the job description prior to submitting your application.
Applicants are advised to read all the information on the advert and the supporting information before completing and submitting an application. As you complete your application please ensure you clearly demonstrate how you meet the criteria in the person specification for this post by adequately completing the supporting information section of the application form.
All new staff appointed at the Trust are subject to a probationary period.
Person specification
Education / Qualification
Essential criteria
1. Current qualified member of a recognised professional accountancy body (CCAB/CIMA) or equivalent experience.
2. Evidence of post qualification commitment to continuing professional development.
3. Educated to masters level or equivalent experience.
Desirable criteria
4. Business Case qualified (i.e. CIPFA Better Business Case Practitioner or equivalent).
5. Training in Quality Improvement methodology.
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
6. Able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, making judgements on financial risk, drawing conclusions, to advise and influence at very senior levels both internal and external to the Trust.
7. Able to develop successful strategies and plans, engaging effectively with stakeholders, championing a data driven approach
8. Can organise programmes of work that deliver across a broad range of complex activities.
Experience / Knowledge
Essential criteria
9. Experience of leading complex change in an acute Trust (or similarly complex organisation) to deliver benefit.
10. Can demonstrate achievement of delivery within difficult financial environments.
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
If you have problems applying, contact
Address Queen's Hospital
Rom Valley Way
Romford
Essex
RM7 0AG
Telephone 01708 435000 5936