Associate Director of Contracts & Income
The post holder is a senior Contracting & Finance professional within Frimley Health, responsible for the overall management and Performance of the Contract & Income Department. They are responsible for efficiently leading and delivering: the Income and Contracting Strategy for the Trust, aligning with the Trust's clinical and corporate strategies and service transformation plans, and ensuring integrated income and activity plans, that form the basis for comprehensive and meaningful, performance and contractual management, at all levels. They will work across the organisation and with external Healthcare Partners to optimise Income recovery/performance and value for money requirements, focusing on patient outcomes and business needs.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will lead the Trust's Income and Contracting Strategy, ensuring alignment with clinical priorities, corporate objectives, and service transformation. They will develop integrated income and activity plans to support effective performance and contract management, working collaboratively across the Trust and with system partners to optimise income, deliver value for money, and improve outcomes.
Using expert knowledge of NHS finance, commissioning, and contracting, the role will lead complex place-based and system-level negotiations, supported by financial modelling and scenario analysis. They will ensure compliance with internal controls, audit requirements, and national regulatory frameworks.
The post holder will improve automation, analytics, and data quality within income reporting and contract monitoring, delivering clear, actionable insight through forecasting, variance, and trend analysis. They will interpret national policy and payment mechanisms, advise senior leaders and the Board on financial risks and opportunities, and represent the Trust in ICs and regional forums.
As a senior leader, they will build capability within the income and contracting team, contribute to the Finance Senior Leadership Team, lead high-value negotiations, ensure accurate statutory submissions, and support or deputise for the DPPC, CFO, and Deputy CFO.
About us
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.
Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.
We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.
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Job responsibilities
Act as deputy to the DPPC, providing senior leadership support and representation at Executive and Board level. Operate as a visible member of the Trusts senior leadership team, building strong internal and external relationships to deliver corporate strategy. Lead the negotiation, management and performance of the Trusts healthcare contracts, overseeing complex, time critical negotiations to manage financial risk and support delivery of the Trusts financial and strategic objectives. Provide effective operational leadership of the Contracts & Income Department, aligning resources to priorities and ensuring delivery of ICs and Trust annual contracts, plans, forecasts and statutory returns. Maintain robust activity and income forecasting, converting complex multi source data into actionable insight for senior leaders and system partners. Support achievement of all contract activity and income targets, provide expert advice on income transactions and commissioned budgets, and lead responses to policy and contractual changes. Contribute to the development and delivery of the Trusts forward financial and service strategy, providing high quality financial advice and information to the Director of Finance, Executive Team and Trust Board
Contracting Lead negotiation, codification and ongoing management of key healthcare contracts, managing complex multi partner relationships in line with DPPC criteria and Trust objectives. Ensure the Trust maximises all income opportunities, with robust systems in place to recover income due and investigate variances against planned activity, including caps and thresholds. Ensure commissioning by ICB and NHSE supports the Trusts strategic priorities and service developments. Oversee production of contract monitoring reports for commissioners and senior finance leadership, and provide expert advice on the financial impact of contractual performance. Ensure effective understanding and application of NHS financial and Standard Contract rules, briefing senior clinical and executive leaders as required, and keeping the DPPC informed of regulatory changes and implications. Work with the Medical Directors team to monitor and deliver contractual quality KPIs across ICB and NHSE commissioned services.
Financial Management Provide expert financial input on income and contracts across the Trusts annual financial cycle, including budget setting, forward financial planning and submission of Annual Financial Plans and NHSE returns. Ensure robust financial planning processes and models are in place to assess the impact of service performance, activity changes and reconfiguration proposals, challenging assumptions to support value for money decisions and major business cases. Promote a strong culture of financial performance management, providing high quality income and costing intelligence for monthly reporting to the Director of Finance, Executive Team and Trust Board. Maintain and update year end and forward projections, ensuring consistency between income, activity and I&E forecasts, and advise senior leaders on variances against plan, including the impact of contractual caps and thresholds.
Staff Management and Development Lead and coordinate the activities of the Contracts & Income Department to deliver agreed work plans, deadlines and service standards. Regularly review and improve the Finance Departments services to ensure they meet Trust priorities, drive efficiency, and maximise focus on value adding activities.
Person Specification
QUALIFICATIONS/KNOWLEDGE
* CCAB qualified or equivalent experience, with significant post qualified experience
* Extensive experience working within Contracts/Law or Finance/Business
* Proficient in IT
* Project Management Qualifications
* Masters/Post graduate qualification in Strategy/Law/Commercial/Procurement
SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES FOR ROLE e.g., communication, problem solving, leadership
* Strong leadership skills
* Excellent analytical skills with the ability to communicate outputs effectively and appropriately
* Strong interpersonal and communication skills
* Ability to effectively prioritise and manage a challenging and diverse workload
* Ability to build strong working relationships with a wide variety of personnel
* Experience in communicating effectively with staff, both verbally and in writing, including working with teams and communicating complex program scenarios clearly and concisely.
PROFESSIONAL/ SPECIALIST/ FUNCTIONAL EXPERIENCE
* Track record of efficiency delivery
* Contracting and commissioning experience
* Management and financial accounting
* Significant NHS accounting experience
* Detailed understanding of NHS Contracting, Planning and payment principles
PERSONAL QUALITIES (Disposition, interests)
* Works collaboratively with a democratic and inclusive management style
* Innovative and 'Can do' approach
* Resilient and demonstrates sustained high impact and personal credibility
* High degree of self-awareness and personal integrity
* Articulate
* Motivated
* Good motivator
* Leader
* Decisive
* Good listener
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.
£96,626 to £111,084 a yearSalary dependant on experience
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