Senior Lead, Finance and Planning Business Partnering

The Secondary Care, Primary Care, Community Services, Vaccinations and Screening Finance and Planning Business Partnering team in the NHS England Finance and Planning Directorate is now recruiting for a Senior Finance Lead

This is a fantastic opportunity to be at the heart of work to support the NHS.

work closely with government to agree NHS funding

ensure the NHS lives within its annual budget

decide how to distribute the funding to the different NHS services and parts of England

support innovative programmes that improve the care and experience of NHS patients or people using NHS services

set out the financial and performance priorities the NHS should be delivering each year

report how much the NHS has spent on providing services each year

explore how the NHS can make the best use of its money;

look at how spend on building or equipment can improve the care and experience of people using NHS services

consider how nationally we use these resources to improve healthcare outcomes, reduce inequality, improve health and support the NHS

support internal decision-making and prioritisation

As a Senior Finance Lead, you will work as the bridge between NHS England's directorates and the specialist finance teams to produce high-quality financial reporting and advice that drives value for money and improves patient care.

The team offers high profile, fast-paced projects. This requires adaptability, rigor and innovation and provides exciting development opportunities for those developing their careers in the NHS, health or the public sector.

Below are the types of skills and experience that we are looking for. Even if you feel you only meet some of the criteria, we encourage you to apply.

As a Senior Finance Lead you will play a pivotal role in:

building strong relationships with senior leaders across the organisation;

building and leading a diverse, inclusive and high-performing team; and

using your own and your team's financial and planning expertise and knowledge to support delivery of the directorate and programmes' objectives.

You will be expected to work in a matrix fashion across the SPCVS team, with specific duties and responsibilities reflecting team priorities. You should expect to have a significant part of your role focusing on supporting the Chief Operating Officer Directorate (with sub-teams including Corporate Estates, Legal, Governance & Inquiries and People & Organisational Development), the Medical Directorate and Performance & Delivery Directorate. so will need to have or build a knowledge of the operations and policy objectives of these areas, with a focus on those that you will directly support.

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.

Please see attached job description for further information about the responsibilities of this role.

Interested in applying and want to find out more about our team and the work we do?

Please email Neil Lester on neillester@nhs.net or Duncan Watson on duncanwatson@nhs.net you would like to discuss.

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

Please see attached job description for further information about the responsibilities of this role.

Interested in applying and want to find out more about our team and the work we do?

Please email Neil Lester on neillester@nhs.net or Duncan Watson on duncanwatson@nhs.net you would like to discuss.

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

• Must hold a CCAB or CIMA professional accountancy qualification and have extensive relevant post-qualifying experience
• Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area

• Finance Partnering techniques and best practice and how to implement within a partnering team
• A clear understanding of how finance adds value to the wider organisation and how your role contributes to that
• Financial performance management and value for money at a strategic level
• Budgeting, costing, and forecasting techniques

• Leading the consolidation of financial and management reporting, assessing options, and making recommendations to deliver well-controlled and "single source of the truth" financial processes and reporting methodologies
• Leading at diverse levels to achieve the timely and accurate completion of specific financial objectives including annual budgets and monthly forecasting and reporting, and supporting areas of technical specialism such as income, capital accounting and VAT
• The NHS planning process - either or both of national commissioning and collection or local planning in response to the national commission
• Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups

Values

• Commitment to equality of opportunity, focussed on removing barriers to full participation and values diversity and difference
• Embrace change, viewing it as an opportunity to learn and develop
• Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values
• Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others

• Must hold a CCAB or CIMA professional accountancy qualification and have extensive relevant post-qualifying experience
• Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area

• Finance Partnering techniques and best practice and how to implement within a partnering team
• A clear understanding of how finance adds value to the wider organisation and how your role contributes to that
• Financial performance management and value for money at a strategic level
• Budgeting, costing, and forecasting techniques

• Leading the consolidation of financial and management reporting, assessing options, and making recommendations to deliver well-controlled and "single source of the truth" financial processes and reporting methodologies
• Leading at diverse levels to achieve the timely and accurate completion of specific financial objectives including annual budgets and monthly forecasting and reporting, and supporting areas of technical specialism such as income, capital accounting and VAT
• The NHS planning process - either or both of national commissioning and collection or local planning in response to the national commission
• Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups

Values

• Commitment to equality of opportunity, focussed on removing barriers to full participation and values diversity and difference
• Embrace change, viewing it as an opportunity to learn and develop
• Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values
• Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Leeds/London or (any other NHSE sites are consider)

Leeds/London

LS1 4AP

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Leeds/London or (any other NHSE sites are consider)

Leeds/London

LS1 4AP

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)