Band 8b Senior Business Analyst - Income Reporting

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients. Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers' money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it's important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

Job overview: Reporting to the Head of Income, the Senior Business Analyst - Income Reporting (External) leads the development, management, and optimisation of the Trust Group's income reporting systems, with responsibility for the SLAM database and the accurate extraction, processing, and reporting of clinical activity data. The role ensures the timely and accurate realisation of approximately £1.9bn in clinical income, supporting statutory, contractual, and commissioner reporting requirements. As the technical lead for external income reporting, the post-holder produces and oversees commissioner income reports, contract performance analysis, statutory returns, and reconciliation processes, working closely with commissioners, operational services, informatics teams, and finance colleagues.

Main duties of the job:

• Lead the Trust Group's external income reporting function, ensuring the accurate and timely production of monthly SLA, commissioner, statutory, and financial reporting, in line with NHS Payment Scheme (NTPS) and contractual requirements.
• Oversee the development and optimisation of income reporting systems, including SQL-based data extraction, complex data modelling, forecasting.
• Lead the modernisation of reporting automation, and migration of reports to Power BI.
• Providing expert leadership in activity and income planning, commissioner negotiations, pricing and tariff interpretation, contract risk management, financial forecasting, and income maximisation initiatives.
• Ensure robust reconciliation processes between clinical activity, invoicing, and income received, while maintaining compliance with audit, year-end, and accounting requirements.
• Manage and develop the External Clinical Income reporting team (one direct report, two indirect), setting objectives, supporting professional development, and ensuring delivery against competing priorities.
• Deliver complex financial analysis, business cases, scenario modelling, and strategic advice to senior finance leaders, while representing the Trust at internal committees, commissioner meetings, and national income and pricing forums.
• Act as the Trust's subject matter expert on NHS payment mechanisms, commissioning processes, and income reporting, deputising for the Head of Income as required.

Person specification:

• Education and professional qualifications: Master degree (or equivalent), CCAB qualified accountant (or equivalent).
• Experience: NTPS / PbR knowledge/experience, extensive knowledge and understanding of NHS financial environment/income regime, annual planning experience, managing and developing staff/teams.
• Skills and aptitudes: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, sound knowledge and skills of all MS Office products and SQL management studios, advanced Excel skills, knowledge and experience in using Qlikview and/or Power BI reporting suite, able to interpret highly complex information and financial data to assess issues and anticipate problems and provide workable solutions.

Royal Free Shared Commitments: Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust shared Commitments.

Personal Qualities & attributes: Confident and assertive, able to produce work to a consistently high standard, able to work effectively as part of a team, self-motivated, sound time management skills.