Contracts Manager

Main area Finance Grade NHS AfC: Band 8a Contract Permanent: We welcome secondment applications. Please refer to the Secondment Pledge and state in your application if interested. Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 213-CORP-8232489

Employer King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Coldharbour Works Building Town London Salary £66,274 - £73,496 per annum including High Cost Allowance Salary period Yearly Closing 28/09/2026 23:59

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£2.1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

The Contracting function is embedded within a very well-led Finance Department that offers fantastic opportunities for training and career growth. The team provides a highly effective and responsive contracts management service, ensuring compliance with the National NHS Standard Contract Terms and Conditions, identifying and mitigating contractual risks (to minimise Trust’s exposure), whilst delivering its operations in line with organisational values and objectives.

Day-to-day team function involves developing, negotiating and agreeing NHS patient-treatment contracts on behalf of the Trust, providing ongoing contract management by proactively monitoring and managing contract performance to ensure maximum income recovery (on income generating contracts) and value for money (on expenditure contracts).

The successful candidate will bring a high level of expertise to the management of the Trust’s contracting process and act as the main interface with Commissioners. The role will ensure Trust compliance with all contractual obligations, interpret, advise and implement national guidance in respect of the National Tariff. Furthermore, the post-holder will manage complex and challenging discussions with internal and external stakeholders regarding a range of commissioned activities, lead team projects end-to-end, support tender development and engage commissioners in local service developments.

Main duties of the job

NHS Contracting

• Develop and implement a Trust Contracting Strategy in conjunction with the Head of Contracts and colleagues across the Trust.
• Be the Trust’s expert on commissioned Services, The National Tariff and the NHS Operating Framework ensuring that key staff are fully briefed, and implement, where required, changes mandated by national guidance.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with commissioners and ensure responses to any activity or performance issues raised are both timely and coordinated.
• Responsible for the production of Contract proposals and that subsequent sign off with commissioners is in line with national timetables, ensuring that funded activity levels are robust and enable the Trust to meet national Access targets.
• Ensure timely production and distribution of monthly contract monitoring reports to Commissioners and, working with Operational leads, to respond to issues from commissioners on contract performance.
• Develop contract workshops for key Trust user groups to improve the levels of understanding, increase transparency and improve engagement of NHS Contracts.
• Manage and co-ordinate communication over policies and performance targets between commissioners and Trust clinical services, including understanding the clinical implications of managing particular services and making judgements about when activity management is appropriate.

Please refer to the job description for full details.

Working for our organisation

The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. In June 2026, we launched our new strategy for 2026-31. Our vision is to transform healthcare and we have agreed six strategic ambitions to help us improve care for patients and the working lives of our staff.

Our six strategic ambitions are deliveringhigh-quality patient care; creating a great place to work; leading pioneering research, innovation and education; building strong and successful partnerships; providing timely and efficient care; and ensuring long-term financial sustainability.

We have also agreed four new organisational values – Caring, Collaborative, Inclusive, Innovative – and these underpin everything we do, and how our teams interact with the patients under our care.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Financial Aspects of Contracting

• To ensure that the Trust’s contract income is maximised by comprehensive negotiation with commissioners.
• To ensure that all possible opportunities to recover income are identified and invoiced for.
• To ensure that contract over performance income is received by the Trust.

External Communication

• Manage the day-to-day relationships and communication with a range of Commissioners & Providers and initiate formal review meetings to ensure that all contractual issues are raised and resolved promptly and effectively.
• Manage the provision of complex information to commissioners relating to contract activity performance.
• Assess and action commissioner requests on information and contract performance and manage the process of responding in a timely manner.
• Maintain links and close communication with other London Teaching hospitals and act as the main interface for the Trust on issues that are common to all Trusts such as the implementation of The National Tariff.

Internal Communication

• Manage and coordinate communication with clinical services in respect of any implications of NHS guidance and the Operating Framework. To be the Trust’s strategic lead on developing robust contract monitoring tools for the NHSE contract.
• Manage and coordinate communication with clinical services in relation to requests for information on Trust services and the treatment of individuals. To prioritise information requests and ensure that responses are set to an appropriate timescale.
• Ensure that Managers are implementing the Trust’s Contracting Strategy and are kept up to date with the Trust’s contracting and funding processes including an understanding of the implications of commissioning and resource constraints on the management of clinical activity. To be responsible for ensuring that regular contract workshops are held with key clinical service users.
• Responsible for developing specifications for data reporting to be provided by the Contract Information team and the modification of specifications in the light of discussions with commissioners.
• Manage the production of internal and external reports to agreed deadlines and quality standards.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Educated at a minimum to Degree level or equivalent
• Master’s degree and/or evidence of continued personal development plus have advanced theoretical and practical knowledge, experience and expertise in NHS commissioning, strategic and staff management
• Project Management Certification

Experience and Knowledge

• Extensive experience in acute contracts management
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of NHS Contracting/Commissioning and the legal framework in which it exists, particularly the Aligned Payment Incentive (API) contract
• Experience of technical, financial and information issues with an in-depth understanding of NHS financial issues relating to funding policies and the ability to analyse the impact of any financial rebasing exercises required by the DH
• Experience of data management including analysing complex information and production of reports
• Extensive knowledge and in depth understanding of the management and delivery of healthcare services in an acute setting

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King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Annual Reports and Other Corporate Publications

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King's College Hospital is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.