Senior Business Support Officer (Education Finances) - INTERNAL ONLY

Job id: 084166. Salary: £37,332 - £42,099 per annum pro rata, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 08 February 2024. Closing date: 18 February 2024.

Business unit: IoPPN. Department: Mental Health and Psychological Sciences.

Contact details:Christine Woburn - Senior Business Manager (Operations. [email protected]

Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

The Department of Psychology, within the School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences (MHaPS) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London (KCL), is a practitioner training provider offering several Post Graduate Taught Programmes as part of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service transformation programme led by NHS England Workforce Training & Education (NHSE). The Department also provides a prestigious and highly competitive specialist three-year, full-time professional training Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Programme (DClinPsy) which confers eligibility to become a practising Clinical Psychologist.  

The training is funded by NHSE on the basis of commissioned trainee numbers who comprise staff from the NHS, local authority, and voluntary organisations who are part of the national mental health trainings collaboration.  

Due to the nature of the funding and the programme delivery structure, both the HR and financial planning for these programmes is highly complex requiring dedicated part-time administrative resource to work with the School Senior Business Manager (Operations), Programme Directors, Programme Managers and across diverse, multiple stakeholders. 

The post holder will take responsibility for creating and maintaining detailed annual budgets across all commissioned programmes (and other teaching programmes delivered across the School as required) ensuring reconciliation against funding streams, managing all salary calculations and recharges & other relevant financial transactions.  

The role would suit someone who is able to work independently, good with detailed budgeting, can effectively manage competing priorities, has good attention to detail and is able to build and maintain strong working relationships across the School/Faculty/University, the NHSE and other external stakeholders.  

The post holder should be committed to principles of culture, equality, diversity and inclusion and driving cultural change. 

This post will be offered on a part-time (60% FTE) indefinite contract.

• Create and maintain robust working systems and processes to allow effective and timely information gathering and budget preparation for all Commissioned Programmes (and other teaching programmes within the School as required).  
• Prepare invoicing schedule for KCL Management Accounts, allocating teaching income to appropriate activity codes, maintaining NHSE invoicing tracker & inform Management Accounts to ensure prompt invoicing. 
• Monitor expenditure on all programme budgets, ensuring staff are apportioned to correct activity code, and spending (pay and non-pay) is within budget.  
• Attend all programme Staffing & Financial meetings to contribute to and track new recruitment drives, contract extensions and variations, hourly paid lecturer (HPL) contracts 
• Regularly update the staff allocation tracker, and modify/improve the system independently as needed. 
• Responsible for NHS Partner staff recharges including raising POs, track invoice submission/receipt and payment with clear audit trail; problem solve where required; monitor the recharge budgets. 
• Maintain excellent communication and build strong working relationships with School Senior Business Manager (Operations), Programme Directors & Managers, KCL central offices & other staff, NHSE and other key external stakeholders to ensure the accurate and timely preparation of contractual documentation, financial information and the meeting of financial liabilities.  
• Escalate issues arising as appropriate to School Senior Business Manager (Operations), stakeholders and consult when necessary.  
• Forge relationships with colleagues in the School, Faculty and College, in order to contribute to process development and adoption of best practice. 
• Organise, and contribute to meetings with Programme Directors, Managers & School Senior Business Manager (Operations) to analyse budget information, income/cost reconciliations, prepare for new annual NHSE contracts and contract variations 
• Prepare all relevant papers for these meetings, presentations & briefing documents as required; take minutes and update actions  
• It is expected that the post holder will work with minimal supervision but will refer to their line manager for advice when appropriate 

General Duties

• Keep up to date with relevant training, policies, and processes. 
• Identify, implement, and continuously review data and processes to ensure delivery of responsibilities.  
• Work autonomously and collaboratively across the School’s PS Operations team, meeting own targets and setting standards for administrative procedures and processes within the School where appropriate.  
• Actively contribute to relevant School and Faculty committees, meetings and networks as required.  
• Facilitate an inclusive culture and ethos working across the IoPPN community. 
• Spend up to 15% of time contributing to cross Faculty / University initiatives and professional development (in discussion with line manager). 

This job description reflects the core activities of the post. There may be changes in the emphasis of duties and it is expected that the post holder recognises this, adopting a flexible approach to work and willingness to participate in training.  Day-to-day activities and responsibilities will be determined by the commissioned programmes priorities and needs and will inform specific objectives and tasks to be undertaken by post holders.

Essential criteria

1.       Strong knowledge and skills of business operations in a higher education (HEI) or similar environment acquired through relevant posts, demonstrating development through progressively more demanding work/roles. 

2.       Working knowledge and experience of financial & other systems and processes, in a HEI or large organisation (including the applying of regulatory policies and procedures). 

3.       Experience of creating, maintaining and managing complex budgets. 

4.       Proficient IT skills (in particular Excel, Word, and Outlook) and experience of utilizing digital technology in day-to-day work. 

5.       Proven good communication and interpersonal skills in order to receive, understand and relay information of varying complexity to various groups. 

6.       Effective at working independently, and as part of a team, able to take own initiative & decisions with a proactive approach to problem solving. 

7.       Good task management skills and ability to work under pressure in a busy environment with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail. 

8.       Ability to understand and analyse data and produce an output.  

Desirable criteria

1.    Keen interest in higher education business operations in the UK and an awareness of current challenges in the sector. 

2.   Experience of servicing committees/meetings to high standard