Deputy Directorate of Finance - Productivity & Efficiency | NHS England

This role is offered on a secondment basis for up to 9 months with a proposed end date of 31 March 2027.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly skilled, experienced and motivated Deputy Director of Finance to join our dynamic team in the East of England to lead all aspects of productivity and efficiency support for systems in the region. As a Band 9 Deputy Director of Finance – Productivity and Efficiency, you will play a crucial role in supporting the region and systems in the delivery of their productivity and efficiency ambitions to recover core productivity and achieve financial sustainability. The role holder will work collaboratively with senior subject matter experts across systems and within the regional team and will deputise for other members of the regional Senior Finance Team as required.

We plan to interview 15/16 June 2027 via Teams

Key responsibilities

• Ensure the provision of expert, evidence based financial and business advice to regional and national colleagues.
• Hold the primary financial relationship with systems and organisations and establish effective operating models working in a matrix way with the wider team to provide the appropriate level of support and escalation when needed.
• Provide leadership and strategic direction for work assigned to the wider Financial Oversight and Delivery team. Working via a direct line management or matrix approach as required.
• Lead financial planning, performance management, assurance and oversight for a number of systems – across revenue, capital and cash.
• Working closely with regional subject matter expert colleagues to help systems and organisations to deliver their financial targets and service plans, through the provision of oversight, advice and support and in accordance with national frameworks and policies.
• Ensure all national reporting requirements are complied with to support month end and year end processes.
• Ensure that appropriate advice is provided to systems / organisations on national approaches to financial planning and performance for both capital and revenue.
• Ensure rigorous appraisal of system and organisational financial plans to ensure viability and that financial risks have been soundly evaluated and mitigated.

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 announcedthat 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.

Main duties continued

• Support the delivery of regional financial targets ensuring that systems and organisations deliver value for money, financially sustainable and efficient plans, supported by effective cost improvement programmes utilising regional benchmarking, learning and best practice.
• Ensure robust processes are in place to monitor financial performance to maintain a clear and up-to-date view of the financial position.
• Provide robust forecasts, risk predictions and mitigations.
• Ensure that systems, processes and information flows provide effective early warnings of potential failures in service quality, financial management, partnerships and performance. Take a risk based approach, in line with national frameworks to intervene, anticipate and avoid such failures.
• Play a key role with regional colleagues and work with them to tackle performance risks and issues, ensuring that support to improve is provided early.
• Provide expert advice to inform formal regulatory interactions and/or interventions where necessary. Lead financial intervention processes in the event of material concerns about financial performance and financial risk within national frameworks.
• Support national teams on planning, reviewing and agreeing cash requirements with systems and organisations within national policy.
• Oversee and assure the financial planning and redesign of services within the region, particularly large scale and complex service reconfigurations, ensuring business cases are subject to rigorous financial appraisal, are financially viable and provide value for money.
• Represent NHS England and its interests at national/public meetings/events as required, acting independently, decisively and effectively in sensitive and political situations. At times this involves delivering difficult messages and contentious information to high level audiences potentially in a difficult environment.
• Promote the highest standards of finance professionalism within the region including the development and implementation of new initiatives.
• Live the NHS values, lead with compassion and promote and foster these values in the wider team. Support the priorities of the Finance
• Directorate adopting a flexible approach to ensure all priorities can be delivered from within available resources.

These responsibilities require a qualified finance professional with a minimum of 8 years of post-qualification experience. The role is part of the East of England region Senior Finance Team and therefore the role holder will be required to engage with and drive wider regional finance initiatives and support staff development. The role holder should also have excellent interpersonal, communication and analytical skills, be comfortable dealing with uncertainty and the have the ability to handle conflict in a positive and professional manner.

You must meet this criteria to apply for this role

• CCAB Qualified Accountant with minimum 8 years post qualification experience
• Proven senior leadership skills with strong evidence to demonstrate gravitas, influencing and strategic thinking at a senior level
• Evidence of leading and delivering key business processes across multiple systems/organisation/matrix teams to ensure delivery of key regional targets that are critical to support the overall financial position of the region
• Experience of robust stakeholder management to ensure acceptance of regional proposals across our systems including examples where differing views have been represented
• Evidence of line management experience to ensure a team perform at a high level to meet the exacting challenges required.

We welcome informal enquiries, please contact philipmorris@nhs.net to discuss any questions you may have about the role or to hear more about our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.”

This advert closes on Sunday 31 May 2026