Overview
Contract Type: 0
Salary: £68,852 – £79,638 per annum
Partner Org: Surrey and Borders Foundation Trust Partnership
Job overview
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust are seeking an ambitious, strategic and values-driven Senior Finance Business Partner. This senior leadership role is suited to a highly motivated finance professional who can influence decision-making, improve financial performance and deliver value for money.
Working closely with Directors, senior operational leaders and clinicians, you will provide expert financial leadership, analysis and business partnering support to Corporate Services and Trust-wide programmes.
Reporting to the Associate Director of Financial Management, you will be responsible for leading financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting for your portfolio, ensuring robust financial information, insightful analysis and effective financial governance to support the delivery of the Trust’s strategic priorities. You will also lead on productivity and value-for-money initiatives, using benchmarking and performance data to identify improvement opportunities and support financial sustainability.
As a trusted adviser and critical friend, you will provide constructive challenge, support service transformation and productivity improvements, and lead the financial appraisal of business cases and investment proposals. You will also act as deputy to the Associate Director of Financial Management as required and provide leadership and development support to junior finance colleagues.
Main duties of the job
As Senior Finance Business Partner, you will:
- Provide a comprehensive, proactive and high-quality financial management and business partnering service to Corporate Services and Trust-wide initiatives.
- Lead annual planning, budget setting, forecasting and month-end reporting for your portfolio.
- Produce clear, accurate financial and performance reporting, highlighting risks, opportunities and actions
- Act as a trusted adviser to Directors and senior managers, providing expert financial advice and constructive challenge to support informed decision-making.
- Lead financial appraisal and modelling for business cases, ensuring they are affordable, financially robust and demonstrate value for money.
- Support the identification, development, delivery and monitoring of Cost Improvement Programmes, ensuring benefits are measurable and sustainable.
- Drive productivity and value-for-money initiatives through benchmarking, analysis of financial, activity and workforce data, and service improvement programmes.
- Support Trust-wide planning, transformation and financial recovery programmes by providing expert financial analysis, modelling and business partnering support.
- Provide leadership and development support to finance staff.
- Deputise for the Associate Director of Financial Management as required.
Candidates who are shortlisted will be invited to undertake an:
Assessment centre (virtual) on Tuesday 18th or Wednesday 19th August 2026
Interviews will take place on Tuesday 25th August 2026
Working for our organisation
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of mental health, learning disability, neurodevelopmental and drug and alcohol services in Surrey and North East Hampshire. We support people of all ages and are passionate about providing high quality care that is delivered at the right time as close to home as possible to help people recover and stay well.
We are one of the top 10 mental Health, Learning Disability and Community Trust to work for nationwide. Our Trust is an inclusive and supportive employer that offers a wide range of staff networks, flexible working, free parking and excellent health and wellbeing support. We also provide a wide range of opportunities to help staff develop and progress.
Surrey is a beautiful county lying just 30 minutes away from Central London and from the South Coast. Our historic market towns and bustling districts are enveloped in wonderful countryside, and our excellent road and rail networks bring the rest of the country within easy reach. For international travel, both Gatwick and Heathrow airports are nearby.
Please note that we reserve the right to close posts as soon as sufficient applications are received.
Regrettably, due to UK Home Office requirements we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles.
Applicants must have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the role.
We look forward to receiving your application!
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please check the job description & person specification document for more information on the requirements for this job.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Consultative Committee Accountancy Bodies (CCAB) or Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) – fully qualified
- Evidence of continued professional development
Desirable criteria
- A further qualification in management or a Master’s degree is desired
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of annual planning, budget setting cycles, cost improvement plans and the NHS financial framework.
- Experience of deputising for a senior finance lead, including leading meetings and delivering outputs to strict deadlines.
- Experience of presenting highly complex financial and non-financial information to non-financial colleagues including Senior Managers and Executives.
- Experience of analysing highly complex financial and activity information and evaluating the impact on business performance.
- Experience of completing financial appraisals for business cases and providing effective business partnering support to services.
- Extensive specialist knowledge of accounting standards and principles and the ability to interpret, apply and explain them in non-routine situations to senior managers and clinicians.
- Experience of leading, motivating, managing and developing a team.
- Ability to lead discussions at senior team meetings and make effective contributions to the strategic decision-making process.
We are seeking to enrich the diversity of our Trust to better reflect demographic needs of the populations we serve and to enhance the skills of our workforce. We actively encourage applicants with underrepresented personal characteristics to apply for this role if you match the job description. Please note that you are not restricted from applying for this role if you do not identify with these characteristics and all applicants will be considered fairly against the job description.
As a flexible working and friendly organisation, we want to ensure that you can work in a way that is best for us, our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or any other flexible working patterns.
Gender Pay Gap Action
Women in our Trust are under-represented in some senior grades. We are therefore encouraging women to apply for posts at 8A and above.
Sponsorship
Regrettably, due to UK Home Office requirements we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
Application numbers
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
