NHS Finance Competencies - Skills Development Network

1 Title NHS Finance Competencies Finance Skills Development by the NHS, for the NHS. ii NHS Finance Competencies 2014. Contents Introduction 01. How the Competencies work 02. Using the Competencies alongside the KSF 04. How to use this document 05. Indicative Professional Distinctions Map 06. The Five Core Competencies - Detail Team Working, Managing & Leading 08. Business Partnering 10. Governance & Managing Risk 12. Managing Relationships 14. Using IT 15. The Seven Specific Technical Competencies Detail Financial Accounting 16. Management & Business Accounting 20. Commissioning & Contracting 23. Capital Accounting 26. Payroll & Pensions 28. Internal Audit 30. Financial Systems 32. NHS Finance Competencies 2014. Introduction Background and research Output A year into the newly configured NHS landscape, Finance Skills The output of the research is a new Finance Competency Framework Development (FSD) commissioned research to identify the Competencies which responds to these changing needs and reflects the requirement of which will enable Finance individuals and teams to excel over the next Finance teams to become business partners with a broad strategic and few years.

2 Commercial, as well as a financial focus. The research involved over fifty Finance , procurement and informatics The new Competencies focus on softer Skills as well as purely technical professionals from a representative sample of Clinical Commissioning Finance Skills . Establishing credibility quickly, communicating persuasively, Groups (CCGs), Trusts, Foundation Trusts (FTs), Commissioning Support listening, presenting with impact, working collaboratively and of course Units (CSUs), Area Teams and other organisations. Additionally sixteen leading effectively are all identified as fundamental to the Finance Directors of Finance and Chief Financial Operators were interviewed. professional's skill set. Findings Relevant to all Not surprisingly the research identified that effective Finance employees The Competence Framework is intended to help every member of the in the future will be very different to those of the past.

3 We will need Finance Team from band 1 to band 8d including Finance students and to be more business focused, more entrepreneurial, more creative and apprentices. Whether you have ambition to progress or whether you more relationship oriented than ever before. One of the Finance directors simply want to do a great job where you are, the Framework is intended summed it up effectively, we will no longer be the accountant in a to help you to plan your own Development . If you are a manager it will management team but business managers with accounting Skills . also help you to write job descriptions and person specifications and to recruit, appraise and develop your staff. Future Focused Finance The work is intended to compliment the important work currently being conducted by the Future-Focused Finance Team - in particular the Skills and Strengths work stream.

4 In our research the main changes identified for Finance were as follows: To: a professional advisory & facilitating role where Finance To move from: a bean counting, information providing, staff are seen as problem solvers people who can think transaction processing role . outside the box & add value to healthcare . To: becoming managers with a broad, business perspective, To move from: being competent Finance professionals . working as business partners and service improvers with a real understanding of the NHS and of the healthcare landscape . To: a customer led, external focus with the Skills to develop To move from: a predominantly inward focus . effective, collaborative partnerships with professionals from across the service . NHS Finance Competencies 2014 1.

5 How the Competencies Work The Framework is split into Core and Specific Technical Competencies . The five Core Competencies apply to all NHS Finance Staff. Each of the seven Specific Technical Competencies will apply to staff in particular departments or teams. Hence most members of staff will have six Competencies which are relevant to them (five Core and one Specific). More senior staff will need more than one Specific Technical Competence and hence may need a total of seven or eight Competencies in all. The Competence Framework is shown as follows: Management Financial & Business Accounting Accounting Core Competencies Payroll & Capital Pensions Team Working, Managing Accounting & Leading Managing Relationships Business Partnering Governance & Managing Risk Using IT.

6 Internal Audit Financial Systems Commissioning & Contracting 2 NHS Finance Competencies 2014. The Framework is intended to cover staff from bands 1 though to 8d. It is not intended to cover the full set of Competencies required by Directors of Finance , Chief Operating Officers and their most senior Deputies. Other frameworks and documents have been developed for this group ( the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework, the FSD document: The Role of the Finance Director in a Patient Led NHS, and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA's) document;. Statement on the Role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in CCGs). Each competence is split into a number of levels. These levels are cumulative so that competence at level 4, assumes competence at levels 1, 2 and 3.

7 The levels roughly equate to one another and will tend to reflect similar grades of staff across the Competencies (see table below). Larger organisations may find that they have more jobs than there are levels of competence. This is to be expected, as the purpose of the Competencies is to create a list of all the Skills , knowledge and behaviours that people need to be able to perform across the function as a whole and not to create a job description or person specification for every job. Smaller organisations may find that jobs straddle the levels, as one person needs to cover a wider range of activities. The levels within the Framework equate broadly to the NHS Agenda for Change bands as shown below: Competency Level Agenda for Change Bands 1. 1-3.

8 Finance Technicians 2. 4 6. Foundation Professionals 3. 7 8a Experienced Professionals 4. 8b d Experts & Emerging Leaders It is important to note that whilst this is a helpful guide, it needs to be treated with caution as there are significant differences between what is expected of the different bands across both organisations and geographical regions. NHS Finance Competencies 2014 3. Title Using the Finance Competencies alongside the KSF. For organisations using the knowledge and Skills framework, the Finance Competencies look at the knowledge and Skills required within each functional area in Finance and as such, provide a different perspective to the KSF which is more generic. The Finance Competencies therefore provide you with detailed information about Development across and within each functional area of Finance .

9 The following tables illustrate which of the KSF dimensions are most likely to apply to each of the Finance Competencies . This will help organisations needing to create KSF Outlines. More detailed matching of the levels of the KSF dimensions to the Competencies can be found in Appendix 5 (see page 33). Core Competencies KSF dimensions Team Working, Managing & Leading G1, G2, G5, G6, G7, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6. Managing Relationships C1, C4, C5, C6. Business Partnering G1, G2, G4, G5, G7, C1, C4, C5, C6, IK2. Governance & Risk Management C3, C4, C5, C6, IK3, G2, G3, G4, G7. Using IT EF1, IK1, IK2, IK3, C3. Specific Competencies KSF dimensions Financial Accounting IK1, IK2, G3, G4, G5, G7. Management & Business Accounting IK1, IK2, IK3, G2, G3, G4, G5, G7.

10 Capital Accounting IK1, IK2, G2, G3, G4, G5, G7. Payroll & Pensions IK1, IK2, G2, G4, G5. Internal Audit IK1, IK2, IK3, G1, G2, G4, G5, G7. Financial Systems IK1, IK2, IK3, G1, G2, G5, G7, EF1. Commissioning & Contracting IK1, IK2, G2, G3, G4, G5, G7. 4 NHS Finance Competencies 2014. How to use this Document For the individual For the manager For the organisation Getting a job Recruitment and selection Ensure workforce competence Makes people more marketable' by helping Use the Competencies to evaluate jobs, to You can use competency frameworks to them to develop their Competencies and fulfil shortcut the writing of job descriptions track employee Competencies , so that if their potential. and person specifications and to help write particular jobs or tasks become available, adverts for job vacancies specifying the key those employees with the appropriate Provides help in writing CVs/application attributes being sought.