Associate Director of Planning, Productivity & Costing, Band 8c

Associate Director of Planning, Productivity & Costing, Band 8c The closing date is 08 April 2026

The primary purpose of this role is to provide effective support to the Trust in delivering financial sustainability and in the provision of accurate, timely, engaging information around financial sustainability and productivity.

This is an exciting, fast paced role within a small productivity and efficiency team within finance. The team provides the assurance of the savings programme, alignment of savings targets, monitoring of the programme, provision of benchmarking tools and design and communication of up-to-date productivity information at all levels within the organisation, as well as providing the business planning rigour for the Trust.

The role is also responsible for the costing function of the Trusts ensuring that annual returns are accurately completed and using the outputs to support the development and usage of Service Line Reporting to help inform decision making across the Trust.

Additional working pattern details: Flexible working available.

The proposed interview date is: 23rd April.

Main duties of the job Productivity and efficiency

The post holder's primary focus will be on identifying areas for improvement and implementing best practices to achieve cost efficiencies without compromising the quality of patient care. The post holder will collaborate closely with senior leadership, service leads, and stakeholders to develop and execute comprehensive action plans that address financial, operational, and cultural challenges.

Planning

The post holder will lead the business planning process for the Trust, working across the professional leads to ensure all elements of the organisation proactively participate in the process. The post holder will present updates and the final plan to the programme board and, where necessary, to sub committees of the Board and to the Trust Board.

The post holder will be the key point of contact across the health system to ensure the Trust is proactively engaging in the system wide planning process.

Costing

The post holder will oversee the costing process for the Trust, working with the Head of Costing to fulfil the annual costing returns and the use of Patient Level Costing information to develop and implement Service Line Reporting (SLR) across the Trust. They will work with operational professional leads to support understanding and use of costing and SLR information to support decision making. The post holder will present updates on costing and SLR to the Finance & Resources Committee as needed.

About us We take pride in placing people at the centre of everything we do, working together as a united team. Driven by a shared ambition to continually grow, develop, and learn, we recognise and value every contribution. By combining our experience and skills, we not only support our vibrant, diverse communities, but also support one another. With a team of over 9,000 employees, we are proud to be the largest employer in Gloucestershire and rank among the top 10 largest Trusts in the South West region. By joining our Trust, you will benefit from an excellent package that includes exclusive benefits, flexible working opportunities and the chance to gain valuable experience in one or both of our innovative hospitals.

As well as generous annual leave allowance, you will have access to the excellent NHS pension scheme, competitive bank rates, discounts at local shops and restaurants, access to two on site nurseries, discounted public transport, reward and recognition and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Job responsibilities Key Responsibilities

• Day to day oversight of business planning.
• Day to day oversight of the Financial Sustainability Programme from a financial point of view.
• Ensure the Trust has access to benchmarking, GIRFT and any other tools to help generate efficiency plans.
• Facilitate effective clinical and professional dialogue ensuring change is based on evidence and strong professional leadership.
• Lead the team to identify opportunities to enhance productivity and optimise operational efficiency across the organisation.
• Develop the costing and SLR approach across the organisation ensuring that the outputs are used to inform decision making.
• Collaborate with divisional and directorate leads to identify opportunities for productivity improvement, performance and operational efficiencies across all areas of the Trust. This will include supporting colleagues to refine existing transformation and change plans to consolidate opportunities into robust plans, establishing and/or translating metrics and improvement analytics to add value and link with Trust established performance monitoring systems.
• Lead the team and support Directors, General Managers, Clinical Leads and other colleagues with the development and implementation of initiatives that relate/contribute to productivity, efficiency and cost reduction.
• Collaborate with divisional leadership teams, directorate leads, clinicians, and other stakeholders to identify areas of inefficiency and waste and develop plans to deliver improvement opportunities.
• Provide regular updates and reports to the Executive Team on the progress of the service change, productivity and efficiency plan, highlighting achievements, challenges, and recommended adjustments as needed.

Professional Development, Education and Training

• Professional knowledge acquired through degree or equivalent experience.
• Specialist knowledge acquired through post graduate courses and/or experience to masters level.
• Leadership qualification or equivalent experience.
• Highly analytical and numerate.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Member of a professional accountancy body e.g. ACA, CIMA, ACCA is essential.
• Proven experience in leading quality improvement initiatives within healthcare settings.
• Formal training or certification in Quality Improvement Methodologies e.g. IHI Model for Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma, or NHS Improvement QI training.

Management and Leadership

• Act as a senior role model for compassionate, inclusive and improvement focused leadership.
• Promote a culture that values learning, reflection, and the continuous pursuit of excellence.
• Leverage external networks, partnerships and thought leadership to inform local innovation.
• Work flexibly across the hospital and wider group to ensure resources are targeted where they can have greatest impact.
• Lead with integrity and empathy, encouraging ownership, accountability, and professional growth.
• Provide clear direction and day to day support to transformation team members and programme staff.
• Line management responsibility for a multidisciplinary team, with a strong focus on individual development and performance.
• Support staff development through coaching, structured feedback, and regular appraisals, tailored to individual needs.
• Ensure that team members feel empowered to lead and innovate, with access to ongoing learning and professional development opportunities.
• Promote a psychologically safe, inclusive and equitable working environment that supports wellbeing and fosters a culture of trust and collaboration.
• Champion continuous improvement within the team, modelling curiosity, learning, and positive challenge.
• Significant evidence of chairing and leading successful meetings.

Planning and Organisation

• Lead and support in the translation of national / local external planning requirements into GHFs annual plan.
• Lead the team to work across corporate services and divisions to ensure a signal and unified planning process encompassing finance, people, activity, operational and change / improvement elements.
• Proactively project manage the design production of the Annual Plan by analysing the requirement and setting out and publicising the timeline for what needs to be done by whom and when.
• Responsible for ensuring project documentation is of high quality and accurately recorded on relevant systems.
• Secure the input of senior staff from across the organisation into the planning process and make clear to them their expected contributions and the format they will be made in.
• Analysis of highly complex and conflicting contributions to plans into a clear written style for the intended audience Board, Executive team or commissioners.
• Responsible for identifying any risks or issues ensuring mitigations are in place to monitor and resolve.
• Ensure the Director for Finance and Planning, who is the executive sponsor for plans, is briefed on progress and any difficulties. Ensure he or she signs off plans before submission.
• With advice from the trusts communications team to design active dissemination, providing written material and contributing directly to communications.
• Present the planning process and plans verbally and in writing to various audiences including senior staff, other staff and service users.
• Be aware of developing best practice in business planning across the NHS and social care.
• Evaluate success of business planning process and content and make changes for future plans.

Communications and Working Relationships

• Lead, present and manage highly complex, sensitive and challenging and often contentious information to the organisation . click apply for full job details