Capital AccountantNHS

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has become available for a Capital Accountant to join our well established Finance Team.

The successful applicanthas lead financial responsibility for monitoring and managing the Trust's annual capital programme and medium-term capital investment programme, comprising a significant portfolio of capital schemes and associated capital resources.

Applicants must be a professionally qualified accountant (CIMA, CIPFA, ACA, ACCA or equivalent) along with having significant post qualification experience in financial management / accountancy including substantial experience of working in a complex NHS financial environment.

Please note, artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting ideas and experiences of others or generated by AI as your own) applications may be withdrawn.

**In person interviews will be held in Brierley Hill on Thursday 22nd October 2026**

Main duties of the job

West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive, and accessible workplace for everyone where our colleagues feel empowered to succeed.

Each person plays a vital part to ensuring our organisation meets the differing needs of our communities ultimately enabling us to save lives. We acknowledge that a workforce that reflects the communities that it serves provide better patient care and we are therefore looking for self-motivated, enthusiastic people from all backgrounds that care about making a difference to our patients.

We are committed to diversity and inclusivity at all levels. We are proud to have maintained Disability Confident Leader status and as part of our commitments to this we guarantee to invite all applicants who meet the essential criteria for a role to attend assessment or interview. If you have a disability or learning difficulty, and prefer to disclose it, please feel free to do so in your application. You can also contact the Recruitment Team via email at [email protected] if you wish to have a confidential discussion. We use this information, with your permission, to ensure you are fully supported during the recruitment process.

The Trust is proud to hold the Silver Award for a Dyslexia Friendly workplace and are committed to supporting our Armed Forces community and have signed up to the Step Into Health initiative. We welcome applications from Armed Forces Veterans and Service leavers.

Job description

Specialist advice, guidance

Provide technical financial / accounting advice and guidance to Directors, Senior Managers, project managers and the FIG on all aspects of capital accounting.

Review all capital expenditure to ensure the correct accounting treatment is applied.

Ensure VAT is recovered where eligible, in accordance with current VAT legislation liaising with specialist VAT advisors as required

Liaise with external auditors and other professional advisors with respect to transactions whose nature requires highly specialist technical advice with regard to accounting treatment.

Lead the development and review of the Trust's capital accounting framework, policies, procedures and financial controls, identifying areas requiring change as a result of developments in accounting standards, NHS financial policy, regulatory requirements, audit findings and organisational priorities.

Develop recommendations for changes to capital financial governance and present these to the appropriate senior management and governance forums for approval

Provide input and advice on capital accounting, investment options and modelling in the appraisal of new capital schemes.

Provide capital Project Managers and other non-finance staff with advice and guidance on the capital ordering and capital accounting processes.

Capital Planning

Develop and maintain the financial framework and timetable for capital planning, business-case development, approval, monitoring and year-end delivery.

Lead the development of the Trust's annual capital programme and medium-term capital investment plan, assessing competing investment requirements, affordability, available capital resources, delivery capacity, financial risks and the alignment of proposed investments with Trust strategy.

Responsibility for setting, maintaining and monitoring the financial profile of the capital programme within the overall capital resource allocation approved by the Trust.

Formulate and recommend changes to capital budgets, expenditure profiles and forecasts within delegated authority

Implement NHSE annual and medium-term capital planning guidance requirements

Capital Reporting

Analyse highly complex financial, accounting and business information relating to capital investment proposals and provide expert recommendations on financial, accounting, affordability and resource implications.

Maintain oversight of the financial position of the Trust's portfolio of capital schemes and advise senior management on affordability, prioritisation and delivery

Prepare capital expenditure analysis for the FIG and for external reporting to NHSE via monthly monitoring returns.

Trust Capital Expenditure Control Totals

Identify emerging financial risks within the capital programme and determine corrective action, escalating only matters requiring senior management or executive decision, to ensure the Trust remains within its Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL)

Financial Management and investment decisions

Evaluate complex capital business cases, challenge assumptions, assess risks and benefits, and advise senior managers and FIG on preferred options.

Challenge capital project managers, budget holders and senior managers where proposed expenditure, project scope, financial assumptions, forecasts or delivery timescales create financial, affordability or capital-resource risks. Require appropriate corrective action within the post holder's delegated authority and escalate unresolved matters to the appropriate senior management.

Develop financial models and sensitivity analysis to support major capital investment decisions.

Provide recommendations to senior management and the FIG regarding prioritisation, phasing, deferral or acceleration of capital investment where available resources are insufficient to meet all identified requirements.

Maintain Capital Accounting records

Maintain and develop the Trusts Fixed Asset Register (FAR) including the setting up of new assets, and ensuring that the records are complete, up to date and accurate.

Maintain the Trusts right-of-use (leased) asset accounting records ensuring that these reflect the Trusts current lease commitments.

Review all capital schemes and reclassify from assets under construction to in use assets raising and posting journal entries to the financial ledger.

Review all planned disposals and reclassify as assets held for sale.

Account for the disposal of assets in the FAR ensuring all necessary documentation has been completed and approvals obtained. Ensure disposal proceeds, if applicable are received and that the disposal is properly accounted for in the financial ledger and the FAR.

Ensure that the accounting records for fixed assets comply with those set out in the capital accounting manual and International Accounting Standards (IAS) 16, 36 and 38 and IFRS16 and that any changes to the accounting standards are correctly applied.

Responsible for carrying out monthly reconciliation of the Fixed Asset Register to the General Ledger.

Be the primary contact for the Trusts yearly asset verification exercise. Provide inventories of fixed assets to Departmental Managers annually for asset verification purposes and ensure that these are returned and actioned on a timely basis. Provide advice on the impairment of assets and ensure the relevant IAS is applied.

Run depreciation calculations monthly, ensuring that they are correctly calculated and in line with the Trusts depreciation policy before posting to the financial ledger. Responsible for producing and managing forecasting of the depreciation calculations for use in the Trusts financial planning cycle, ensuring the integrity of the data.

Lead on the annual revaluation of the Trusts estate either by a desktop review using indexation or formal full revaluation (minimum five-yearly). Calculate any impairments and movements to and from the revaluation reserve, draft and post the revaluation amounts to the financial ledger as necessary.

Meet Project managers periodically to discuss project progress and the impact of any delays.

Input of monthly fixed asset journals to the finance system to ensure the ledger agrees to the Fixed Asset Register. This will include but is not limited to items such as additions, disposals, depreciation, impairments, indexation, and revaluations.

Input of journals to remove or add values from the Revaluation Reserve and the reconciliation of the Revaluation Reserve to the finance system.

Ensure assets acquired from charitable funds or donations are properly accounted for as such and that the donated income is recorded correctly in the financial ledger.

Reconciliation of capital balance sheet control accounts and reconciliation of any control balances and suspense accounts as directed by the Chief Financial Accountant.

Produce working papers as necessary to support the Trusts reporting requirements.

The post-holder is required to act independently and use own initiative to make changes where there are opportunities to make process improvements in relation to either capital planning, reporting or business cases

Responsible for completing the capital elements of the statutory accounts and associated returns. Prepare clear and accurate working papers for use by External Audit.

Complete capital asset financial information for the monthly NHS returns, annual statutory accounts and financial planning returns ensuring that work is completed on a timely basis so that internal and external reporting deadlines are met.

Lead on liaising with Internal Audit on any internal capital audits and reviews.

Liaise with external audit on any capital queries for the year end statutory accounts.

Other activities

Maintain the Business Case Tracker so that all business cases and authorisation dates are recorded and presented to FIG

Instruct and train other staff in topics where particular skills are held.

Take responsibility for meeting own objectives and of won development needs

Maintains confidentiality and implementing data protection legislation requirements including information governance.

Undertake project work including acting as the Finance Lead as appropriate.

Providing financial management support for capital projects.

Undertake any other duties as directed by the Finance Director which are consistent with the nature and grade of the job.

Communication and working relationships:

Provide authoritative specialist financial advice to Executive Directors, senior managers, capital project leads, budget holders and capital investment governance groups.

Present complex financial analysis, business-case evaluations, accounting judgements, financial risks and recommendations to senior management and governance committees.

Use developed influencing, negotiating and persuasive skills to challenge capital expenditure proposals, financial assumptions and project forecasts where they are inconsistent with Trust financial objectives or NHS requirements.

Please see supporting information of the job description & person specification for full details

About us

If this position involves a regulated activity it will require an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check. The disclosure will, where appropriate to the role, include information against the Independent Safeguarding Authority barred lists for working with children, adults or both

Where a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is required for the post, all applicants are required to cover the cost of the check.

The cost of a Standard or Basic check is £22.76 and is payable to our online provider at the time that the DBS application is submitted.

We do endeavour to respond to all candidates on an individual basis. Therefore we do ask for your co-operation and patience whilst the short listing process takes place. After the closing date please ensure you check your emails (including junk mail) regularly as contact is usually made via this method.

We are proud to offer flexible working options to support our colleagues to have a greater choice in when, where and how they work. During your interview we will explore this with you and discuss your individual needs and how this could be facilitated for this role to benefit patient experience, service delivery and the work-life balance of colleagues.