Details

Reference number

425635

Salary

£111,916 - £121,143

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 2

Contract type

Permanent

Type of role

Finance
Senior leadership

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information

Location

Edinburgh, Glasgow

About the job

Job summary

Are you ready to shape the future of health and care services in Scotland?

We are seeking an exceptional leader to take on the high-profile role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Health and Social Care. This is a critical position at the heart of government, where your strategic insight and financial expertise will directly influence the vision, planning, and delivery of health and care services in Scotland.

Job description

Responsibilities

Reporting directly to the Director General and Chief Executive of NHS Scotland, you will:

Lead on the development and delivery of revenue and capital budgets, as well as finance plans, whilst providing advice to the Accountable Officer and Scottish Ministers in relation to both.
Establish and oversee a sound effective framework of financial governance, control, risk management and mitigation.
Manage and actively promote collaborative and single system working to ensure best value and optimal use of resources.
Provide necessary advice, support and challenge to Health and Social Care Directorates (HSCD), NHS Boards and Integration Authorities.
Work with HSCD, NHS and Integration Authorities, to develop sustainable and balanced financial plans.
Develop constructive relationships with Chief Executives, Directors of Finance, Chief Officers, and Chief Financial Officers, which promotes transparency, and supportive challenge and with the Director General and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.
Develop strong and trusting relationships within DG HSC and across Scottish Government, particularly with the SG Chief Finance Officer and Scottish Exchequer.
Be a member of the Health and Social Care Management Board, and also an active member and participant in both the Exchequer, and Infrastructure Investment Boards.
Have budgetary responsibilities in relation to the Health and Sport Portfolio which has an annual revenue budget of over £21 billion and annual capital budget of c£1b.
Have oversight and financial management of allocation of funding and spend by HSCD Directorates and 22 NHS Boards, including both revenue and capital budgets
Lead the Health and Social Care Finance Directorate which has c78 FTE and an annual budget of c£6m.

Key Priority Areas

As Chief Financial Officer, you will be responsible for financial planning, delivery and reform for the HSCD. This will include:

Having oversight and management of the revenue and capital budgets and funding, whilst also playing a leading role in establishing, planning and delivering the actions required to manage our financial (capital and revenue) outturn, supporting and advising the Portfolio Accountable Officer and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (HSC) Directorate and NHS Scotland. This will be achieved via, working closely with HSC Directors, particularly the Chief Operating Officer and the NHS Boards.
Providing leadership to NHS Directors of Finance and building a supportive and constructive relationship with NHS Board Chief Executives. This will include providing direction and advice to NHS Boards in relation to financial planning monitoring their performance, taking appropriate action where performance is not in line with agreed plans and providing regular reports and advice to the Director General & Chief Executive of NHS Scotland in relation to NHS Board financial performance.
Having an oversight and responsibility for the capital programme for health and social care, ensuring that there is effective whole system planning, continuous risk assessment, and development of local and national investment plans aligned to the mitigation of key risks and priorities.
Putting in place arrangements to support the Scottish Government year end accounts process and approval of the NHS sub consolidation certificate.

You will have a personal responsibility with regard to finance, efficiency and best value derived from the budget responsibility delegated from the DG Health and Social Care for the Directorate of Health Finance. You will ensure:

The highest standards of financial management are met and deliver value for money from Scottish Government fund.
Compliance with governance and control requirements as outlined in detail within the Scottish Public Finance Manual - Scottish Public Finance Manual
You will utilise a wide range of financial information to underpin sound decision making and the full implications of Managing Public Money are considered within your area of budget responsibility.

As part of the leadership cohort in Health and Social Care Directorates, you will work to deliver improvements in support of the wider strategic priorities of the DG family via:

Effective reporting and tracking of budget and expenditure against Portfolio priorities and of NHS Board performance against their financial plans.
Applying a balanced approach to dealing with financial risk and championing opportunities for innovation, reform and improvement.
Working across Directorates to define priorities for spend and intervening pro actively to redirect resourcing, including identifying opportunities to deliver activity at a DG level.
Undertaking detailed reviews of business plans, support DG and ministerial priorities, including reviews of Portfolio Operating Costs (POC) budgets.
Working with the Chief Operating Officer to ensure alignment of NHS Board delivery and financial planning and reporting.

You will play a full role as part of the senior leadership cohort of health and Social Care Directorates, and across Scottish Government. The size of resourcing afforded to the DG family will make you a key figure in engaging and addressing the broader challenges and opportunities presented across government, including supporting the Permanent Secretary.

You will undertake specific actions to drive, build and nurture advancements in equality by actively role modelling inclusive behaviours across your Directorate and more widely across Scottish Government, championing an inclusive culture. The actions will include:

Building relationships through race allyship and mutual mentoring understanding barriers in the workplace from individuals that are impacted by them and supporting individuals career development.
Policy approach enabling and providing support for your Directorate and wider Portfolio to publish high quality equality statement for the budget. You will champion an inclusive approach to the budget process by ensuring that budget decisions take into account the need to address health inequalities and the barriers faced by people with protected characteristics.You will ensure the Equality Budget Statement for health and Social Care is integrated and considered as part of the wider budget process.

You will be responsible for developing and maintaining a medium-term financial framework, and medium to long term capital investment strategy, by providing advice to the DG and Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Ministers and securing NHS Board engagement and support from wider SG officials. In particular:

Develop an effective working relationship with Audit Scotland and support their programme of work including the NHS Scotland overview report and responding on behalf of the HSC Directorate to Audit Scotland recommendations as they apply to Health and Social Care Finance.
Ensure the priorities identified in the 15-box grid, (including future iterations) are embedded in all NHS Boards with clear action plans and regular report of progress.
Ensure that the Finance Delivery Unit provides support to NHS Boards to achieve financial balance and provides advice to National Planning and Performance Oversight Group (NPOG) on areas of concern.

Person specification

Success Profile

It is essential that you can provide evidence in your application of the professional experience, qualifications and skills required for this role. In addition, candidates applying for roles with the government, agencies and public bodies in Scotland are assessed in line with the Success Profiles framework that is used across the Civil Service. This means that as well as evidencing the qualifications and experience you will also be expected to evidence the behaviours at the level required for this Senior Civil Service role.

Qualifications:

You must be a qualified accountant and a member of either the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) or of one of the five accountancy institute members of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies:

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland (ICAI)
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

Experience:

Financially astute with extensive knowledge of UK accounting standards, an understanding of the requirements and expectations for effective Board level financial reporting, monitoring, and governance frameworks, and experience of managing budgets of at least £500 million whilst leading multiple functions in a complex organisational setting.

Behaviours: Level 6

Leadership
Developing self and others
Managing a quality service
Delivering at pace
Communicating and influencing

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £111,916, Scottish Government contributes £32,422 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to apply

Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1500 words). It is essential that you provide evidence in your application of the professional experience and skills required for this role. In addition, candidates are required to evidence Success Profile behaviours at the level required for this Senior Civil Service role. General or unrelated statements will not be accepted and may result in your application being sifted out.

During the interview and assessment process we will test your Experience and Behaviours aligned to this role.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and individual psychological assessment and a stakeholder engagement exercise.

Assessments are scheduled for the weeks commencing 27 October & 3 November 2025, however, this may be subject to change.

The Final Interview Panel take place in person at St Andrews House, Regent Road
Edinburgh, EH1 3DG. Interviews will be chaired by Liz Walmsley, Civil Service Commissioner. The other panel Members are:

Caroline Lamb Chief Executive of NHS Scotland & Director General Health & Social Care
Richard McCallum Director of Public Spending
Naureen Ahmad Deputy Director, Lifelong Learning & Skills
Carol Potter Chief Executive NHS Fife

Interview Expenses

Any travel and subsistence expenses incurred during the selection process are the responsibility of the applicant.

About us

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.

Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.

We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Working pattern

Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options depending on the needs of the role. From October 2025, the Scottish Government will require staff in hybrid-compatible roles to work in-person 40% of the time, either in an office or other agreed work location. This is a permanent and pensionable SCS appointment. A secondment from your existing employer for up to a period of 5 years may also be considered. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.

Security checks

Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions).

In addition to the standard pre-employment checks, this vacancy will also require all candidates to obtain National Security Vetting (NSV) at Security Check (SC) clearance level. This type of check normally includes meeting a minimum UK residency period, which for SC level is 5 years.

Further information about NSV checks can be found on the UK Government website - National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK

You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website, or read about the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide.

If you have any questions about this please contact our recruitment team.

Equality Statement

We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation.

Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.

Further information

Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website.

Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : Caroline Lamb
Email : dghsc@gov.scot

Recruitment team

Email : SCSResourcing@gov.scot

Further information

https://fa-evxn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/2230/?utm_medium=jobboard&utm_source=CivilServiceJobs

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