Finance Business Manager in Ilford

We are seeking an experienced Finance Business Manager with strong business partnering capabilities to support our portfolio of Children's Services across the Central England Region. The successful candidate will work closely with the Assistant Director of Finance, contributing to all aspects of financial management and strategic financial support.

Applicants should have experience of budgeting and accounting systems including expenditure & income monitoring, invoicing and petty cash management and must be able to work on their own initiative. Stakeholders will seek a lot of finance support from the incumbent and therefore good communication and people skills are extremely important. Acute finance knowledge is necessary as is the ability to break down financial information for the benefit of non-finance colleagues. Experience of constructing detailed budgets emphasising full cost recovery is essential and a key part of this role.

Educated to a good standard with excellent numeracy and literacy skills, you will have the ability to operate computer-based systems such as Excel and Dynamics 365. Our Finance Business Partner Team provides leaders and managers with high quality financial insight, analysis and guidance to enable effective and informed decision making. The team operates proactively and strategically, monitoring key financial risks and opportunities through robust financial data, modelling, and reporting covering period-end, forecasting, and budgeting. We are committed to driving strong financial acumen across the organisation to support our corporate objectives.

Essential Experience:

• Minimum 2 years' experience working at a managerial level within a business partnering team, supporting budget holders.
• Experience in costings and tender applications.
• Ability to provide managers with practical, solution-focused financial advice.
• Understanding of the voluntary sector and government funding streams.
• Strong systems literacy, ideally including experience with Dynamics 365.
• Proven experience in producing budgets, forecasts and monthly management accounts, including variance analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including engagement with managers.
• Line management experience.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023.

This is a positive change for the charity and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay. Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band - this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.

Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata.

The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme. A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options. Service related sick pay from day 1. Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution. Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension. Cycle2work scheme. Interest free season ticket loans. Discounts and cashback from high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal. 20% discount at Barnardo's stores. Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc. Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support. Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.