Head of Corporate Revenues in Manchester

Business Smart Solutions is pleased to be working exclusively with Manchester City Council to recruit their new Head of Corporate Revenues.

About the role

As a senior post holder and leader within a large City Council, this role will provide strategic leadership to the Councils Revenues Service within the Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services Unit. The role will have overall accountability for all elements of the Council’s Revenues Service, delivering a centre of excellence for the Council’s billing and collection services. This includes leadership of the Council’s Council Tax Service, Business Rates Service and the recovery of other money and debts owed to the Council including benefit overpayments and all other miscellaneous debt.

The post holder will be the senior strategic lead and subject matter expert for the Council’s Council Tax and Business Rates service’s and how this links into the Council’s wider budget and commissioning strategies and plans. This is in relation to strategic budget and collection arrangements and the management of local discretionary budgets, costs collection and bad debt provision.

The post holder will lead a high performing, large scale, revenues service team and have responsibility for the development and delivery of short, medium and long term collection and recovery strategies, initiatives and activities for the Council, maximising revenue for the Council to fund essential Council Services. This will include leading the design and implementation of digital and automated solutions that streamline processes, improve accessibility for residents, deliver sustainable efficiencies and strengthen collection performance.

Through visionary and effective strategic leadership of the Councils Revenues Service this role will ensure that strategic, operational and performance targets are achieved and maintained across a range of key Council service areas including Council Tax and Business Rates, and the recovery of other money and debts owed to the Council including benefit overpayments and all other miscellaneous debt.

This role will also lead the development and delivery of strategies, policies and initiatives to support residents and families who are facing financial hardship and therefore struggling to pay, working across organisational boundaries and with key partners to provide excellence in service provision.

Requirements

• Experience of successful strategic leadership of a high performing Revenues function or similar within a Local Government setting or similar size organisation.
• A proven ability to harness the full commitment and responsibility of all staff and key stakeholders in delivering the Organisation and Service vision.
• Experience of developing and implementing strategic ideas and objectives into practical, well organised plans with a focus on results, standards and objectives on time to quality, within budget and to reprioritise, plan and organise own and others’ work effectively to ensure these are met.
• Excellent financial planning skills to develop short, medium and long term financial plans with an ability to budget proactively with large, high-risk or volatile elements being identified and cross-referenced to operational activity.
• The ability to understand and challenge all costs to identify further efficiencies and to develop strategies, initiatives and activities to maximise income through the effective collection of monies owed to the Council.
• A track record of successfully leading the design and implementation of digital and automated solutions that streamline processes, improve accessibility for residents, deliver sustainable efficiencies and strengthen collection performance.
• A skilled communicator at all levels who exhibits integrity and creates rapport, trust and confidence.
• Proven ability to exert positive influence over the performance of others, promoting others’ self-esteem, inspiring trust and fostering confidence in others’ ability to achieve high standards, thereby embedding a high performance orientated culture which supports the delivery of high quality services to the community.
• Possess excellent problem solving skills operating at a senior level with the ability to react to immediate problems of a highly complex nature with associated risk factors and deliver pragmatic solutions sometimes under extreme pressure.
• Experience of setting clearly defined objectives, plans, business activities and projects well in advance and takes account of risks and changing circumstances; identifying and organising resources and managing time effectively whilst setting and monitoring performance against key milestones and deadlines.
• Demonstrates sound business intelligence and decision making with an ability to identify commercially viable solutions and opportunities.
• Possess highly developed written communication skills and evidence of producing high quality strategic and complex policy and financial based documents.

The experience below would be beneficial but is not essential:

• Possess IRRV qualification or Diploma in Management or substantial, successful experience in the field.

Benefits

• Progressive Salary.
• Hybrid working (1 day in the office per week).
• A buzzing pension - You’ll be enrolled in the UK’s largest local government pension scheme, with plenty of options to top up your benefits. Includes life cover of three-times your salary as a lump sum.
• Generous holiday allowance - Enjoy up to 26 days annual leave per year plus bank holidays. Increasing to 31 days after five years of local government service. Want more leave? You can purchase up to two additional weeks.
• Brilliant perks - Access a range of discounts, from saving on the weekly shop to holidays and days out with MCR+. Plus discounts on phone contracts, cycle to work scheme, free flu jabs and eye tests, and more.
• Enhanced parental and carers leave - Take advantage of our enhanced family leave options, designed to provide ample time for you to bond with your new born or support your family during critical life events.
• Learn and grow - We are dedicated to nurturing talent and providing you with the tools to thrive. Take part in a diverse set of learning opportunities, from workshops and training sessions through to apprenticeships and qualifications. All this begins with our comprehensive onboarding process.
• A Good Employment Charter member - We are committed to offering secure, flexible work and embedding fairness into everything we do. We recognize three trade unions, and are constantly working to offer the best possible health and wellbeing support throughout all stages of your working life.
• Up to 3 days volunteering leave - Give back to the community with three days pro-rate of paid volunteering leave, in addition to existing benefits.