Senior Accountant - Children's Services in Stevenage

We have an exciting opportunity to join Hertfordshire's Finance Service, providing high-quality financial advice, insight, and support across a range of service areas within Children's Services. In this role, you will play a key part in supporting services that make a real difference to over 1.2 million residents across the county. Your contribution will be integral to delivering our core values and ensuring the effective use of public resources.

We are recruiting up to four finance professionals to join the Children's Services Finance team. These roles will provide financial management, analysis, and business partnering support to help deliver safe, effective, and sustainable services for children, young people, and families. One role will support Children's Social Care services, working closely with operational teams to manage demand-led budgets and financial pressures. Two roles will support services funded through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), contributing to the financial oversight of education-related provision.

Across all roles, you will deliver high-quality financial insight and advice, enable informed decision-making and support the delivery of statutory services.

• Provide expert financial advice and business partnering support to service teams
• Support budget planning, monitoring, and forecasting
• Deliver high-quality financial analysis and reporting interpreting data and presenting insights
• Help identify and manage financial risks and pressures
• Support the effective and efficient use of resources
• Providing financial guidance and support to Schools on the use of delegated Budgets
• Consolidating mainstream schools financial information into the authorities accounts

• Financial Planning & Budget Management: Support the preparation, monitoring, and forecasting of Children's Services budgets; Identify financial risks and pressures (e.g., placements, SEND costs)
• Financial Reporting & Analysis: Produce accurate and timely financial reports for senior management; Analyse trends in service demand (e.g., number of children in care, placement costs); Provide insights to support decision-making and efficiency improvements; Support the finance services in meeting statutory accounting requirements including year end.
• Business Partnering: Work closely with operational managers (social care, early help, SEND teams); Translate financial information into clear, actionable advice; Challenge and support budget holders to manage resources effectively.
• Cost Control & Value for Money: Monitor high-cost areas such as fostering, residential placements, and SEND; Support procurement and commissioning decisions.
• Compliance & Governance: Ensure financial processes comply with council policies and regulations; Support audits and maintain strong financial controls; Contribute to statutory returns and support the finance services in meeting statutory accounting requirements including year end.

• CCAB qualified or experienced finance professional with a strong track record of providing financial management support
• Ability to make effective use of multiple data sources and to use available tools to provide robust forecasting and financial analysis
• Ability to interpret, apply and explain financial policies, procedures and guidance
• Ability to build relationships and communicate effectively with senior stakeholders, supporting budget holders in helping them to manage resources effectively while delivering high-quality services
• Experience in producing financial analysis to support decision making, including identifying trends in high-cost demand areas and modelling scenarios
• Ability to manage competing priorities and flexibility to re-prioritise according to business needs

• Experience in managing and leading a team to deliver accurate, timely, and insightful financial information to support frontline services

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 11.

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Saira.Muschamp@hertfordshire.gov.uk (Social Care) or Sue.Provenzano@hertfordshire.gov.uk (DSG) for an informal discussion about the role.

Interview Date: 23rd or 24th July 2026

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert/job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.