Assistant Finance Business Partner (Contract to Perm)

£Permanent Full Time (36 hours) Hybrid role (2-3 days in the office)

Are you passionate about making financial improvements, implementing change and want to diversify your local government experience? Within Children’s Finance, our role is to strategically advise Service areas on all financial matters in the wider organisational context, while also supporting them to set and manage their budgets effectively, along with monitoring the delivery of cost savings and efficiencies as we deliver our programme of business change.

In Children’s Services, we operate a business partnering model, ensuring that our finance team most effectively supports and facilitates specific service areas. Can you join us to streamline our financial reporting process and drive efficiencies and continuous improvement to ensure robust financial management?

As Assistant Finance Business Partner, you will report to the Strategic Finance Business Partner for Children’s Services – deputising for them when necessary. Deliver financial management through accounting, budgetary control, forecasting, and provision of financial advice. You will be expected to handle high volumes of financial data, and work closely with budget holders and other non-financial stakeholders, translating and summarising this data and providing effective challenge as required.

Take a lead on financial reporting and ensure timely and accurate preparation of monthly budget monitoring reports. You will play a pivotal role in streamlining financial reporting processes within the Children’s Services Finance Team. Drive the production and analysis of KPI reports, providing clear insights to support business decisions. Work with the Strategic Finance Business Partner and support the Council’s medium-term financial forecast (MTFF) and within this the development of strategic financial plans and models.

Qualifications:

• Qualified Accounting Technician - AAT; OR Part qualified CCAB Accountant - CIPFA, ACA, ACCA; OR Part qualified CIMA or suitably qualified by experience.

Experience:

• Experience and proficiency in using standard IT packages (MS Office specially MS Excel & PowerPoint) and have ability to train and support others in their effective day-to-day use.
• Ability to simplify complex financial issues and present them in a manner that the recipient understands, and in a relevant format with the right level of information.
• Experience of management and/or financial accounting beyond a basic level, as well as, producing budget monitoring reports and supporting the effective use of these.
• Working within public/third sector Finance or Finance in the private sector providing a public sector service.

Join our forward-thinking finance team and play a key role in driving financial sustainability, innovation and improvement across Children's Services.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We offer a wide range of benefits designed to attract, develop, and reward our employees such as 40 days annual leave (including Bank Holidays), flexible working and a generous pension plan.