Lead Financial Accountant (Ref: 16746)

Location: East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, Scotland, South East England, South West England, Wales, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber.

Job summary: This position is based Nationally.

Overview: The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is here to protect the public, reduce offending, and deliver swift access to justice. We are responsible for prisons, probation, courts and tribunals, and a range of services to help victims of crime, children, vulnerable people, and those seeking access to justice.

The role advertised is in MOJ’s Financial Accounting and Reporting team. The team produces financial accounts for the MOJ Group and agencies and supports accounts production for arm’s length bodies (ALBs).

About the Role: Lead Financial Accountants manage the production of the relevant parts of the Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) and the annual audit process. They offer accounting advice and work with finance colleagues and auditors to agree accounting treatments. They review accounting working papers prepared by their team and others and ensure robust processes are in place to give assurance on the quality of the numbers.

We are looking to recruit an experienced accountant with an ability to analyse complex information, and provide written and verbal advice and explanations that can easily be understood by both finance professionals and non-finance stakeholders.

In addition to salary, a pensionable, non-contractual specialist allowance will be applied to this role for CCAB qualified staff. Specialist allowances apply to certain roles only, are non-transferable to other roles and are subject to annual review.

Progression Routes: Staff in this role typically move into other G7 roles in Finance or progress to Financial Accounting and Reporting G6 or wider finance G6 roles.

Main Activities / Responsibilities: The job holder will be required to undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

• Managing the production of FReM and IFRS-compliant financial statements to a pre-recess delivery timetable, including identifying and ensuring appropriate management of risks to delivery.
• Providing technical accounting advice, acting as subject matter expert on the Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), Managing Public Money, and Consolidated Budgeting Guidance.
• Working with colleagues in Management Accounting and Finance Business Partnering to ensure that in‑year and year‑end accounting adjustments are appropriately reflected in the ledgers.
• Liaising with the National Audit Office during external audit of the ARA, ensuring a good working relationship, excellent communication and delivery of on‑time and accurate financial and other information.
• Liaising with colleagues throughout the department to obtain audit evidence, including review to ensure the quality and ease of use of the evidence provided to the NAO.
• Providing timely high‑quality returns to the MoJ Group Consolidation team.
• Managing and coaching staff within their financial accounting team and ensuring that all professional training and development requirements are met.
• Supporting the continuous improvement of business and financial control processes and helping build and develop financial capability and professionalism both inside the function and across the business.
• Any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

The successful candidate will be expected to have excellent Excel skills – as a minimum, you should be comfortable with pivots, lookups and if statements.

Technical Requirements: Please answer 'yes' to meeting the qualification requirements if you are: Qualified under one of the main five Consultative Committees of Accounting Bodies (CCAB) i.e. ACCA; CIPFA; ICAEW; ICAI / ICAS or CIMA. Working towards the qualification. Have financial experience over an extended period of time. If you are answering yes to option 2, please provide evidence or a note regarding how you are working towards the qualification. If you are answering to option 3, please upload a note that you have extensive experience and this will be assessed using your CV.

Person specification Behaviours: We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Making Effective Decisions, Delivering at Pace, Communicating and Influencing.

Technical skills: We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process: Please refer to Job Description.