Head of Finance in Birmingham

Birmingham City Council has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years in addition to being Europe’s largest local authority. However, the Council is now on stable financial footing and embarking on a programme of change and improvement. This includes a reconfigured ERP system and the recruitment of talented finance professionals to build a leading Finance service to drive forward the Council’s priorities to deliver high quality services to residents.

The Finance Team consists of circa 240 staff with varying roles supporting our key services of Children Services, Adult and Health Services, City Operations, City Housing and Central Services, as well as Corporate Finance Teams including Financial Planning, Final Accounts, Treasury and Transactions, supporting the core financial management of the Council. Finance Business Partnering is at the heart of our approach to financial management, and is the collaboration between our finance teams, operational services and external partners.

Birmingham City Council are looking to appoint a number of Heads of Finance on a permanent basis to fill vacancies across that Finance Business Partnering Service. These leadership roles are the key to our partnership working with front line services, and are responsible for both financial control and financial insight relating to those specific services. This role offers an excellent opportunity to use your finance and management experience to cement the improvements being delivered and foster a collaborative culture change across your team and the supported service.

As Head of Finance, you will be the go-between for all levels of the supported service and Finance, so will need to build strong working relationships with stakeholders ranging from elected members and commissioners, external partners and senior Council officers to operational and transactional staff, and above all the team you’ll be responsible for managing.

The main operational responsibilities of the role are to provide budgetary support to Budget Holders, support and guidance to Finance colleagues, and contribute to the delivery of the Council’s annual Statement of Accounts to a high quality and in accordance with the statutory requirements and deadlines. The strategic responsibilities of the role include representing the Council on partner forums, representing finance on the supported services’ strategic management team and delivering the Finance Service’s culture and process improvements.

Both roles will be an integral part of the Finance improvement programme.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people. We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be undertaken. Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed.