Senior Finance Business Partner

Closing Date: Friday 28th March 2025 (Please note that Arun DC reserve the right to close this role early. Please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment)

Overall Job Purpose

To be a member of Business Planning & Performance Management team in its entirety ensuring that a professional, technical and innovative financial function is operated and effectively meets the needs of the Council and its services, ensuring compliance with the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) statutory requirements.

Key Areas of Focus

1.  As Single point of Contact for allocated Group heads and budget holders the post holder will provide full service coverage for expert, technical, commercial and financial advice service ensuring all relevant reporting is completed including Financial reports to Committees and review of financial elements of all required reports, thus delivering a balanced budget for current year and Medium Term Financial Planning ( MTFP). To ensure Finance Service continuity each Business Partner will take a lead on key areas within the wider business partner team that includes Establishment, Consolidation, Capital, MTFP, Reserves, Treasury and any other areas that are appropriate to deliver the service.

2.  Ability to lead and aid decision making while adhering to the Council's Constitution, Financial Governance Framework and all Policies and Procedures within as well as in accordance with Delegation of Authorities.

3.  For allocated areas, group heads and budget holders, the business partner will act as a single point of contact where possible to manage the delivery of Business Planning and Performance management via efficient and robust transactional Finance activities, Monthly meetings, Budget setting and monitoring, and Closures of annual accounts ensuring all relevant reporting is completed including Financial reports to Committees and review of financial elements of all required reports.

4.  To contribute to, deliver and manage Financial calendars and content plans particularly for Budget setting, monitoring and closedown including month, quarter, year-end activities with rolling Medium Term Financial Planning (MTFP) 6 years forward looking with robust accurate and timely reporting as required.

5.  To actively participate in accordance with HR guidance, policy and procedures Valuing Individual Performance (ViP) reviews, direct objectives and deliverables for immediate reports where relevant with development and training where appropriate and applicable to own VIP.

6.  The post holder has several responsibilities to ensure consolidated management and reporting of resources including a combined spend budget of circa £100m (£50m General Fund, £30m Capex, £20m HRA), covering a Workforce of 400+ employees, 50+members, 23 wards, Population of circa 160,000 with multiple internal / external stakeholders.

7.  Other appropriate duties as required that are relevant to a functioning Finance department or to Deputise as Senior Business Partners or Head of Business Planning & Performance Management as appropriate.

Additional Information (non contractual)

1. Local government Finance knowledge will be required although not a pre-requisite and can be developed to deliver the Councils budgets and monitoring.

2. The postholder is expected to contribute to the improvement of service delivery standards.

Role Requirements

The following outlines the criteria for this post. Applicants will be shortlisted and interviewed to assess if they meet the criteria for the role. (E) = Essential, (D) = Desirable, (Y) = Yes, (N) = No.

Professional Qualifications

• Accountancy or Finance related qualification (E)

Experience

• Business/accountancy/budget management experience. (E)

• Experience of managing, motivating and performance managing a cross-business teams. (E)

• Experience of monitoring and managing financial accounts in a Social Housing or Local Government environment. (D)

• Experience of communicating detailed technical information to Budget holders. (E)

Knowledge

• An analytical approach to financial issues and the ability to make clearly reasoned conclusions and recommendations. (E)

• Excellent communications skills and the ability to explain complex financial issues in a tactful and diplomatic way that can be readily understood by others. (E)

• Strong character and negotiation skills to ensure managers and partners remain within budgets. (E)       

• A detailed knowledge of the financial climate and funding regime under which local authorities operate. (E)

• Ability to give advice and guidance to trainee accountants. (E)

• Experience in leading technical projects. (E)

• Mentoring and supervision skills. (E)

• Problem solving abilities. (E)

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Andreas Efthymiou on 07546 415 794 or email: andreas.efthymiou@penna.com