Strategic Manager (Finance Business JOb description...Strategic Manager (Finance Business...
Transcript of Strategic Manager (Finance Business JOb description...Strategic Manager (Finance Business...
Strategic Manager (Finance Business
Partnering)
Finance
Job Reference: SCC01450/AMB
Inside this pack:
• What You Will Be Good At
• What You Will Deliver
• What We Will Offer You in Return
• Living our values
If you are interested in finding out more before applying, please get in touch with
Jason Vaughan, Director of Finance on 0796 800820.
If you have any questions about the benefits we offer, or our recruitment process,
please contact our Recruitment Team on [email protected] or
telephone on 01823 355209
We will notify you by email if you have been selected for interview or have been
unsuccessful on this occasion. Please check that the automated email has not gone
in your junk mail folder before contacting us.
What You Will Be Good At
Key Competencies
You should demonstrate a commitment to our four key values – Customer Focus, Can Do
Attitude, Collaboration and Care and Respect. More information can be found on the final page.
Work Experience Knowledge & Skills
Essential
1. Substantial managerial experience and skills
gained at a senior level, including making a
contribution to the corporate management
of an organisation where required.
2. Significant knowledge and experience of
the development, agreement and delivery
of service plans.
3. Demonstrable experience of partnership
working including the ability to influence
and, where appropriate, lead multi-agency
groups and projects to deliver services and
initiatives.
4. Sound understanding and practice of multi-
disciplinary working.
5. Demonstrable experience of engagement
with communities and customer feedback
channels to shape and inform improved
customer services.
6. Demonstrable experience of operating
equality and diversity measures in the local
commissioning and delivery of services.
7. Track record of the flexible use of financial
and other resources (including the service
commissioning framework and
opportunities for income streams) in the
delivery of services on time and within
budget.
8. Demonstrable experience of the effective
deployment, continuing development and
supervision of professional and other staff
resources.
Desirable
9. Sound understanding and experience of the
use of information and communication
systems to inform operational decision
making and recommendations/actions
concerning service improvement.
10. Significant experience of the operation and
achievement of performance management
and quality assurance models.
11. Change management experience.
12. Ability to speak fluent English as stated in
Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016)
Qualifications
Essential
1. Professional CCAB qualification.
2. Evidence of work-related continuing
management development.
Desirable
Personal Attributes
Essential
1. Promotes the need for change and acts as a
role model for change.
2. Positive, committed, adaptable, thorough
and confident approach.
3. Ability to work to deadlines and to motivate
others to work effectively and demonstrate
a duty of care.
4. Committed to diversity in service delivery
and employment.
5. Innovative and creative approach to service
development and value.
6. Customer and Communities focussed.
7. Personal integrity.
8. Drive and self-motivation – “can do”
attitude.
Desirable
9. Sound analysis and decision-making in
dealing with complex service delivery
and/or policy development matters.
All disabled applicants meeting the essential criteria will be interviewed.
Somerset County Council has signed the Charter for Employers who are
Positive about Mental Health
MINDFUL EMPLOYER is a UK-wide initiative. www.mindfulemployer.net
What You Will Deliver
Key tasks and responsibilities:
Purpose
The postholder will need to show evidence of effective leadership, financial support and
challenge to produce improved financial control within or across services in a local government
setting.
1. Provide expertise and strong management to drive performance and to
commission and/or deliver the Council’s priorities and meet service targets, as a
member of the Council’s Senior Management Group.
2. Provide clarity, management and motivation in delivering the County Plan and
other Council transformation programmes as required.
3. Ensure the effective understanding and operation of any specific statutory or
regulatory duty contained within the role.
4. Advise Members and Directors in respect of operational planning and
commissioning, policy matters and service delivery issues and engage with partners
in the promotion, communication and delivery of services.
Key Accountabilities
1. Create, agree and deliver service plans and prioritise activities and projects.
2. Identify and deliver opportunities for service change and improvement and scope,
plan and manage change in corporate and professional activities
3. Review performance outcomes and customer feedback to meet customer
requirements and to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness.
4. Develop and maintain effective customer relations and feedback channels and
work to improve levels of customer service and satisfaction.
5. Resolve complex operational and service-based problems and conflicts raised
through the service escalation process and ensure positive outcomes.
6. Optimise the use of financial and other resources (including commissioning
frameworks, income streams etc.) to locally commission and deliver services on
time, to budget and to the quality standards required.
7. Recruit, review the performance of and ensure the development of individual
professional and other team members.
8. Operate information and communication systems to provide business and
management information used to support and inform operational decision
making.
9. Develop and maintain effective personal networks with partner agencies,
government departments as well as suppliers and contractors etc. to improve
financial insight and intelligence and continual improvement of quality of service.
10. Communicate clearly and succinctly and use influence and persuasion to negotiate
and achieve service objectives.
Assignment
Duties and Responsibilities
This role has 3 key elements to it:
• A set of service budget responsibilities, ensuring provision of innovative and insightful
financial advice and support to relevant service managers – the nature and allocation of these
responsibilities may be changed/rotated by the Director in order to meet the needs of the
service or the Authority as a whole.
• A strategic advisory role supporting a small number of directors, advising on strategic and
operational finance issues.
• A project/programme finance role for key Council programmes.
1. Lead and coordinate a strategic approach to policy interpretation and finance
advice and practice across all service budgets, including revenue income and
expenditure, grant funded expenditure, delegated and devolved budgets, traded
activity, etc.
2. Develop a culture of evidence-based decision making through strong data quality
and analytics, ensuring the highest financial standards and accountabilities are
understood and common across all service areas.
3. Act as the lead financial advisor to the relevant Senior Leadership Team members,
Service Managers and Cabinet Members for service areas in conjunction with
Finance Service Managers.
4. Ensure that finance actions and approach reinforce and complement the cultural
and organisational changes required to produce an effective and efficient
organisation.
5. Lead and motivate teams of professional and support staff to ensure the provision
of high quality and timely financial support services and advice and guidance to a
diverse range of locality and service managers within the Council and its joint
partners.
6. Develop and maintain effective working relationships on finance issues with all
internal and external partners, eg Clinical Commissioning Group, Schools Forum,
heads and governing bodies, other significant suppliers or contractors, etc,
attending relevant Board and partnership meetings.
7. Lead and manage the development of and maintenance of key financial
modules/elements of systems, such as AIS, liquid logic, EMS and their interaction
with SAP. Ensure systems are fit for purpose.
8. Lead the Finance Service Managers to provide strategic financial support to major
service projects/initiatives across council Services, contributing to policy
formulation and ensuring the financial implications (both revenue and capital) and
risks of proposals are fully considered in a timely manner.
9. Ensure services receive expert financial support in identifying and bidding for
additional resources such as external grant funding, ensuring grant conditions are
understood and met and appropriate returns are completed and submitted to
meet deadlines.
10. Ensure financial support and advice is provided to Services in respect of
commissioning and subsequent new contractual arrangements, including pooled
budget arrangements, providing appropriate financial models and analysis to
support the process.
11. Act as lead officer for Schools Forum, including leading development of the
formulae for delegating budgets and grants to schools.
12. Lead and manage the provision of support and challenge in relation to financial
management as part of school improvement, including budget planning, deficit
and surplus balances, efficiency improvements and financial reporting.
Further information specific to this job
Resources
With the Director of Finance this post shares the accountability for the spending of the Council’s
significant revenue budgets.
The postholder will also be a subject matter expert providing strategic advice, policy
recommendation and technical expertise on aspects of Finance across the Council.
The postholder will provide budget management support and financial advice to a range of
commissioning and operational service managers with aggregated annual budgets in excess of
£200m.
Relationships
The postholder reports to the Director of Finance and its principal purpose is to deliver to the
Director the delegated management and improvement of a group of individual services or
activities and to assist the Director in the strategic planning and development of those services.
This will involve a full range of day to day management activities including priority setting,
conflict resolution and service communication.
The postholder will need to develop and maintain a network at Director and Service Manager
level to develop and deliver services and to ensure that resources are optimised to achieve
service improvement.
The postholder will need to develop and maintain a network of external and/or internal partners
and stakeholders to ensure effective feedback arrangements from clients and customers and to
initiate, maintain and support the Director in regional and national service agendas to promote
and maintain the Council’s interest.
The postholder requires advanced communication skills with commissioning and operational
staff to support the Director in ensuring that all staff remain committed and motivated during
periods of change and the service performance is not affected by such change.
Somerset County Council is subject to Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the
ability to speak fluent English will be an essential requirement for customer-facing roles.
What We Will Offer You in Return
Salary and
grade:
Grade 6, between £56,322 per annum
Contract
type:
Permanent
Location: County Hall, Taunton, TA1 4DY
Hours of
work:
37 hours per week. These will be in agreement with the line manager.
Annual
leave:
For this grade: 32 days.
This is inclusive of two statutory days. In addition, there are 8 bank holiday
days.
The annual leave year starts on 1st April or 1st of the month in which the
contract commences.
Probationary
period:
The appointment will be subject to a probationary period of 6 months.
Internal applicants who have already completed their probationary period
would not normally be expected to complete this again.
The Council’s contractual sick pay scheme will not apply for the first 3
months of a probationary period (except with discretion in exceptional
circumstances e.g. sudden critical or chronic illness).
Notice
period:
Following completion of the probationary period, this post will be subject
to a notice period of three calendar months on either side.
Living our values – 4 Cs At work, the way we do things matters as much as what we do.
At Somerset County Council we have four key values – the 4Cs – that all employees are expected
to work to. They will form part of every member of staff’s personal review.
Customer focus
This is about putting the customer at the heart of
everything we do.
Collaboration
This is about working with others to deliver our services.
Can do attitude
This is about getting the job done and doing it well.
Care and respect
This is about treating others as they would wish to be
treated – with care, respect, dignity and understanding.
What does this look like in practice?
The 4Cs describe our values. In practice, this means that we think from a customer or a
community perspective to make sure we get things right first time and continually improve the
services we provide. We must have a clear view of what our customers and service users say they
need, rather than build services based on what we think they need.
We operate a ‘no wrong door’ policy – whichever authority or department deals with the
customer’s query, we help them get there. As we build links with other authorities and
organisations we talk to each other and our managers about how we think we could change, even
the smallest things, for the better.
We work together, establishing positive, respectful and empowering ways of working as strong
teams. We act with integrity, communicating clearly, admitting to our mistakes and striving to
learn from them. When we think we need to speak out or challenge, we are prepared to do so in
a constructive and positive way, but we remain objective.