Finance Business Partner
Location: Civic Offices, 2 Watling Street, Bexleyheath, DA6 7AT
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Duration: 6+ Months
Working Hours: Mon - Fri, 09:00 - 17:00, 36 hours per week
Pay Rate: £ 45.74 Per Hour
Job Ref: OR21651
Job Responsibilities
* Provide proactive financial and commercial support across the Council's transformation programme.
* Act as finance lead for option appraisals and commercial decisions, ensuring proposals are affordable, deliverable, and aligned with Council strategy.
* Translate service changes into quantified financial impacts, including revenue, capital, recurring, one-off, cashable, and non-cashable effects.
* Develop, review, and challenge business cases, financial appraisals, and investment proposals.
* Conduct cost‑benefit analysis, scenario testing, sensitivity analysis, and break‑even modelling.
* Analyse pricing, fees and charges, income projections, demand assumptions, and risk.
* Build and maintain robust financial models highlighting costs, savings, income, assumptions, and risks.
* Produce timely, accurate reporting on programme costs, savings, and benefits, including variance analysis and forecast outturn.
* Design and maintain processes to capture, reconcile, and evidence delivery costs, savings, and benefits realisation.
* Extract, validate, and analyse complex financial and non-financial data from multiple sources.
* Identify trends, drivers, and insights to inform commercial and financial decisions.
* Build strong stakeholder relationships across transformation, service, and corporate teams; act as a credible, constructive advisor.
* Present complex financial information clearly to non-finance audiences.
* Ensure financial models, reports, and processes meet internal control, audit, and governance standards.
* Contribute to the continuous improvement of financial processes and data quality.
Person Specification
Must-Have Requirements
* CCAB qualified accountant (or equivalent) or significant senior finance/commercial experience.
* Evidence of continuing professional development.
* Strong knowledge of local government finance, including budgeting, forecasting, MTFS, and public sector constraints.
* Proven experience developing and challenging business cases and financial models.
* Commercial acumen, including evaluation of income generation, pricing, commercial models, and contracts.
* Advanced analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex datasets.
* Hands‑on modelling and reporting skills (advanced Excel; experience with Power BI or similar tools desirable).
* Strong communication and influencing skills; able to explain finance to non-finance colleagues and challenge assumptions constructively.
* Ability to find, cleanse, reconcile, and combine data from disconnected or inconsistent sources.
* Experience working independently and delivering high‑quality outputs to deadlines.
Nice-to-Have Requirements
* Experience supporting transformation programmes (cost reduction, service redesign, operating model change, digital transformation).
* Experience in commercial projects such as fees and charges reviews, traded services, or income optimisation.
* Experience presenting finance content in governance reports (boards, committees, cabinet‑style).
* Familiarity with local authority finance systems and data environments (ERP, general ledger, purchasing/AP, HR/payroll, contract registers).
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