About the Role
Sutton Council is seeking an exceptional candidate to fill the role of Strategic Finance Business Partner in its shared finance service with Kingston Council. Whilst this role sits within the shared service, its focus is on Sutton Council only. It will focus its support on the council's Environment, Housing and Neighbourhoods directorate, which includes: Highways, Housing (via an ALMO called Sutton Housing Partnership), Parking, Parks, Planning and Building Control, Temporary Accomodation and Waste.
This key role supports the Head of Financial Planning and Business Partnering by providing strategic support for services and their senior officers. The primary focus will be on revenue but elements of the capital programme may fall within their remit. The successful candidate will take responsibility for:
1. being the senior finance professional for one or more directorates, which includes developing subject matter expertise and taking responsibility for ensuring that services produce accurate and useful financial information and forecasts based on sound assumptions and realistic estimates
2. supporting services and colleagues to develop the medium term financial plan and then to deliver their services within budget
3. providing direct support to one or more council directors, enabling them to play their part in protecting the financial health of the council
4. providing high quality professional advice on the financial implications of corporate proposals and drafting financial comments within committee reports to inform decision making.
About Us
This role is part of the Financial Planning and Business Partnering team that supports Sutton Council only, within the shared finance service. The team has 17 positions that combine to deliver revenue and capital financial planning and business partnering services.
The aim of the shared finance service is to add value and inspire success and we do this by:
5. Translating business intelligence into business success by delivering clear professional advice and insight
6. Safeguarding the financial health of our Councils
7. Empowering our customers to manage their finances
8. Learning, improving and exceeding; supporting each other to develop our talent and achieve more.
About You
The successful candidate will have:
9. Experience providing business partner support to services including waste and recycling; housing and homelessness/temporary accommodation; planning and building control
10. Experience providing support and challenge to senior officers and leadership in a local authority
11. Experience in leading or providing financial support to a change/transformation programme
12. A relevant professional qualification (e.g. CIPFA, CIMA, MBA etc) or demonstrable equivalent experience of operating at that level
13. Strong numerical and analytical skills with the ability to provide detailed and accurate information at pace with little oversight
14. Proven leadership skills and the ability to engage and inspire.
One of the postholder's duties is to provide oversight of the housing revenue account (HRA) finances that are day-to-day managed by the council's ALMO. Therefore, preference will be given to candidates that have experience supporting a local authority's HRA.
Our Offer To You
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps. Our Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme embraces new ways of working. It provides improved work life balance for our staff as it allows staff to work from a variety of locations and staff are not required to work within the office 5 days a week.
Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
15. Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
16. Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
17. Three volunteering days per year in Sutton
18. Comprehensive learning and development programme
19. Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
20. Interest free season ticket loans
21. Local Government Pension Scheme
22. Car parking scheme
23. Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
24. Zip car scheme
25. Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
26. Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
27. Subsidised gym membership