Role Purpose
The post holder will provide financial business partnering support to the corporate core and front line service areas of the Council. The post holder will be required to act as a critical friend to the Council, delivering insightful financial analysis to support business improvement and change.
The role provides support to the Strategic Finance Business Partners to deliver financial support and advice to budget managers in Kingston Council, with the aim of enabling them to manage their budgets in a challenging financial environment.
Responsibilities
Deliver advice and guidance in a broad area of expertise to ensure customer needs are met.
Identify and implement improvements in own work area in order to deliver continuous service improvement and improved outcomes to customers.
Regularly communicate with internal customers to share information and build working relationships to support collaborative working.
Keep up to date with changes in relevant policy and legislation to ensure delivery in own work area is effective and complies with appropriate regulations/statutory guidance.
Support and advise budget holders in high risk budget areas across Kingston Council in day to day financial management of revenue and capital budgets
Support and advise budget holders across Kingston Council in day to day financial management of the delivery of the capital programme and revenue savings programmes
Support and advise senior budget holders to manage financial risk and protect the financial health of the Council
Challenge and support budget holders to manage within limited and reducing resources
Support and advise budget holders working with shared and pooled budget arrangements with other public sector bodies ( e.g. the Better Care Fund)
Support the SFBPs to plan, manage and rigorously pursue improvements to the reporting of financial and budget information ensuring increased automation and efficiency
Proactively contribute to identify improvements in customer support & engagement and processes
Have a detailed understanding of the financial cycle and processes with an aim to spread this knowledge across finance and other services to enable self sufficiency
Help identify development needs in relation to financial literacy and financial management skills and develop options to meet these needs including training for budget or service managersRequirements
Part qualified CCAB accountancy or demonstrable equivalent experience of operating at that level
Experience of delivering high quality finance services in a large organisation
Experience of working in a customer-focused environment and achieving successful outcomes in the delivery of services that meet customer needs
Proven experience of using IT in a business environment, including, Google applications, Word, Powerpoint and software packages to record and manipulate
Proven ability to analyse and interpret financial and non-financial information and communicate in a clear and concise
Strong communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with finance and non-finance professionals
Experience supporting budget managers through the core finance processes of budget setting, monitoring and closing of the
Knowledge of the operational context of Local Authorities
Qualified or studying towards relevant professional qualification (e.g. AAT, CIPFA, CIMA, etc)