What's involved with this role:
Title: Interim Finance Manager - Strategic Finance & Accounting
Job Ref: E Cheshire 5258880
Pay Rate: £33.18 per hour PAYE
Hours per week: 37 Monday – Friday, 09:00 - 16:20
Role Length: This opening assignment is for 2-3 months
City: CREWE
Hybrid working
The team looks after the budget setting process, in-year reporting, capital programme coordination, closure of accounts and treasury management. The candidate could be involved in a range of those areas.
Key responsibilities:
Provide advice, guidance and support to the Chief Finance Officer in managing the Medium Term Financial Strategy, and fulfilling statutory duties relating to the technical and compliance requirements of the annual financial cycle; creating and leading appropriate strategies and processes to meet statutory requirements, including preparing a robust and sustainable balanced annual budget; leading the Finance Service in the financial planning and reporting timetable of budget setting and in-year reviews, delivering financial reports and associated analysis and interpretation to senior management and Members.
Lead on the annual review and preparation of the Council’s Reserves Strategy; including the assessment of the adequacy and appropriate levels of reserves in response to increasing risk and the robustness of the estimates within the MTFS.
Lead on the preparation of the annual statutory Statement of Accounts, directing the Finance Service in the closure of accounts processes and timetable, in accordance with the technical requirements of the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK, other applicable accounting standards and guidance, providing information to and working with the Council’s external auditors (including playing a liaison role with regard to their relationship with the Audit & Governance Committee), and delivering financial reports and associated analysis and interpretation to senior management and Members, and returns to Government Departments.
Lead on the annual review and preparation of the Council’s Capital Strategy and related in-year reporting, developing and advising on: the determination of financial parameters for capital expenditure in the medium term, including whole-life costing and benefits analyses, the options appraisal and prioritisation processes for approval of projects in the Capital Programme; consideration of capital financing options, including flexible use of capital receipts, and the setting of the Minimum Revenue Provision and Prudential Indicators for capital investment and financing; and associated financial controls, risk management and governance processes.
Lead on the annual review and preparation of the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy and related in-year performance reporting, developing and advising on the management of the authority’s cash flows, its investment and borrowing strategies, setting Prudential Indicators, and commissioning external professional treasury management advice, managing risk to optimise the position of the Council with regard to its financial investment portfolio; commissioning the Council’s banking contract, and managing day-to-day treasury management activities.
Lead on Technical Accounting advisory, management and reporting functions, in respect of taxation, VAT, pensions and other complex financial issues (such as capital accounting and financing; leasing), seeking to optimise to Council’s financial position, having regard to legislation, accounting codes of practice and financial reporting standards, and local government pension scheme regulations; liaising with HM Revenue & Customs, Cheshire Pension Fund, and other external bodies as required.
Lead on the development of the Council’s Finance Procedures Rules and provide advice on the preparation of Schemes of Financial Delegation, communicating and providing related training and advice to Directors, Senior Management and other senior/ business administrative staff on their financial management responsibilities, consideration and use of financial procedure rules and approval routes for decision-making on variations to budget, to support the Council’s governance arrangements.
Lead and manage a wide range of strategic financial management services for the Council, corporately or in respect of a portfolio of services and functions as assigned, making a key contribution to: the development and sustainability of the Medium Term Financial Strategy; the setting of the annual budget; in-year financial performance monitoring and forecasting; year-end reporting internally and externally; and the provision of professional advice and support to senior management, other internal and external customers, partners and stakeholders.
Lead the delivery of a wide range of financial management, advisory and support services to front-line and corporate budget managers and financial decision makers; including the provision of specialist research, strategic advice and information to elected Members, senior managers and partners that promotes excellence in long-term financial strategies; and supporting the development of high level business cases, ensuring they are assessed in line with the Council’s process and present sound whole-life financial assumptions.
Deliver professional financial advice and support to elected Members in committee meetings, as relating to the assigned role in respect of services or functions supported, or as otherwise required by the Head of Finance – including engagement in report writing and sign-off, and pre briefing of committee chairs, vice chairs, committee members and senior managers
Key requirements:
Qualified Accountant (member of CCAB)
Expert knowledge and experience of best practice in financial planning, management and reporting, and emerging trends and innovations in local authority financial management
Expert knowledge of finance and accounting legislation and relevant national and local policy and strategy, including the Council’s Constitution and its Finance Procedure Rules, and the statutory reporting requirements of public and private sector accounting and financial reporting standards
Knowledge of all Council services, their service proposition and their impact on local residents and businesses
Expert knowledge of staff management and development of multi-functional teams and developing clear work programmes for individuals and teams
Knowledge of VAT and other relevant taxation regimes
Processes for key reports and decisions
Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.
***Qualification details and any other experience/skills relevant to the role to help support your application (and help us to help you!) – please give full details within your CV document.
Clients are generally looking for candidates who are local to, or who can commute easily to the place of work. It will help your application if your CV states, in broad terms, where you reside – there is no need for a full address.
Please feel free to apply to us directly via jobs@tclrec.com by quoting the job reference and exact job title.
To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would ask that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, not as a PDF.
If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension, you will be working at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than umbrella pay terms. We do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.
Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working days please assume that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. We will, however, be very happy to receive future applications from you for other roles.
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Job Ref: E Cheshire 5258880
Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent.
Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates.
We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed.
Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs.
Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.