About the Role
Sutton and Kingston Council is seeking an exceptional candidate to fill the role of Strategic Finance Business Partner in its shared finance service. Whilst this role sits within the shared service, its focus is on Kingston Council only. It will focus its support on the council's Housing service both General Fund and the Housing Revenue Account
This key role supports the Head of Financial Business Partnering by providing strategic support for services and their senior officers. The focus will be on revenue and capital. 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 The post is part of a Shared Finance Service that provides a range of shared services to Sutton and Kingston Councils. The Shared Finance Service ambition is to Add Value, Inspire Success and we strive to deliver this through working collaboratively and placing emphasis on having a diverse workforce where everyone is supported and valued. This provides a supportive and friendly operating culture that supports staff to achieve their own career ambitions whilst delivering high quality services to our stakeholders. About You
To succeed in this role you will need to be an experienced finance professional and confident communicator, able to get the best from your team and to work effectively across team and service boundaries. You will need to be a qualified accountant with local government experience and adept at explaining complex local government finance issues.
You will be leading a small team so your ability to motivate and support the people you work with and provide inspirational leadership will also be key. This role will be working both across the finance service and across the Council as a whole so an ability to build positive working relationships is also vital.
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:
5. Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
6. Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
7. Three volunteering days per year in Sutton or Kingston
8. Comprehensive learning and development programme
9. Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
10. Interest free season ticket loans
11. Local Government Pension Scheme
12. Car parking scheme
13. Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
14. Zip car scheme
15. Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
16. Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
17. Subsidised gym membership