The Role

Please do not apply through the website - we are only accepting CV's via email.

A fantastic opportunity has opened up with the Children's Services Finance Team.

Job Role:

The purpose of the role is to assist the Children’s Services Finance Team in carrying out its roles and responsibilities supporting key stakeholders across the children’s services department by undertaking a range of financial administrative tasks and transactional processing support.

As part of the Children’s Services Finance Team, you will provide and deliver financial administrative and transactional processing support in a timely and accurate manner, whilst maintaining a clear audit trail. The role will support the work of colleagues across the Finance Team as required which means a good working relationship with a variety of internal and external stakeholders will be essential.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities will include:

1. Finance Team Support

• Provision of general administrative and transactional support to the work of the Children’s Services Finance Team, supporting the team on a variety of tasks and activities linked to budget monitoring activities and financial management of the Council’s Children’s Services budgets. (There will be opportunities to gain significant exposure to all aspects of the Finance Team’s day-to-day operational work, with a platform available for you to develop your knowledge and understanding of the team’s financial work around the budget monitoring cycle and the work of the varied services’ that the team supports across the department).
• Generating reports and providing information for the Finance Team and other stakeholders as and when required i.e., Finance Team, Heads of Service, and Budget Managers across the children’s services department.
• Contribute to the delivery of the team’s agreed objectives.
• Support the work of colleagues in the Finance Team as necessary.
• Act as an effective team member, providing admin support services to team members as and when required.
• Undertake any other duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post.

1. Customer and Project Management

• To work closely with the Finance Business Partner and other members of the Finance Team on a range of projects as part of the Council’s continuous improvement agenda (There will be opportunities for you to develop your project management skills whilst enhancing your understanding of some of the key financial challenges facing the department).  
• Participate in Finance team meetings and training and be committed to the Finance department’s continuous improvement objectives.
• Establish own priorities and organise own workload ensuring that activities are completed to specification and tight deadlines.

1. Financial Control

• Provide financial administrative support to the Finance Team on a range of financial models and financial tools in Microsoft Excel that are used for forecasting and to control the departmental budget.
• Managing transactional tasks, such as customer and supplier invoices, general ledger journals and other transactional reports to support budget monitoring.
• Support the Finance Team in its responsibility to ensure robust financial controls are maintained across the department by supporting the team monitor the Sales and Purchase Ledger for anomalies and dealing promptly with errors or omissions.

1. Operational Service Delivery

• The post holder will also be responsible for supporting the Children’s Services Finance Team with its work on a range of financial issues within the service Directorate that require attention. The post holder will help the team seek resolutions to areas of financial concern to ensure expenditure and income is contained within the budget. (In practice, you will be supporting the work of colleagues in the Finance Team through the provision of financial administrative support as required. However, there will be further opportunities available for you to support with advanced financial analysis and so a platform for you to develop these financial analysis skills).
• Understand the business of the service Directorate and the customer’s needs and provide a finance service that adds value, and to assist in the development of structure, systems, and policies to support service delivery.
• Produce high quality and well-presented financial and management information for the Finance Business Partner the Senior Management Team and other key stakeholders as required.
• To support the Finance Business Partner in ensuring that each Directorate complies with Financial Standing Orders and all other financial policies and procedures as directed by the Chief Finance Officer.
• Support the Finance Team with processing sales invoices and dealing with queries from internal and external customers as required (This function is varied as you’ll have opportunities to explore every area of the Accounts Receivable function).
• Support the Finance Team with processing supplier payments from the receipt of invoices, matching of purchase orders to invoices and releasing payments (This will give you the opportunity to explore and learn the Accounts Payable function from its basic to advanced features).
• Assist with resolving customer, suppliers and client queries via emails and telephone calls.

1. Continuous Improvement

• To support the Head of Finance and Finance Business Partner in the provision of financial input to the transformational agenda across the Council.
• Support the Children’s Finance Team in its continuous review of existing Council processes and procedures and where appropriate suggest improvements to improve efficiency across the Finance Team.
• Support the implementation of improvement initiatives and change programmes using the Council’s Project Management and Service Improvement methodologies.
• To contribute to corporate areas of activity, organisational development and council-wide, cross-departmental strategies, projects, or policies, as required from time.

1. Contacts

• Primary contact will be with other officers within the Finance Team and officers across the Children’s Services department with financial or budget holding responsibilities and service users / residents and their representative bodies.
• To develop and promote internal and external partnerships that reflect the Council’s commitment to work in active partnership with the community, so that coherent and value for money services are provided.

Generic Duties and Responsibilities

• To contribute to the continuous improvement of the services of the Boroughs of Wandsworth and Richmond.
• To comply with relevant Codes of Practice, including the Code of Conduct and policies concerning data protection and health and safety.
• To adhere to security controls and requirements as mandated by the SSA’s policies, procedures and local risk assessments to maintain confidentiality, integrity, availability and legal compliance of information and systems
• To promote equality, diversity, and inclusion, maintaining an awareness of the equality and diversity protocol/policy and working to create and maintain a safe, supportive and welcoming environment where all people are treated with dignity and their identity and culture are valued and respected.
• To understand both Councils’ duties and responsibilities for safeguarding children, young people and adults as they apply to the role within the council. 
• The Shared Staffing Arrangement will keep its structures under continual review and as a result the post holder should expect to carry out any other reasonable duties within the overall function, commensurate with the level of the post.

Additional Information

You will have:

• Basic keyboard skills, use of Microsoft Office, email & Outlook Calendar and the internet
• Good communication skills, including the ability to take and give simple messages, to communicate effectively verbally and in writing with a range of people and to take down telephone messages clearly and accurately
• Good interpersonal skills and proven experience of dealing effectively, politely and diplomatically with people, both face-to-face and on the telephone. 
• Able to understand & respect the importance of confidentiality, both within & outside the workplace
• Ability to work flexibly and co-operatively with colleagues in a team, asking for and giving support as needed
• Able to understand the importance of being punctual & the impact absence has on the effectiveness of the team
• An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity and health and safety in the workplace 

The successful candidate will be surrounded by experienced staff who will provide close support.

Alongside your job role you will be working towards a Business Administration Apprenticeship Standard. If you do not hold GCSE A-C/9-4 in maths and English then you will be required to undertake the Functional Skills Level 2.

Our Apprenticeship scheme provides a perfect way to earn a wage while you gain vital work experience and a nationally recognised qualification. You will be fully supported and mentored through your apprenticeship and be given protected time to complete your course work. When you’ve finished, we’ll help you in your next steps.

For more detail please see the attached Job Specification and Person Specification below.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be 16 or over
• Must have lived or worked in the UK/EU for the last 3 years
• Must not be enrolled in full-time education or enrolled on any other funded courses.

How to apply

To be considered for interview your CV and supporting statement must highlight your knowledge, skills and experience listed in attached Job Profile located at the bottom of the advert. Please email your CV to Jackie Brown:

M: 07557863654

E:  apps@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Please do not apply through the website - we are only accepting CV's via email.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils