HQ Job Description (JD)

Transcription

1 HQ Job Description (JD) Job Description: Projects Finance Specialist Business Partnering Group (2 vacancies) Directorate: Finance and Analysis Location: London Pay Span or equivalent: Band 7 National 32,945 to 39,535 + excellent benefits Outer London 35,030 to 42,035 + excellent benefits Inner London 36,115 to 43,335 + excellent benefits Overview of the Job The NOMS Finance and Analysis (F&A) Directorate is responsible for providing all Finance and Analysis support to the NOMS Agency across eight Directorates. The post holder will provide support to the Business Partner Business Development (BD). The post will report to the Business Partner BD (BP BD) who in turn reports to the Senior Finance Business Partner (SFBP) but with key working relationships across all Group business partners. The post holder will play an active role as part of the business partner support provided to BD and will have significant influence within the wider group business partner teams. The post holder will have a level of authority and respect to proactively lead in the shaping of decisions. Summary The primary purpose of the role is to support the strategic business partner function for BD, providing assurance to the BP BD regarding project development and contract management issues. The post holder will be responsible for building and maintaining effective key stakeholder relationships within the group, ensuring a high level of financial performance is maintained. Responsible to the BP BD for providing costings for projects developed for use within Public Sector Prisons (PSP), they will ensure that financial aspects of the Prison Unit Cost Programme and other efficiency projects are accurately costed and managed. Responsible to the BP BD for having oversight of key contracts within Public Sector Prisons (PSP), National Probation Service (NPS) and NOMS in Wales, influencing procurement planning to meet the needs of the business.

2 Responsibilities, Activities & Duties You will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties. Strategy and Planning Have an understanding of and provide professional advice in response to a changing political and economic climate; Responsible for contributing to the financial planning and clarity on the affordability and achievability of competition and transformation plans; Responsible for contributing to the development of the group business plans; Responsible for contributing to the development of the F&A Directorate business plans; Responsible for the clear presentation of options analysis and the financial position to support decision making. Stakeholder Engagement Responsible for ensuring a strong partnership is developed and maintained with the business partner group and accounts team on behalf of the BP BD to support organisational performance and delivery of plans; Responsible for working closely with stakeholders within the F&A Directorate and MOJ Procurement to ensure understanding of forecast and planning assumptions across the Directorates. Expert Financial Advice Responsible to the BP BD for ensuring accurate costed options are produced for the Prison Unit Cost Programme and other efficiency programmes; Responsible for the review and ongoing monitoring of standardised budgets, making recommendations for change as appropriate; Have an understanding of financial risks and issues, ensuring they are monitored and reported as appropriate, ensuring an accurate picture is incorporated within the wider NOMS agency accounts; Responsible to the BP BD for understanding and providing insight into the financial position against business performance to challenge and support informed decision making; Responsible for ensuring strong communication with stakeholders and presentation of option analysis and financial position; Responsible for maintaining a database of contracts across PSP, NPS and NOMS Wales, ensuring that they meet the needs of the business by capturing spending patterns, analysing data and influencing MOJ Procurement; Responsible for undertaking tests on compliance with contracts, liaising with the compliance team and MOJ Procurement as appropriate; Responsible to the BP BD for understanding cost drivers and their impact on financial results and ability to influence them; Responsible to the BP BD for gaining access to key financial management information; Contributing to the benefits realisation process from major change and finance initiatives; Accountable to the BP BD for the provision of support and knowledge within their team to ensure delivery of objectives within deadlines.

3 Decision Making Responsible to the BP BD for providing assurance, consideration and analysis of options, including assessing financial risks and opportunities on key decisions; Responsible for identifying and developing the best use of finance resources from within the organisation, supporting in corporate decision making regarding finance delivery. Any Other Support a culture of financial awareness across all business units within the PSP, NPS and NOMS in Wales directorates. The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary. Significant adjustments may require re examination under the Job Evaluation scheme and shall be discussed in the first instance with the Job Holder Competencies Changing and Improving Collaborating and Partnering Delivering Value for Money Seeing the bigger picture Persuading and Influencing Acts with Integrity Minimum Eligibility All candidates are subject to security and identity checks prior to taking up post All external candidates are subject to 6 months probation. Internal candidates are subject to probation if they have not already served a probationary period within NOMS All staff are required to declare whether they are a member of a group or organisation which the Prison Service consider to be racist

4 Essential Skills Qualifications, accreditation & Registration Please state any skills, qualifications, accreditations and registration required for the job: IFAC qualification (Qualified Accountant) is required for this post Consideration may also be given to part qualified candidates who are currently studying and are qualified to level 2 or higher or for internal candidates as part of the initial recruitment process, to have passed the Heads of Finance Assessment test with relevant financial experience. The definition of relevant financial experience is that the member of staff should have had no more than 6 months out of the Finance department as they need to have had hands on experience with the latest set of accounts Experience and knowledge of a prison and / or probation operational environment is desirable; Financial Leadership role requiring strong management skills; Experience of delivering high performance and continuous improvement; Experience of presenting financial interpretation and recommendations at an executive level; Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills with the ability to communicate and influence effectively with stakeholders at all levels; Strategic awareness; Influencing Skills; Must be able to adopt a proactive problem solving approach in order to be able to respond to the changing needs of the business; Experience in central government financial management, financial analysis and financial planning; Demonstrable project management skills are desirable.

5 Factor Examples Please provide job-specific examples to support the factors below (please refer to guidance for completion): Factor Examples Skills & Knowledge This role requires an experienced professional accountant. IFAC qualification (Qualified Accountant) is required for this post Consideration may also be given to part-qualified candidates who are currently studying and are qualified to level 2 or higher or for internal candidates as part of the initial recruitment process, to have passed the Heads of Finance Assessment test with relevant financial experience. The definition of relevant financial experience is that the member of staff should have had no more than 6 months out of the Finance department as they need to have had hands on experience with the latest set of accounts Sound knowledge and experience of management accounting theories and techniques. Ability to interpret, analyse, present and report management accounting information to varied audiences at the required and appropriate levels. Sound knowledge and experience of financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and cost driver analysis to determine strategic forward planning. They will need to be able to work up and present different scenarios which consider conflicting risks and opportunities. The role holder will contribute to the development of macro and strategic financial and business visions to enable financial plans to be developed in line with varied sets of business requirements across business units. The role holder must have the ability to think strategically both at financial and non financial levels and must have a sound understanding of the operational requirements of NOMS, its requirements, limitations, risks, opportunities and objectives in order to successfully provide support to the business partnering approach. Sound knowledge and understanding of MOJ contracts affecting PSP, NPS and NOMS Wales. Excellent oral and written communication skills to deliver formal and impromptu presentations to large groups of people including complex issues at executive level. The role holder will be able to interpret financial results into strategic risks or opportunities and highlight areas where consideration for change is required in line with both the specific business requirements of the individual business unit and where this fits into the wider directorate.

6 Manage own Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements and maintain professional standards across the organisation through professional supervision, coaching & mentoring. Accountability & Decision Making The post holder will support the BP BD in managing the efficiency elements of the PSP, NPS and NOMS in Wales budgets in line with public sector benchmarks and comparators, influencing the PSP, NPS and NOMS in Wales budget of up to 2058 million. Make or validate decisions affecting areas of responsibility. Decisions affecting regional, divisional or NOMS Wales level issues will be referred to the BP BD. The post holder has authority to review and alter working practices in their own function where they do not affect other areas of work, and to make recommendations for cross functional improvements. Decisions made by the role holder may have impact across PSP, NPS and NOMS in Wales. Formal reporting is to the BP BD who in turn reports to the SFBP. The role holder is responsible to the BP BD for undertaking robust costings in support of efficiency programmes. The role holder is responsible for providing the BP BD with robust and informed financial analysis to support decision making, including making recommendations supported by options analysis which may take into account conflicting financial pressures. Problem Solving Problems will be complex in nature and not always easily resolved, e.g. in undertaking investment appraisals to provide decision making support. Solutions will involve considering the analysis of complex data which will affect others working across a matrix structure. This will involve innovation and drawing on personal experience while considering accounting rules, the wider business context and the business limitations within the directorates. The role holder must be able to gather data from a diverse range of sources and reconcile this data accordingly to provide a sound base point from which the problem can be solved. This in many cases will involve conflicting data from a variety of sources which needs to be validated in the first instance and assessed in the light of inevitable uncertainties. The role holder must be able to ascertain the financial impact and the ongoing implications of various decisions as solutions to problems and clearly articulate these to both financial and non financial audiences at an executive level. Resource Management & Financial Impact The post holder will support the BP BD in managing the efficiency elements of the PSP, NPS and NOMS in Wales budgets in line with public sector benchmarks and comparators, influencing the PSP, NPS and NOMS in Wales budget of up to 2058 million.

7 Organising Planning People Management Information Management & The role holder will provide expert analysis of data to ensure robust costings are developed to support efficiency strategies. The post holder will provide sound analysis of costs to influence MOJ procurement in the development of procurement contracts to manage the business. The role holder must influence the BP BD and Business Partners to ensure that value for money and efficiency planning principles are applied to the budgets. This influencing is facilitated by sound analysis and interpretation of the numerous funding streams, cost categories, dependent and independent variables of the volatility of budgets together with an overarching understanding of the operational business influences and the financial situation for the directorates. The role holder should be actively assisting the BP BD and the Business Partners to evaluate any proposed commitment of resources, providing relevant costing and benchmarking data. Responsible for assisting the BP BD in strategic medium to long term financial planning at a directorate level in line with the overall strategic direction and principles. Responsible for supporting the BP BD in co-ordinating this planning across business units within directorates to ensure efficiency planning is based on a considered, risk assessed and substantiated process. The role holder will be able to support the BP BD in providing advice where financial planning requirements do not meet the financial envelope available. The role holder must be able to use data, historical reports, trends and extrapolation techniques to provide decision support to senior managers. There are no line management responsibilities with this role. The role involves preparing, interpreting and effectively communicating complex financial information to key stakeholders within NOMS for further use in business and strategic planning, in particular to the BP BD, Directors, DDCs, DDPs and commercial partners. The information prepared and managed will include commercial in confidence material and data sensitive for political and other reasons. The role holder must be able to anticipate the financial information requirement of a complex and wide set of stakeholders which will be user friendly and enable them to carry out their diverse roles.

8 Influencing & Interaction Interaction, visibility and being a critical friend are key aspects to the role to ensure finance representation and strategy is integral to the individual directorates decision making and subsequent impact on the budget requirements of the agency. The role holder must have an understanding of the directorates as a whole; their individual business units and their objectives, associated risks, opportunities and variables in order to support credible influencing and interaction. This will enable the role holder to negotiate based on fact, reasoning and business knowledge with internal colleagues. Sound influencing skills are required with the Business Partners particularly as a direct line management relationship does not exist between the role holder and the business partners. The role holder will need to have very strong influencing skills to interact with a wide range of stakeholders including the BP BD, DDCs, DDPs and MOJ Procurement. The role holder will have to influence and interact with stakeholders as a representative of NOMS on a national basis to resolve conflicting interests and enhance the role and reputation of the public sector when necessary on behalf of the BP BD. The role holder must be able to use influencing and interaction skills to alleviate financial conflict across business units / directorates and champion the finance objectives whilst being able to appreciate the pressures and concerns of other functions. This is enabled by a wide business understanding built on sound relationships with stakeholders. Emotional Demand & Risk This is a non prisoner facing role.