Part Time Head of Finance (0.6 FTE)

One borough; One community; No-one left behind

Over the past four years Barking and Dagenham has gone through an ambitious Transformation Programme to completely redesign the way it works to meet the needs of its residents, becoming a New Kind of Council capable of delivering real change for the community in the twenty-first century. This has meant creating new Service Delivery Blocks, wholly owned companies and embedding new ways of working. We have set out an ambitious approach to provision of excellent services in our borough.

The improvements we’ve made have won multiple awards including UK Council of Year 2020, LGC Entrepreneurial Council 2019 and LGC Council Award 2018 yet there is still more to deliver on. Our New Kind of Council will need to excel at providing consistently outstanding customer service, shaping a place that people choose to live in, being commercially minded and financially self-sufficient, building public engagement, greater responsibility and civic pride and reducing service demand.

As part of our commitment to retaining staff and offering flexible working Barking and Dagenham are looking for a part time Head of Finance, 0.6 FTE, to jointly lead our service finance team as the current incumbent reduces their hours. The role will lead a team providing strategic financial advice to all Directors, their Cabinet Members and directorate management teams to make sure that we deliver successful, value for money services. Key responsibilities will include;

• Leading the provision of strategic financial advice to all Directors, their Cabinet Members and directorate management teams
• Being a member of the Finance Management Team, contributing to the development and maintenance of corporate financial policies and strategies to ensure the continuous improvement of the service
• Involvement in public sector wide finance collaboration, working closely with regional finance groups and other bodies to identify and assess new national policy decisions
• Leading and encouraging the Finance Business Partnering team, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge in order to drive performance improvements within directorates

To be suitable for the role you need to be a credible and inspirational fully qualified finance leader. Proven experience of influencing and challenging stakeholders in a public sector setting as well as driving through change is essential. Most importantly is a willingness to work in a non-traditional environment and to enable new ideas.

If you would like further information please contact Will Ryan at Allen Lane on 07789871864 for a confidential conversation.

To apply, please send your CV and supporting statement to willryan@allenlane.co.uk by Sunday 4th October. The supporting statement should be no more than two pages and should say why you are interested in the role and specific examples of your relevant experience