Chief Accountant

Brilliant Bexley Shaping our future together 

Despite all the challenges caused by the pandemic, Bexley Council has always been and continues to be focused on supporting the community and improving the lives of local residents. We want to continue to build strong and resilient communities that are living well in clean and green local places. As a Council, we are aiming to continue our drive to be innovative and self-sufficient, providing opportunities for growth that benefit all.

Central to the success of this is the finance department, which influences right across the Council. The department was recently brought back in house and restructured to help with our ambitious plans to improve the financial management of the authority. As we rebuild the department, the focus is on the improvement of the services we offer, providing more financial data analysis to decision-makers and supporting non-financial services to become more confident around managing their budgets.

To ensure we attract and keep talented individuals, we are committed to developing from within, supporting staff through internal training and mentoring, as well as supporting external professional training. It is an exciting time for the service and will present potential employees with the opportunities to develop their skills and experience as well as having a positive impact on the local community. This position will initially be remote working in line with current government guidance. However, when government guidelines change in the future this role will work in a hybrid way, with an expectation that, where they wish to, staff can still spend the majority of their time working remotely.

The Chief Accountant will be the primary expert on financial accounting regulations and will be the primary advisor on this subject matter to the Director of Finance and Corporate Services. They will manage the accounting function looking to introduce a continuously improving approach and develop a high performing finance team. Other key duties will include;

• Managing the production of the Council’s Single entity and Group accounts
• Taking ownership for the relationship with the External Auditor
• Ensuring a best in class system of financial controls
• Supporting the team with providing high quality advice across finance to support decision-making and financial modelling of major capital business cases
• Providing support and presenting to Councillors and Directors where necessary

To be suitable for the role you need to be a fully qualified accountant, with excellent communication skills and proven experience of managing the closure of accounts, ideally within a Local Government setting. The ability to develop staff and look at continuous improvement is also essential.

For more information on Bexley, the interview processes and to see the job description please, refer to https://allenlanerecruitment.wixsite.com/bexley or contact Will Ryan at Allen Lane on 07789871864 for an informal conversation.

To apply, please send your CV and cover letter to bexley@allenlane.co.uk by Monday 17^th May. The cover letter should be no more than 2 pages and should include why you are interested in the position and specific examples of how you meet the key criteria.