Chief Accountant

We’re proud to be the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, which recognises our values of inclusion and equality, and we are also excited to be the London Borough of Culture next year so we can celebrate our diversity. But we recognise there is much more to do. Despite the financial strains we, alongside all Councils, are facing we have ambitious plans. We cannot just recover to a pre-pandemic state, we want to challenge how we deliver our services and ensure the focus is on supporting our residents around our priority issues including; tackling inequalities, building more Council homes, supporting local business, prioritising front line services and ensuring that our most vulnerable residents receive the care and support they need.

To support this ambition and to ensure Finance continues to be one of the key enablers of how we deliver our Corporate Plan and the Future Lewisham programme, we are recruiting a number of roles to increase strategic capacity and technical expertise. Finance will play a pivotal role in what we do and how we do it; working in collaboration with colleagues to create efficient and sustainable change that ultimately improves outcomes for our residents.

The Chief Accountant provides accounting, technical and commercial advice to Members and Senior Officers and plays a lead role in the delivery of the Councils statutory accounting information. Key responsibilities will include;

• Ensuring the delivery of the Council’s grouped statement of accounts without adverse audit opinion.
• Advising the Head of Financial Strategy, Planning and Commercial on the financing aspects of the Council’s Capital Strategy.
• Providing managerial leadership and oversight to the core accounting, systems and capital financing functions.
• Keeping abreast of the core government regulations, ensuring Members and senior officers are briefed fully on the implications of existing legislation and any proposed changes.

To be suitable for this role you need to be an energetic and credible qualified accountant, with proven experience of leading and developing teams and establishing positive working relationships with Senior Management and elected Members. A strong grasp of local government accounting regulations and codes of practice and an understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the sector is essential, as is a commitment to Equality of Access and Opportunity in a diverse community.           

Lewisham operates a flexible working policy –we’re focused on delivery and outcomes. We operate a hybrid approach that enables people to work successfully from home whilst offering the opportunity for “in-person” meetings to collaborate and network with colleagues.

For more information on Lewisham, the recruitment processes and to see the job description please, refer to https://allenlanerecruitment.wixsite.com/lewisham-council or contact Will Ryan at Allen Lane on 07789871864 for a confidential conversation.

To apply, please send your CV and a covering letter to lewisham@allenlane.co.uk by Sunday 22^nd August. The covering 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.

If you share our values and believe you have what we’re looking for, we look forward to hearing from you.