We are seeking a high-calibre finance professional, with experience of delivering a finance business partnering model, to make a difference to the residents of West Sussex.

The Opportunity

As a high-calibre finance professional, you’ll be used to working with big numbers. Are you ready to use your financial acumen and professional financial skills to make a difference to the residents of West Sussex?

We’re looking for a finance professional with experience to deliver a finance business partnering model, which includes a full range of high quality financial management and accountancy services to clients. You will be responsible for advising and influencing the service to make informed financial decisions, which will have a direct impact on service delivery.

The role is offered on a generic basis, which in time means that the successful candidate could be assigned to support any part of the County Council.  Initially it will involve working with Adult Social Care budgets. The service is experiencing a period of unprecedented change, where people are living longer resulting in significant growth in demand for social care services. Since we want to make sure West Sussex is a great place to live, the County Council recognises this challenge and has an ambitious improvement programme.  At the heart of this is an aim to promote independence by enabling people to stay healthier and live in their homes and communities for longer. Linking financial data with performance information, and with a naturally enquiring mind, you will play an essential role in supporting the service to build a sustainable model for delivering adult social care services.

If you are looking for a diverse and exciting role which offers the opportunity to build collaborative relationships with the service, develop your talent and support senior officers by offering constructive challenge, assurance, recommendations and innovative solutions to add value to their service, then we would like to hear from you.

What are we looking for?

As well as being a finance professional with experience of delivering a finance  business partnering model, you will also need to be a:

• Strategic thinker – someone who can think independently and beyond the surface of a task/ issue to provide a strategic view and added value to the service that you support.
• Relationship manager – someone with the ability to successfully manage key client relationships.
• Critical friend – someone with the ability to challenge, persuade, negotiate and influence the service that you support.

In addition, you will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Key Skills:

• Excellent analytical skills in order to interpret complex and varied financial and/or performance information and develop practical plans, strategies and budgetary solutions with an awareness of performance outcomes.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills with the ability to make sound pragmatic decisions that take into account the on-going impact on performance and resources.
• Strong customer focus with the ability to work as a key client contact and provide a professional service to meet their needs.
• Highly developed communication and interpersonal skills to interact effectively with a range of high-level clients and create and maintain effective working relationships. Including the ability to challenge and influence clients to make financial decisions that they would not otherwise make, to promote understanding of technical information and to successfully advise and guide clients to make sound decisions which could have a significant impact.
• Effective people management skills including performance management skills and the ability to provide direction and support to individuals and teams.
• Ability to adapt to changing situations in a measured and flexible manner in order to adapt the service provided to respond to changes in circumstances whether legislative, structural, client related etc.

Qualifications and/or experience:

• Relevant degree or equivalent qualification or experience which demonstrates that level of applied and theoretical knowledge, plus knowledge of the related systems, procedures and policies.
• Relevant chartered status of a professional body (e.g. CIPFA) or equivalent high-level experience of involved practices. Candidates who are actively studying towards chartered qualification are encouraged to apply.
• Intermediate knowledge of MS Excel and comprehensive knowledge of either SAP finance or equivalent IT finance package. Sound and accurate overall IT  knowledge including Microsoft Office.
• Significant experience delivering a professional accountancy service with a high level accountability for resources on behalf of various clients.
• Experience contributing to setting and monitoring budgets and plans for a specific service within a large organisation or for a small overall business.
• Knowledge and experience of Adult Social Care budgets would be highly desirable.

Working for us

As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this we want to help support your development and provide an great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:

• an excellent local government pension scheme
• generous holiday entitlement of 30 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role

For a full list, this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for this role is CRS00800.
For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Laura Hardie (Finance Manager – Adult Social Care) at laura.hardie@westsussex.gov.uk. For issues or queries regarding your application please contact hrrecruitment@westsussex.gov.uk.

To apply, please click the Apply button to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure  you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility are very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to  enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.