Strategic Manager (Finance Business

Partnering)

Finance

Job Reference: SCC01450/AMB

Inside this pack:

• What You Will Be Good At

• What You Will Deliver

• What We Will Offer You in Return

• Living our values

If you are interested in finding out more before applying, please get in touch with

Jason Vaughan, Director of Finance on 0796 800820.

If you have any questions about the benefits we offer, or our recruitment process,

please contact our Recruitment Team on recruitment@somerset.gov.uk or

telephone on 01823 355209

We will notify you by email if you have been selected for interview or have been

unsuccessful on this occasion. Please check that the automated email has not gone

in your junk mail folder before contacting us.

What You Will Be Good At

Key Competencies

You should demonstrate a commitment to our four key values – Customer Focus, Can Do

Attitude, Collaboration and Care and Respect. More information can be found on the final page.

Work Experience Knowledge & Skills

Essential

1. Substantial managerial experience and skills

gained at a senior level, including making a

contribution to the corporate management

of an organisation where required.

2. Significant knowledge and experience of

the development, agreement and delivery

of service plans.

3. Demonstrable experience of partnership

working including the ability to influence

and, where appropriate, lead multi-agency

groups and projects to deliver services and

initiatives.

4. Sound understanding and practice of multi-

disciplinary working.

5. Demonstrable experience of engagement

with communities and customer feedback

channels to shape and inform improved

customer services.

6. Demonstrable experience of operating

equality and diversity measures in the local

commissioning and delivery of services.

7. Track record of the flexible use of financial

and other resources (including the service

commissioning framework and

opportunities for income streams) in the

delivery of services on time and within

budget.

8. Demonstrable experience of the effective

deployment, continuing development and

supervision of professional and other staff

resources.

Desirable

9. Sound understanding and experience of the

use of information and communication

systems to inform operational decision

making and recommendations/actions

concerning service improvement.

10. Significant experience of the operation and

achievement of performance management

and quality assurance models.

11. Change management experience.

12. Ability to speak fluent English as stated in

Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016)

Qualifications

Essential

1. Professional CCAB qualification.

2. Evidence of work-related continuing

management development.

Desirable

Personal Attributes

Essential

1. Promotes the need for change and acts as a

role model for change.

2. Positive, committed, adaptable, thorough

and confident approach.

3. Ability to work to deadlines and to motivate

others to work effectively and demonstrate

a duty of care.

4. Committed to diversity in service delivery

and employment.

5. Innovative and creative approach to service

development and value.

6. Customer and Communities focussed.

7. Personal integrity.

8. Drive and self-motivation – “can do”

attitude.

Desirable

9. Sound analysis and decision-making in

dealing with complex service delivery

and/or policy development matters.

All disabled applicants meeting the essential criteria will be interviewed.

Somerset County Council has signed the Charter for Employers who are

Positive about Mental Health

MINDFUL EMPLOYER is a UK-wide initiative. www.mindfulemployer.net

What You Will Deliver

Key tasks and responsibilities:

Purpose

The postholder will need to show evidence of effective leadership, financial support and

challenge to produce improved financial control within or across services in a local government

setting.

1. Provide expertise and strong management to drive performance and to

commission and/or deliver the Council’s priorities and meet service targets, as a

member of the Council’s Senior Management Group.

2. Provide clarity, management and motivation in delivering the County Plan and

other Council transformation programmes as required.

3. Ensure the effective understanding and operation of any specific statutory or

regulatory duty contained within the role.

4. Advise Members and Directors in respect of operational planning and

commissioning, policy matters and service delivery issues and engage with partners

in the promotion, communication and delivery of services.

Key Accountabilities

1. Create, agree and deliver service plans and prioritise activities and projects.

2. Identify and deliver opportunities for service change and improvement and scope,

plan and manage change in corporate and professional activities

3. Review performance outcomes and customer feedback to meet customer

requirements and to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness.

4. Develop and maintain effective customer relations and feedback channels and

work to improve levels of customer service and satisfaction.

5. Resolve complex operational and service-based problems and conflicts raised

through the service escalation process and ensure positive outcomes.

6. Optimise the use of financial and other resources (including commissioning

frameworks, income streams etc.) to locally commission and deliver services on

time, to budget and to the quality standards required.

7. Recruit, review the performance of and ensure the development of individual

professional and other team members.

8. Operate information and communication systems to provide business and

management information used to support and inform operational decision

making.

9. Develop and maintain effective personal networks with partner agencies,

government departments as well as suppliers and contractors etc. to improve

financial insight and intelligence and continual improvement of quality of service.

10. Communicate clearly and succinctly and use influence and persuasion to negotiate

and achieve service objectives.

Assignment

Duties and Responsibilities

This role has 3 key elements to it:

• A set of service budget responsibilities, ensuring provision of innovative and insightful

financial advice and support to relevant service managers – the nature and allocation of these

responsibilities may be changed/rotated by the Director in order to meet the needs of the

service or the Authority as a whole.

• A strategic advisory role supporting a small number of directors, advising on strategic and

operational finance issues.

• A project/programme finance role for key Council programmes.

1. Lead and coordinate a strategic approach to policy interpretation and finance

advice and practice across all service budgets, including revenue income and

expenditure, grant funded expenditure, delegated and devolved budgets, traded

activity, etc.

2. Develop a culture of evidence-based decision making through strong data quality

and analytics, ensuring the highest financial standards and accountabilities are

understood and common across all service areas.

3. Act as the lead financial advisor to the relevant Senior Leadership Team members,

Service Managers and Cabinet Members for service areas in conjunction with

Finance Service Managers.

4. Ensure that finance actions and approach reinforce and complement the cultural

and organisational changes required to produce an effective and efficient

organisation.

5. Lead and motivate teams of professional and support staff to ensure the provision

of high quality and timely financial support services and advice and guidance to a

diverse range of locality and service managers within the Council and its joint

partners.

6. Develop and maintain effective working relationships on finance issues with all

internal and external partners, eg Clinical Commissioning Group, Schools Forum,

heads and governing bodies, other significant suppliers or contractors, etc,

attending relevant Board and partnership meetings.

7. Lead and manage the development of and maintenance of key financial

modules/elements of systems, such as AIS, liquid logic, EMS and their interaction

with SAP. Ensure systems are fit for purpose.

8. Lead the Finance Service Managers to provide strategic financial support to major

service projects/initiatives across council Services, contributing to policy

formulation and ensuring the financial implications (both revenue and capital) and

risks of proposals are fully considered in a timely manner.

9. Ensure services receive expert financial support in identifying and bidding for

additional resources such as external grant funding, ensuring grant conditions are

understood and met and appropriate returns are completed and submitted to

meet deadlines.

10. Ensure financial support and advice is provided to Services in respect of

commissioning and subsequent new contractual arrangements, including pooled

budget arrangements, providing appropriate financial models and analysis to

support the process.

11. Act as lead officer for Schools Forum, including leading development of the

formulae for delegating budgets and grants to schools.

12. Lead and manage the provision of support and challenge in relation to financial

management as part of school improvement, including budget planning, deficit

and surplus balances, efficiency improvements and financial reporting.

Further information specific to this job

Resources

With the Director of Finance this post shares the accountability for the spending of the Council’s

significant revenue budgets.

The postholder will also be a subject matter expert providing strategic advice, policy

recommendation and technical expertise on aspects of Finance across the Council.

The postholder will provide budget management support and financial advice to a range of

commissioning and operational service managers with aggregated annual budgets in excess of

£200m.

Relationships

The postholder reports to the Director of Finance and its principal purpose is to deliver to the

Director the delegated management and improvement of a group of individual services or

activities and to assist the Director in the strategic planning and development of those services.

This will involve a full range of day to day management activities including priority setting,

conflict resolution and service communication.

The postholder will need to develop and maintain a network at Director and Service Manager

level to develop and deliver services and to ensure that resources are optimised to achieve

service improvement.

The postholder will need to develop and maintain a network of external and/or internal partners

and stakeholders to ensure effective feedback arrangements from clients and customers and to

initiate, maintain and support the Director in regional and national service agendas to promote

and maintain the Council’s interest.

The postholder requires advanced communication skills with commissioning and operational

staff to support the Director in ensuring that all staff remain committed and motivated during

periods of change and the service performance is not affected by such change.

Somerset County Council is subject to Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the

ability to speak fluent English will be an essential requirement for customer-facing roles.

What We Will Offer You in Return

Salary and

grade:

Grade 6, between £56,322 per annum

Contract

type:

Permanent

Location: County Hall, Taunton, TA1 4DY

Hours of

work:

37 hours per week. These will be in agreement with the line manager.

Annual

leave:

For this grade: 32 days.

This is inclusive of two statutory days. In addition, there are 8 bank holiday

days.

The annual leave year starts on 1st April or 1st of the month in which the

contract commences.

Probationary

period:

The appointment will be subject to a probationary period of 6 months.

Internal applicants who have already completed their probationary period

would not normally be expected to complete this again.

The Council’s contractual sick pay scheme will not apply for the first 3

months of a probationary period (except with discretion in exceptional

circumstances e.g. sudden critical or chronic illness).

Notice

period:

Following completion of the probationary period, this post will be subject

to a notice period of three calendar months on either side.

Living our values – 4 Cs At work, the way we do things matters as much as what we do.

At Somerset County Council we have four key values – the 4Cs – that all employees are expected

to work to. They will form part of every member of staff’s personal review.

Customer focus

This is about putting the customer at the heart of

everything we do.

Collaboration

This is about working with others to deliver our services.

Can do attitude

This is about getting the job done and doing it well.

Care and respect

This is about treating others as they would wish to be

treated – with care, respect, dignity and understanding.

What does this look like in practice?

The 4Cs describe our values. In practice, this means that we think from a customer or a

community perspective to make sure we get things right first time and continually improve the

services we provide. We must have a clear view of what our customers and service users say they

need, rather than build services based on what we think they need.

We operate a ‘no wrong door’ policy – whichever authority or department deals with the

customer’s query, we help them get there. As we build links with other authorities and

organisations we talk to each other and our managers about how we think we could change, even

the smallest things, for the better.

We work together, establishing positive, respectful and empowering ways of working as strong

teams. We act with integrity, communicating clearly, admitting to our mistakes and striving to

learn from them. When we think we need to speak out or challenge, we are prepared to do so in

a constructive and positive way, but we remain objective.