Deputy Strategic Finance Business Partner - Surrey County Council : Job Details

This full-time, permanent role has a salary range of £77,260 to £85,153 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week.

This is an exciting opportunity for a Deputy Strategic Finance Business Partner to join us and manage a large team supporting Surrey's Schools and Education services. The role is hybrid, typically with a blend of home working and a minimum of 2 days per week in the Council's Reigate, Leatherhead or Woking offices.

Rewards and benefits

• 26 days' holiday rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependants leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the team

The Finance team are part of the Council's Resources directorate, working as business partners to the rest of the organisation. The Children, Families and Lifelong Learning (CFLL) Finance Team provide financial support with budgets and monitoring to the CFLL Directorate, specifically for this role working with Surrey Schools, including Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) and leading on the monitoring of all Education expenditure.

About the role

This role is the key Finance Business Partner for Education and Lifelong Learning, supporting all the central Education budget including the monitoring of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which is one of the largest government grants for the Council, with a net budget of circa £600m.

A particular area of focus will be reviewing and monitoring spend on the high needs block of the DSG and supporting managers in service redesign and delivering best value. The post-holder will also monitor the financial performance of the Safety Valve agreement.

This post will be a financial advisor to the Schools Forum, meeting regularly and reporting on use of the DSG and provision of Budgets to Schools. The role will engage extensively with elected members, external partners, senior managers, functional heads in HR, Finance and Procurement and end users, which will involve significant influencing and negotiation.

This role reports to the Strategic Finance Business Partner for CFLL and will have four direct reports and a total staff of twenty.

Shortlisting Criteria

• To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:
• Fully qualified accountant (CIMA, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAEW)
• Previous experience of senior level finance business partnering, in a similar area
• Excellent communicator with senior management, able to build relationships, challenge and influence
• Good understanding of systems, particularly related to budget modelling and forecasting

Contact us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 21/04/2024 with interviews planned for the week commencing 29/04/2024.

We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.