Job Description

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What we value at Westminster

 

We believe that through our leadership and working together we can create the best environment to support growth that benefits our local communities and our unique heritage of which we are the proud custodian.

 

Our vision is for Westminster to be an unrivalled City of choice and aspiration where the connections we build amongst our teams, residents, businesses and visitor’s gets stronger as everyone plays their part in and benefits from the city’s continued success.

 

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Our culture

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We aim to be Productive, Ambitious, Collaborative and Enterprising. We want all our teams to have the skills, confidence and network to contribute to and deliver our City for All vision.

 

We want you to have the opportunity to put your ideas into action, to have a real opportunity to set the standard and the PACE and make your career your own. We want your ambition and we want to help you learn and grow.

 

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Portfolio/responsibilities of this role

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As an assistant finance manager to support Westminster Finance in the delivery of change, innovation, efficiencies and continuous improvement.  Help prepare and evaluate robust business cases supported by rigorous and robust financial modelling and commercial analysis, providing technical advice and interpretation on the outcome.  

 

Model and help to embed the council’s values and behaviours, working collaboratively with managers and services across the council to help deliver the council’s objectives and priorities, maintaining plans and processes. 

 

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What do we expect this role to achieve?

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Principal Accountabilities

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Support to strategy implementation

Help implement the council’s strategy on continuous service improvement and delivery of its priorities and value to residents. Provide clear information to support the future development of the service to help enable the council to meet its future challenges, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.

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Corporate working

Contribute to cross-authority working, applying benchmarking, commercial and financial management skills to help inform strong business cases and value for money projects including service improvement plans.

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Support to service improvement

Deliver a range of specialist services advising and assisting customers, in area of expertise, to maximise service quality, efficiency and value. Maintain, develop and review systems, processes and procedures to secure a cost effective service and continuous improvement.  Liaise with budget and service managers to ensure plans, initiatives and projects have appropriate financial and commercial input.

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Financial management

Help achieve tight budgetary control to support the delivery of the council’s Better City, Better Lives vision and help ensure that the council receives value for money from its expenditure. Contribute modelling and analysis to the development of commercial business models to better ensure strong price competition and transfer of risks through contracts with third parties. Help to Identify commercial opportunities.

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Partners and stakeholders

Liaise and communicate within the council to help champion the council’s approach to improving services, contributing clear and relevant commercial and financial analysis.

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Business change

Contribute timely and high quality commercial and financial information to support implementation and review of change management programmes to deliver continual improvement. Assist the Westminster Finance Management Team and service managers to promote greater financial and commercial awareness including better support for staff to deliver savings.

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Values and behaviours

Positively demonstrate the Council’s Values and Behaviours in your role, to support the achievement of the corporate vision.

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Compliance

Ensure that you and your area comply with the council’s constitution, Standing Orders, financial regulations, health and safety and safeguarding responsibilities and that advice and decisions are within the budgetary framework.

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Equality and diversity

Uphold the aims of the council’s equality and diversity policies to ensure non-discriminatory practices in all aspects of work, and that diversity is embedded in everything, from workforce planning and policy development to planning service delivery.

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Specific responsibilities 

• Work successfully on multiple projects and tasks simultaneously ensuring they are timely and achieve high standards of output

• Provide financial information to time and quality, for example, for full monthly closedowns and all balance sheet items, completing all external returns accurately and to time

• Liaise with budget and service managers to ensure plans, initiatives and projects have appropriate financial and commercial input

• Assist in cross-authority working; benchmarking, collaborative working etc.

 

 

Your manager & team

 

Finance Manager - Corporate Finance, Finance Manager - Commercial and Financial Management, Finance Manager – Commercial, Finance Manager, Retained SSC Lead – depending on rotation)

 

 

Experience

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• Some experience of supporting a significant organisational function or service in a large multi-disciplined organisation with comparable scope, budgets and resources.

• Some experience of successfully contributing to managing, setting and monitoring budgets for services including development of integrated costings systems and methodologies and working with budget holders to re-balance overspends. 

• Some experience in commercial and financial management in a multi-disciplinary environment, financial modelling, contributing to research and analysis, preparing reports that are clear and accessible to various audiences, looking for opportunities to demonstrate best practice.

 

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Skills

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• Some understanding of the issues facing local government and those relevant to service/functional responsibilities.

• Some knowledge of project, programme and change management techniques.

• Some knowledge of financial, business and commercial techniques e.g. KPIs, standards

• Some understanding of financial planning, budget setting, monitoring and closing of accounts, comparative analysis, research techniques and their application, financial techniques and methodologies.

• Effective relationship and stakeholder management skills and skilled in written and verbal communication to various audiences.

• Good and developing commercial financial and budget management skills with the ability to deliver through creative and efficient working practices.

• A commitment to equality and the importance of diversity.

 

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Qualifications

 

CCAB/CIMA (or overseas equivalent)

Part qualified or studying towards it

AAT – essential Or relevant knowledge and experience

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Degree

Or relevant knowledge and experience Desirable

 

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Corporate standards

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Resources / Financial management

We expect you to manage delegated budgets, funding and resources in line with our processes and our Westminster Way. We would welcome your ideas on the development of outcome based commissioning models and/or income generation opportunities to help the council receive value for money.

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Values and behaviours

Our values and behaviours are at the heart of everything we do. We expect you to work in this Westminster Way empowering, engaging and encouraging your teammates to deliver our corporate vision.

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Compliance

We expect you to ensure legal, regulatory and policy compliance in area of your specialism, identifying opportunities and risks and escalate/report where appropriate.

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Equality and diversity

We value equality and diversity as a city council and we want you to support and promote this in your day to day work.

 

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PACE

 

Our values and behaviours: Set the PACE

The Values and Behaviours are essential criteria for each post. The bullet points alongside each value give examples of good practice or behaviours associated with that value. You will need to show that you meet each of the values to join us.

 

Productive

• We show initiative, drive and determination to get the job done; and constantly to improve what we do.

• We determine the right course of action through listening to the needs of our customers

• We are accountable for our actions and the decisions we make

• We help others to be productive, independent and make informed decisions

 

Ambitious

• We are ambitious in creating new solutions which bring about     substantial benefit

• We challenge ourselves to be the best we can be

• We take pride in providing public services to our communities

• We work as a team to support one another to be the best we can be for our customers

 

Collaborative

• We provide local leadership and work with partners jointly to develop and deliver services

• We listen to one another and respect one another’s point of view

• We challenge one another respectfully and constructively, working together to resolve issues

• We treat everyone with courtesy, fairness and transparency

 

Enterprising

• We seek the best deal when looking for ways to improve value for money and reduce cost.

• We look for new ways to generate growth, income and maximise commercial potential

• We take managed and considered risks to enable us to achieve the best outcomes.

 

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Additional leadership values and behaviours for managers

 

People and Service Management  

• Managing excellent, cost-effective service delivery.

• Driving forward performance - setting high standards, encouraging improvement and supporting the team to achieve. Having regular team meetings and one to one conversations about performance, including difficult ones when necessary.

• Developing our people and our partners - giving people the scope to do well, taking time to understand their strengths and motivations, stretching them and coaching them to achieve.

• Managing budgets responsibly – planning, monitoring and adapting budgets to respond to changing priorities. Delivering the Medium Term Plan

• Working within the democratic framework - understanding the democratic process and its role in public organisations, anticipating Member needs and responding to their feedback.

 

Leadership and Engagement

• Inspiring the team to deliver the corporate vision, embrace change and develop opportunities.

• Delivering the corporate vision – developing and communicating a direction for my service which keeps us focused on delivering the priorities of the corporate vision and makes it central to everything we do.

• Leading change - being realistic, transparent and clear on the challenges. Communicating the reasons for change and ensuring understanding. Inspiring people to get involved, to question, and to take change forward.

• Making difficult decisions – tackling issues proactively and finding solutions, being accountable for the decisions that have been made.

• Engaging staff, communities and customers - winning strong support through effective and regular communication, collaboration and feedback.

• Being commercial – creating opportunities to generate growth, income and maximise commercial potential.