Job Description

​

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.

 

​

Our culture

 

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.

 

 

Portfolio/responsibilities of this role

 

As a finance manager to manage and mobilise resources proactively to contribute to achievement of  Westminster Finance ambition to be “Best in Class”, to contribute to a high performance and continuous improvement culture delivering leading edge financial and commercial management underpinned by robust analysis, and promoting and embedding best practice methods and standards.  

 

Lead by example in modelling and embedding the council’s values and behaviours, working collaboratively with Members, services across the council, partners and stakeholders to deliver the council’s objectives and priorities to help build a sustainable highly effective organisation and develop our reputation as a successful council delivering great value for its residents.

 

Specific responsibilities 

• Assist the Head / direct line manager to provide technical advice, guidance, briefing papers and training appropriate to the audience on best practice financial management and commercial issues, where appropriate, including on a range of financial and commercial issues relating to high profile projects and programmes and capital projects as appropriate

• Manage support to the closure of accounts for the relevant team; ensure that the income and expenditure account is accurate, all balance sheet items are reconciled and all holding accounts are cleared on a regular and timely basis; undertake full monthly and quarterly closedowns of your areas including balance sheet items per the prepared timetable

• Contribute to the strategic direction of the service and ensure it is aligned with corporate objectives and priorities, anticipate issues and problems and find practical solutions which will enable the service to deliver their strategic objectives; be responsible for the service improvement plan, including regular evaluation of the progress and taking appropriate actions, measuring performance against the relevant KPIs and local service standards, working closely with service and budget managers 

• Work confidently in reviewing, analysing and preparing key commercial documents for special projects including advising on project agreements, payment mechanisms, output specifications etc

• Manage work to develop and review procedures and reference manuals to support consistent service delivery and compliance with existing and anticipated legislation, regulations and codes of practice. 

 

 

What do we expect this role to achieve?

​

Principal Accountabilities

​

Strategy implementation

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

​

Corporate working

Contribute to the council’s strategic objectives by working actively with colleagues to build a strong and shared approach to service delivery including to service improvement plans and utilising best practice commercial and financial management skills to deliver strong business cases and value for money.   Help changes to be embedded in a sustainable way throughout the organisation.  Provide leadership to your team in a way that encourages our staff to recognise their contribution to the strategic objectives the council has set.

​

Service leadership and management

Actively contribute to the integrated delivery, improvement, management and performance of the service, commissioning and managing activity within the council and externally as required, and helping to ensure overall objectives are translated into effective plans and that the service is efficient and locally responsive. Provide professional management to staff, strengthening skills and competence and fostering a strong culture of standards, performance and accountability.

​

Resources / Financial management

Be proactive in helping achieve tight budgetary control and prioritise use of resources and assets 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 to the development of outcome based commissioning models to better achieve strong price competition and transfer of risks through contracts with third parties. Identify and help to develop commercial opportunities.

​

Partners and stakeholders

Liaise, communicate and influence within the council, across partners, agencies and with the wider local and central government community to champion the council’s approach to improving services. Help bring together local services and decisions across agencies to reduce demand and help communities more independently support themselves.

​

Business change

Help develop and contribute to the implementation and review of change management programmes to deliver continual improvement. Assist the Westminster Finance Management Team and service managers to engender a strong and shared approach to delivering services and provide better support including commercial and financial information to help staff deliver savings.

​

Values and behaviours

Role model positive behaviours, empowering, engaging and encouraging your teams to live and demonstrate the council values, to facilitate achievement of the corporate vision.  

​

Compliance

Ensure that all activities within the service comply with the council’s constitution, Standing Orders, financial regulations, health and safety and safeguarding responsibilities and that effective systems operate within the service to manage performance and risk.

​

Equality and diversity

Uphold and promote 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.

​

​

Your manager & team

 

Strategic Finance Manager (Corporate Finance, Commercial and Financial Management, Treasury and Pensions, Children’s Finance, Adult Social Care and Public Health)

​

​

Experience

​

• Experience, evidenced by a record of success, of managing a significant organisational function or service in a large multi-disciplined organisation with comparable scope, budgets and resources, including of commercial and financial management.

• Experience of maintaining partnerships and productive working relationships within a complex policy and service environment with senior managers and councillors, and a wide range of other bodies, such as partner organisations, communities, public agencies and statutory bodies.

• A proven track record of analysing and providing advice and guidance on local government finance and policy issues including legislative change and horizon scanning.

​

​

Skills

​

• Knowledge of the issues facing local government and those relevant to service/functional responsibilities, together with the legal, financial and political context of public sector management and the statutory responsibilities of this post.

• Ability to deploy relevant business and commercial knowledge and techniques including project, programme and change management techniques, research methodologies, KPIs, standards

• Wide understanding of strategic financial planning and techniques and their application in a budget setting scenario.

• Ability to lead, motivate, enthuse inform and develop people, both within the team and those in other departments

• Effective presentation, communication and interpersonal skills.

• Effective and demonstrable commercial and financial skills.

• A commitment to equality and diversity.

 

 

Qualifications

 

CCAB/CIMA (or overseas equivalent)

Postgraduate Professional Qualification  

​

Degree

Or relevant knowledge and experience essential

 

​

Corporate standards

​

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.

​

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.

​

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.

​

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.

 

​

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.

 

​

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.