The role
About us:
Southwark is a large, ambitious and progressive council with a ‘can do’ attitude and enviable reputation. As a Council, we are successful, passionate and forward-thinking. We are committed to our ‘Fairer Futures for All’ promise which ensures that our residents and businesses are central to everything we do. If you want to make a difference at a local level, apply to Southwark Council today.
The Council’s Professional Finance Services (PFS) division sits within the Finance Department. PFS provides professional accounting and financial advisory and support services to the organisation. The division is made up of around 50 members of staff arranged in a ‘hub and spoke’ model with three departmental finance teams and a central ‘corporate finance’ team.
The council are currently recruiting to 2 Divisional Accountant positions:
Divisional Accountant – Education
The post holder will provide accountancy support for Education services. You will be reporting to the Senior Finance Manager for Education and Schools.
The post holder will have responsibility for the following areas:
Establishing and maintaining an excellent relationship with budget holders in order to stay informed about all finance related developments in their service areas
Using this knowledge to produce an accurate periodic forecast for these areas
Creating high quality monthly finance reports to keep management informed about the financial situation in their responsive areas
Year end closure of accounts including liaising with auditors
Finance lead for key statistical and grant returns
Support on key projects and provide advice to Senior Managers
Divisional Accountant – Schools in Financial difficulties
Looking for a Divisional accountant to join the education finance team to assist schools with financial difficulties as well as with the Keeping Education safe project. This is a 3 years project approved by Cabinet in Winter 2022 to right size and future proof Southwark Council's school estate. It will involve working with the department and the project team during the initial stages of implementation as well as during the implementation of the project. In addition the post holder will be responsible for monitoring the existing schools with licenced deficit and work with schools on their licenced deficit plans. Post holder will also assist the education department when dealing with school amalgamations and closures where necessary. The post holder should have good understanding of the governance necessary around school financing and will required to assist Senior Finance manager and Interim finance consultant to ensure the scheme of financing school is up to date and in line with the current requirements of the council, schools and the education service
Key responsibilities:
Establishing and maintaining an excellent relationship with budget holders and key contract within schools in order to stay informed about all finance related developments
Supporting schools in financial difficulties, monitoring the existing schools with licenced deficit and work with school on their licensed deficit plans.
Review and critically evaluate schools licenced deficit plans and provide feedback and assistance if necessary when developing and monitoring the plans
Post holder will also assist the education department when dealing with school amalgamations and closures where necessary.
Additional salary details
About you:
We want only the best for Southwark and we are seeking a qualified accountant with a strong background in finance, preferably with experience in education, schools/DSG accounting. In addition for the schools in financial difficulties role we are looking for someone with experience in working with and advising schools. You will have an excellent track record of achievement. The successful candidate will be expected to have sound financial and analytical abilities, strong leadership and excellent people and communication skills. You will work closely with the service directorate as well as head teachers, school business managers to understand their needs and help support them deliver departmental and corporate objectives as well as necessary savings targets.
Additional details:
For an informal, confidential discussion about either job opportunity, please contact Eniko Nolan at Eniko.Nolan@southwark.gov.uk
Benefits and more information:
From flexible working to job sharing (where possible) we are committed to providing a healthy work life balance. You will benefit from 29 days basic annual leave (plus bank holidays), rising to 36 days with continuous service, a generous local government salary related pension, cycle to work and cycle loan scheme, season-ticket loan, confidential wellbeing and counselling support. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Staff Benefits page.
Recruitment timetable
Closing Date: 29/05/2023 at 23:59
Interview and Assessment Date: 08/06/2023
We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.
SWCHTF
Attachments
