26881 - Income Accountant

£30,389 - £37,806
1
12 Months
London
London
102 PETTY FRANCE LONDON, SW1H 9AJ
HEO
C
Fixed Term
2-year Fixed Term Contract
Full Time, Flexible Working
Finance

Please note that applicants from outside of the civil service, if successful, will start with a salary corresponding to the bottom of the band.

Are you excited by the prospect of:

  • Working alongside one of the biggest Central Government Change Programmes, currently taking place in the UK?
  • Being involved with transforming the way justice is delivered with the Courts and Tribunals service?
  • Enhancing and developing your Accounting skills and knowledge, fit for the 21st century?
  • Working with both highly professional and skilled finance and non-finance professionals, to deliver the changes and business as usual activities needed at an ever-increasing pace?

If so, then please read on!

This appointment will be made on a fixed term appointment (potential to extend), due to the time limited nature of the Reform Programme. For existing civil servants, whilst the role itself is time limited, you will retain permanent civil servant status and successful appointment on promotion will secure this grade on a substantive basis

The Organisation

Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service is an agency of the MoJ and provides the supporting administration for the judiciary across England and Wales.  It delivers services to the public directly in court and tribunal buildings, remotely via business centres and some limited services via the internet.

The Challenge

The challenge is to deliver a Courts and Tribunals service fit for the 21st century by using technology to deliver new ways of working and giving a better customer experience whilst ensuring we have an estate which is fit for future generations. The HMCTS Reform Programme is a once in a generation opportunity to transform the entire HM Courts and Tribunals Service, enhancing the provision of a world-class justice system, in a manner that provides an improved user experience at reduced cost to the taxpayer. This will contribute to consolidating the UK’s position at the forefront of an increasingly competitive international legal market as well as ensuring access to justice for all.

HM Treasury have committed £1 billion over six years – the aim is to put technology at the heart of everything that we do and create a digital by default environment bringing justice closer to the public.

The Team

We are building a finance team of highly talented and motivated individuals to work on business as usual activities whilst delivering one of the biggest investment programmes in government today. The role is varied, flexible and fast paced and will give you an opportunity to develop a raft of skills. The Reform Programme is ambitious and innovative and will need a flexible workforce to deliver it whilst managing the business as usual activities. Those leading and contributing to the change will experience new and exciting opportunities and will benefit from playing a part in many different initiatives throughout the programme.  Staff will need to display a commitment to three key principles: Continuous change, managing uncertainty and assuring services around the needs of the users. All those appointed to these new roles must be wholeheartedly committed to these principles and evidence this in their application.

The Role

As an Income Accountant in HMCTS your role is to protect value, drive value and add value.

You must be able to flex and adjust when, as is inevitable when working in an agile environment, developments do not always go according to plan. Strong communication and influencing skills are essential as the role will involve working closely with stakeholders, users, staff, senior managers, policy, operations, information technology, members of the judiciary, ministers, to help design and implement new business processes successfully.

Your role will be to ensure that management information is accurately analysed and reported to inform decision making and commercial discussions. You will provide effective, active and dynamic leadership, communicating objectives, plans and priorities with clarity, conviction and enthusiasm. You will become involved in national initiatives that continue to develop the finance function.

Key interactions within reform will be with the project management community as well as the technical development teams who are developing the products alongside the Product Manager. The service users will comprise of end users, professional bodies and other interested parties.

Responsibilities

  • You will participate in national initiatives that continue to develop the finance function about delivering fee income accounting services and improving management information. This will drive continuous improvement and standardisation of ways of working seeking out best practice in service delivery, developing new products to meet the needs of the changing business and to assist the business to deliver solutions that represent good value for money.
  • You will effectively act as BAU project support on the reporting side reporting to the Senior Income Account as currently the team has a back log of work, generated by the digital end to end transaction processing strategy, that requires resourcing
  • You will engage closely with our suppliers, different parts of the business and external stakeholders to manage HMCTS’s processes when fee transaction processing issues arise. Where appropriate you will assist in the renegotiation of contracts based on new systems landscape e.g. Middle Office contract, merchant acquirer contract, credit check contract
  • You will set a clear example of good financial control and governance, designing and following business processes to ensure regularity and propriety in HMCTS’s transactions. This will mean acting as a point of contact for internal and external auditors regarding income financial information, processes and controls.
  • You will develop an expert understanding of our customers and system users’ needs and understand the product owner reports that demonstrate progress against stated benefits
  • You will assist with benefits realisation forecasting as changes to an original plan will require reforecast activity.
  • You will communicate change and its impact clearly to the team arranging any training for team to upskill ahead of working in a more digital environment. Initial demands in this are requirements linked to data / MI strategy with Power BI, Link/Board and Microsoft products.
  • You will promote new products projecting a positive attitude towards change to staff, once assurance is complete, to ensure maximum uptake.
  • You will work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Skill and Qualifications

Essential Skills

  • CCAB part qualified (or the ability to evidence solid financial experience over an extended period and/or in a variety of finance roles).
  • Exposure to product management and an understanding of agile delivery techniques and tools
  • Good MS Excel Skills, PowerPoint and Word skills
  • Good data analysis skills and experience in preparing, engaging and understanding complex data
  • Good interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders, both finance and non-finance
  • Good written and verbal skills.
  • Ability to work in a culture of rapid change and work with risk
  • Adaptable and willing to review role and priorities with senior management team to meet the current and future needs of the organisation.

Competencies (Key Civil Service & Finance Specific Competences)

You will be required to provide evidence of the following key competencies at Level 3:

Changing and Improving

  • Find ways to improve systems and structures to deliver with more streamlined resources
  • Regularly review procedures or systems with teams to identify improvements and simplify processes and decision making
  • Actively encourage ideas from a wide range of sources and stakeholders and use these to inform own thinking
  • Prepare for and respond appropriately to the range of possible effects that change may have on own role/team

Collaborating and Partnering

  • Establish relationships with a range of stakeholders to support delivery of business outcomes
  • Invest time to generate a common focus and genuine team spirit
  • Actively seek input from a diverse range of people
  • Readily share resources to support higher priority work, showing pragmatism and support for the shared goals of the organisation
  • Deal with conflict in a prompt, calm and constructive manner
  • Encourage collaborative team working within own team and across the department

Managing a Quality Service

  • Develop, implement, maintain and review systems and service standards to provide quality, efficiency and value for money
  • Work with team to set priorities, goals, objectives and timescales
  • Establish mechanisms to seek out and respond to feedback from customers about service provided
  • Promote a culture that tackles fraud and deception, keeping others informed of outcomes
  • Develop proposals to improve the quality of service with involvement from a diverse range of staff, stakeholders or delivery partners

Professional/Specialist Skill

  • AAT or training for a qualification of an IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) member body (e.g. ICAEW, ICAS, ICAI, CIMA, ACCA or CIPFA); or an ability to evidence solid financial experience over an extended period.
  • Practical understanding of financial systems and reporting products;
  • Excellent financial analysis skills and knowledge of Excel
  • Understanding of cost and income issues affecting budget management.
  • Track record for producing reliable and accurate forecasts and other financial reports to tight and shifting deadlines;
  • Ability to communicate financial issues to non-finance staff in a way that is clear and concise

Working Arrangements & Further Information

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on 'modernised' terms in their current post or onto 'unmodernised' MoJ terms if they are on 'unmodernised' terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

Flexible working hours

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Generous allowances for paid holiday starting at 25 days per year, and rising as your service increases. There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Pension

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

Training

The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Support

  • A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
  • Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits,retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
  • For any moves across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers
  • Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
  • Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Networks

The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity.

There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Expected: From July 2019.

17/06/2019, 23:55 hours.

Please feel free to contact Dylan Whelan, HMCTS Recruitment Manager, on dylan.whelan@justice.gov.uk or 07540 271 611.

If you require any assistance please call 0845 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@sscl.gse.gov.uk Please quote the job reference - 26881.

To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why. 

For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).

If you do not meet the above requirements, you may still be considered if, for example:

  • You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
  • You were studying abroad
  • You were living overseas with parents

In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account.

Candidate Information

You may be required to provide statements describing your skills and experience relevant to each of the selection criteria. We recommend that you structure any examples as Situation, Task, Action and Result. For more information about the recruitment process and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

In the event of a large number of applications, we reserve the right to undertake the following processes:


  • An automated online test where a benchmark must be passed to progress;
  • A sift on the lead selection criteria. If this happens, the lead criteria will be the first one listed in the advert.

During the selection process, you may be asked to undertake an additional assessment (such as written test). If this is applicable you will be notified of this when you are invited to interview.



if you feel that your application has not been treated in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance
Professional competency
Please outline in no more than 750 words why you are interested in joining the FGP team and how you hope to fulfil the criteria listed on the job description, using examples/STAR technique where possible.

We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.


Application form stage assessments

Interview stage assessments

There is 1 interview stage for this vacancy.

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans

Redeployment Interview Scheme

Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.

MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

· UK nationals

· nationals of the Republic of Ireland

· nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families

· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

· individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

· Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

This Vacancy is closed to applications.