27133 - Finance Business Partner - South West & South Central Divisions

This is a Full-time post, but flexible working options may be considered.

Overview of the job

The HMPPS Finance and Analysis (F&A) Directorate is responsible for providing all Finance and Analysis support to the HMPPS Agency across nine directorates and the CEO and COO offices.

The post holder will provide support to the strategic finance lead of a functional and/or geographical area of HMPPS. The role reports to a Lead Finance Business Partner (LFBP) who in turn reports to a Senior Finance Business Partner (SFBP) but with key working relationships with the business area for whom they provide business partner support.

The post holder will be a member of the lead finance business partner support team and will be an active member of the Senior Management Teams (SMTs) to whom they are aligned. The post holder will have a level of authority and respect to proactively support the shaping of strategic decisions.

Summary

The primary purpose of the role is to provide strategic financial support to the LFBP, and key stakeholders, working with the LFBP to improve HMPPS' business.

This is a twin facing role, supporting the LFBP and supporting the business.

In supporting the LFBP, the post holder will be responsible for building and maintaining effective key stakeholder relationships, providing expert financial analysis and interpretation to ensure strategic decisions are implemented efficiently and effectively. They will be an independent thinker, with the confidence to support and challenge the LFBP in improving regional performance.

When supporting the business, the post holder will use the effective key stakeholder relationships built to deliver the finance front line role in engaging with the business, implementing change and spreading best practice.   They will be required to attend all key SMT level meetings and other relevant meetings in support of the business.

They will be responsible for identifying potential financial risks and opportunities, taking mitigating actions where required and providing challenge as appropriate. They will have commercial acumen and be able to operate within a potential environment of ambiguity and uncertainty.

The post holder will provide expert analysis and interpretation of strategic decision making within the business environment.

The post holder will be responsible for providing business partner support across several business units, with financial oversight of up to £160m dependent on the function/geographical area they support.   They will be required to travel between locations on a regular basis.

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties

You will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties

Strategy & Planning

• Have an understanding of and provide professional advice to the LFBP and the business/accountable officer in response to a changing political and economic climate;
• Accountable for the financial input into the development of the business plans for the units and groups supported over the short, medium and long term
• Work alongside budget holders to deliver local budgets in line with the annual plan and provide help to produce accurate forecasts;
• Responsible for providing financial input into the development of Directorate plans over the short, medium and long term;
• Responsible for contributing to the financial planning and clarity on the affordability and achievability of plans within their business area;
• Responsible for contributing to the development of the group business plans;
• Responsible for providing option analysis and challenge to support decision making
• Responsible for implementing financial strategies to enable delivery of directorate, deputy directorate and group objectives;

Stakeholder Engagement

• Responsible for ensuring regular contact is maintained with key stakeholders and budget holders, building, maintaining and influencing effective key stakeholder relationships with and on behalf of the LFBP;
• Working closely with the colleagues within the Lead Finance Business Partner Team and the Management Accounts Team to ensure understanding of in year variances & forecasts and future years’ planning together with forecast and planning assumptions within prisons;
• Working closely with stakeholders within the Lead Finance Business Partner team and the Management Accounts Team to ensure an understanding of in year forecasts and variances and their alignment with planning assumptions;
• Responsible for ensuring a strong partnership exists with key stakeholders to support organisational performance and delivery of plans.

Expert Financial Advice

• Accountable to the LFBP for financial oversight of budgets, ensuring overall financial control by engaging and influencing key stakeholders, accountable budget holders and other relevant stakeholders;
• Responsible for providing key decision-making support to the business to influence the production of effective and efficient short, medium and long-term plans in line with strategic priorities and available resources;
• Accountable for analytical interpretation of financial performance within the business and providing advice to key stakeholders, considering adherence to agreed efficiency proposals and workforce plans and providing support and challenge where appropriate;
• Responsible for being the strategic lead for the provision of professional advice on all financial matters to key stakeholders within the business;
• Responsible for providing key strategic support for the reduction of costs and delivery of the savings targets by providing expert analysis and decision-making support;
• Responsible to the LFBP for the identification and interpretation of cost drivers, their impact on financial results and ability to influence them;
• Responsible for having oversight of compliance with financial regulations and governance within the business, commissioning appropriate assurance testing and providing strategic advice where required;
• Contributing to the development of a culture of financial awareness within the business;
• Responsible for contributing to the benefits realisation process from major change and finance initiatives.

Decision Making

• Responsible for ensuring that budget holders have a common understanding of their financial performance to challenge and support informed decision making;
• Responsible for instigating and maintaining regular and effective contact with key stakeholders, providing expert analysis and challenging and influencing strategic decision making;
• Provide assurance to the key stakeholder and the LFBP on key decisions;

Responsible for identifying and developing the best use of financial resources at business unit level and playing an active part in corporate decision making regarding finance delivery.

Any Other

• Work with the LFBP to embed business partner capabilities within the team;
• Continually develop knowledge base on best practice and techniques.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.

Competencies

• Seeing the bigger picture
• Collaborating and partnering
• Delivering value for money
• Managing a quality service
• Leading and communicating
• Making effective decisions

Essential Skills Qualifications, accreditation & Registration

• IFAC qualification (Qualified Accountant) is required for this post
• Consideration may also be given to part-qualified candidates who are currently studying and are qualified to level 2 or higher. Experience and knowledge of a working as a finance business partner is desirable;
• Experience of delivering high performance and continuous improvement;
• Experience of presenting financial interpretation and recommendations at an executive level;
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills with the ability to communicate and influence effectively with stakeholders at all levels;
• Strategic awareness;
• Influencing Skills;
• Must be able to adopt a proactive problem-solving approach to be able to respond to the changing needs of the business;
• Experience in central government financial management, financial analysis and financial planning;

Hours of Work (Unsocial Hours)

37 hours per week

Factor Examples

Please provide job-specific examples to support the factors below (please refer to guidance for completion):

Factor

Examples

Skills & Knowledge

This role requires an experienced professional accountant. IFAC qualification (Qualified Accountant) is required for this post. Consideration may also be given to part-qualified candidates who are currently studying and are qualified to level 2

Sound knowledge and experience of management accounting theories and techniques. Proven ability to interpret, analyse, present and report management accounting information to varied audiences at the required and appropriate levels.

Sound knowledge and experience of financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and cost driver analysis to determine strategic forward planning. They will need to be able to work up and present different scenarios which consider conflicting risks and opportunities.

The role holder will contribute to the development of macro and strategic financial and business visions to enable financial plans to be developed in line with varied sets of business requirements across business units.

The role holder must have the ability to think strategically both at financial and non- financial levels and must have a sound understanding and detailed knowledge of the operational requirements of HMPPS, its requirements, limitations, risks, opportunities and objectives to successfully adopt a business partnering approach as an objective ‘critical friend’ and offer decision support to achieve both financial and operational objectives.

Excellent oral and written communication skills to deliver formal and impromptu presentations to large groups of people, will discuss complex issues at executive level.

The role holder will be able to interpret financial results and understand the impacts for the business areas supported. To then convert that understanding so that the business at an operational level understands the risks and opportunities and to facilitate them identifying areas where change is required that accords to business requirements and the overall plans of the business.

Manage own Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements and maintain professional standards.  

Accountability & Decision Making

The role holder has financial oversight of up to £160m across several business units and is responsible for ensuring that key stakeholders and budget holders have the necessary information to be able to use resources effectively to deliver the business in line with their delegated authorities and statutory instructions.  

The majority of work is carried out in a self-directed way and decisions will often be required without reference to the LFBP.

Decisions made by the role holder may have impact across the business.

Formal reporting is to the LFBP who in turn reports to the SFBP.

The role holder will provide the financial expert advice to key stakeholders and assurance to the LFBP.

The role holder is also expected to feed financial input into projects and programmes within their business area – with necessary involvement from appropriate stakeholders.

The role holder will support the achievement of efficiency targets, ensuring effective efficiency plans are in place as agreed by their LFBP.

The role holder must provide their LFBP with robust and informed financial analysis to support strategic decision making; this will include making recommendations supported by options analysis which consider conflicting pressures at operational level.

Problem Solving

The role holder must be able to analyse, interpret and make a judgement on complex and varied problems often without precedent and without a template or format to follow and then provide the financial decision support to help determine a solution where appropriate. This decision support needs to be innovative when required and the post holder will need to draw on their own experience, taking into account accounting rules plus the wider strategic context and the business limitations and dependencies of other areas.

The role holder must be able to gather data from a diverse range of sources and reconcile this data accordingly to provide a sound base point from which the problem can be solved at a local level. This in many cases will involve conflicting data from a variety of sources which needs to be validated in the first instance and assessed in the light of inevitable uncertainties.

The role holder must be able to ascertain the financial impact and the ongoing implications of various decisions as solutions to problems and clearly articulate these to both financial and non- financial audiences at a strategic and operational level.

Resource Management & Financial Impact

The role holder has overall budget management responsibility for a budget of up to £160m across several business units.   Formal, delegated authority lies with accountable officer.

The role holder must provide challenge for the budgets and forecasts within their business units through an understanding of the business, their individual operational complexities and the attendant risks and opportunities.

The role holder must understand the value for money and efficiency planning principles of the budget and be able to explain and defend these at a local level. This is facilitated by expert analysis and interpretation of the numerous funding streams, cost categories, dependent and independent variables of the volatility of budgets together with an overarching understanding of the operational business influences and the financial situation for the directorates supported by the Finance Business Partnering Group.

The role holder should be actively assisting the LFBP, key stakeholders and SMT members to evaluate any proposed commitment of resources, communicating relevant costing and benchmarking data.

The role holder should advise the LFRBP, key stakeholders and their SMTs on the financial impact of their workforce plans.

Organising & Planning

Responsible for feeding into the strategic medium to long term financial planning within their business area in line with the overall strategic direction and principles. This will also include input into redefining structures and processes to deliver continuous improvements and efficiencies across prisons.

The role holder will be able to work with the LFBP and key stakeholders and the management accounts team and act objectively where financial planning requirements do not meet the financial envelope available. The role holder must be able to use data, historical reports, trends and extrapolation techniques to provide decision support to the LFBP.

Responsible for validation of workforce planning returns, ensuring consistency with financial reporting and efficiency plans, taking full account of the implications of Fair and Sustainable.

The role holder will be able to work with the LFBP, Senior Finance Manager and Management Accounts Team to ensure that appropriate centrally sourced management information is available to support regional decision making at the appropriate time as part of operating within a matrix structure.

People Management

The post has no line management responsibility.

Information Management

The role involves interpreting and communicating complex financial information and clear delivery to stakeholders within the business for operational purposes and strategic planning. The information may include commercial in confidence material and data sensitive for political and other reasons.

The role holder must be able to translate strategic direction and financial information into local planning with their stakeholders.

The role holder must be able to anticipate the financial information requirement of a complex and wide set of stakeholders and ensure information which is accurate, clear and concise is commissioned and available on time to enable them to carry out their diverse roles.

Influencing & Interaction

Sound influencing skills are required with key stakeholders and their SMTs particularly as a direct line management relationship does not exist between the role holder and their budget holders.

Interaction, visibility and being a ‘critical friend’ are key aspects to the role to ensure finance representation and strategy is integral to the individual directorates’ decision making and subsequent impact on the budget requirements of the agency. The role holder must have an understanding of public sector as a whole; their individual business units and their objectives, associated risks, opportunities and variables to support credible influencing and interaction.   This will enable the role holder to negotiate based on fact, reasoning and business knowledge with internal colleagues.

The role holder will need to be able to influence and interact with a wide range of stakeholders including LFBPs, Governors, LDU Heads of Cluster, Heads of Group, F&A Directorate and external providers. They will need to be able to work effectively within a matrix structure as part of the group, ensuring that the business partner structure works alongside the management accounts function in the provision, analysis and sharing of information where no direct line management lines exists.

The role holder will have to influence and interact with stakeholders as a representative of HMPPS to resolve conflicting interests and enhance the role and reputation of the business areas they support when necessary on behalf of the LFBP.

The role holder must be able to use influencing and interaction skills to alleviate financial conflict across business units and champion the finance objectives whilst being able to appreciate the pressures and concerns of other functions. This is enabled by a wide business understanding built on sound relationships with stakeholders.

Emotional Demand & Risk

This is a non- prisoner facing role.

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 - 27133.

For further information on the role, please contact - Russ Baldwin on 07872 672372 or email Russ.Baldwin@justice.gov.uk