About the job

Job summary

Reporting to the Finance Director Finance Business Partnering, you will be responsible for delivering finance business partner and cross cutting finance support to the Legal Aid Agency.

You will provide leadership to the finance teams supporting the Office of the Public Guardian and the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority to enable these teams to deliver a strong Finance Business Partnering Service.

You will need to be a first-class finance professional with a track record of influencing stakeholders in fast changing environments.

You will need to build strong relationships with finance and policy teams across the Ministry of Justice.

As a key member of the Finance Function Senior Leadership Team, you will also play an essential role in leading and building our future Finance community, supporting the development of staff, role modelling effective leadership behaviours and ensuring we live our values.

This position can be based at any of the following Locations:

Birmingham, London, Newcastle.

Job description

For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information pack

Person specification

• Providing leadership for your teams and the wider Ministry of Justice Finance Function.
• Provide strategic finance support to LAA by developing an in-depth understanding of the complexities of LAA fund payments and providing financial advice and support to them in their development of policies, programmes and projects ensuring financial issues are resolved and governance processes adhered to.
• Provide strategic input into business planning to ensure the agencies receive proactive decision support and financial insight to enable the best value for money.
• Working closely with and supporting the operational teams and the LAA Chief Executive to support the development and implementation of their priorities.
• The post holder will need to be comfortable supporting Board-level decision making.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders both in the business and the wider finance community.
• Providing data-led and insight driven business partnering, working with the business to improve its understanding of its cost drivers to drive effective use of resources and help the different areas deliver any savings from their budgets.
• Ensure the business is effectively monitoring risks and opportunities, looking both at the in-year position and to the medium and longer term, supporting them to take action where needed.
• Be a central part of the investment decision making process, providing both critical challenge and detailed analytical support in line with Managing Public Money principles.
• Work collaboratively with the Management Accounting Centre of Excellence and Financial Accounting Team to ensure timely and accurate reporting and business intelligence.
• Take responsibility for implementing the Government’s standards for Excellence in Finance Business Partnering in your area, working across the function to raise the quality of services in all parts of finance, developing capability and continually developing knowledge based on best practice.
• Be an active member of the LAA Executive Leadership Team and Boards for operational areas with attendance at board meetings and membership of Audit and Risk Committees.
• Lead the Debt Recovery team and support the MoJ Debt functional leader in ensuring adherence to the debt functional standard driving the efficient and professional collection against the context of a debt book approaching £400m.
• Play an active role in developing the MoJ Finance Function, creating a strong cultural identity, driving a diverse and inclusive culture, empowering staff and promoting accountability.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Diversity & Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

Additional Information  

Please view our candidate information pack for full details about the role, key responsibilities person specification, and the criteria you will be assessed against throughout the recruitment process. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, and feel that you meet the criteria, we would welcome your application.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Ministry of Justice contributes £20,925 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information pack

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)
• 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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.