About the job

Job summary

Two Finance Business Partner roles are available in the Finance Business Partnering Team.

The Team is organised into three areas who support the Directors Generals (DGs) and their teams to effectively discharge their financial accountabilities. This includes providing support and guidance to directors to enable effective financial management of their budgets including oversight of the arm’s-length bodies where applicable.

Finance is high on the agenda in the department and we play a pivotal role in supporting and shaping the way the resources are allocated to deliver the department’s strategic and operational priorities.

We are the ‘go to’ team for teams across the department, advising and providing robust challenge on the affordability and value for money of policy development and investment decisions, business planning and providing insight on budgetary performance against the delivery of our departmental objectives.

Finance Business Partners:

• Strategy & Operations - In this role you will working closely with Director and Deputy Directors to support the Ceremonials and Major Projects directorates. Providing high quality advice and analysis on the high profile major strategic budgets required to run DCMS.
• Heritage & Culture - In this role you will be providing high quality financial advice and analysis to colleagues on exciting policy areas across heritage, arts, libraries and cultural industries. You will also engage with and provide support to external finance teams at Historic England, Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.

Job description

Requirements for both roles:

• Provide high quality finance advice and analysis to stakeholders to support and enable good policy decisions whilst managing their budgets in line with agreed government finance rules. Provide advice and guidance on all financial matters as necessary, from accounting to budgeting and the government’s Estimates processes.
• Build and manage effective relationships with internal Budget Holders and / or Arm’s Length Bodies Finance teams to to provide a trusted, single point of contact between Finance and the business and understand their business in order to support the delivery of departmental priorities for value for money.
• Lead assurance activities and effective financial oversight of arm’s-length bodies, including regular engagement at senior levels and attendance at Audit and Risk Committees.
• Support Budget Holders through the annual (and multi-year) budget setting process for DCMS itself, including administration, programme, capital and depreciation budgets as relevant, and through in-year budget review exercises.   This includes reviewing and quality assuring returns from Budget Holders to ensure that DCMS budgets are established on the basis of a complete and realistic assessment of business need and associated risks and pressures.
• Deliver a customer-focussed service that balances policy priorities with the broader financial needs of the Department.

Person specification

The ideal candidate would have the following skills and experience:

Essential Criteria:

• Experience of providing financial advice on complex issues
• Collaborative and able to work well with others
• Highly numerate and literate
• Able to work well under their own initiative (a self-starter)
• Solutions-orientated and able to complete work in a timely manner without prompting
• Full CCAB or CIMA accountancy qualification or equivalent.

Desirable Skills:

• Previous Business partnering experience
• Working knowledge of Managing Public Money and central government accounting and budgeting rules
• Intermediate or higher Excel skills

We are offering applicants to join a virtual information session on 12:00 PM 31/1/2024 hosted by the vacancy holder - Gayle Jordan-Warne.

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest here and you will be sent an invitation. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,759, Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributes £10,194 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, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this post, please send us the following documents no later than 23:55 PM 5th February 2024 via the CS Jobs portal:

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 3 x A4 pages and you should insert your CV into the "Job History" section on Civil Service Jobs on the Civil Service Jobs application form.
• A Statement of Suitability (max 750 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed.

For the shortlist, we will assess your experience and select applicants demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence provided in your application.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on the statement of suitability. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with: 

dcmsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The interview process will assess behaviours and strengths and potentially include a presentation.

The behaviours to be tested at interview are:

• Working Together
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving

You will not be made aware of the strengths being assessed prior to your interview. 

As part of your interview, you may be asked to deliver a short oral presentation. Full details of this, including the topic, and whether or not you will need to use visual aids, will be sent to you prior to your interview. 

Your interview will take place remotely via GoogleMeets.

For indicative sift and interview dates please refer to the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Further information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to DCMS from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

DCMS has a London and a National pay scale. For more information on this, including the circumstances in which each pay scale will apply, please see the ‘Information for Applicants’ document.

If the vacancy is offered as FTA/Loan, existing Civil Servants must join on a Loan basis only., Prior agreement to be released on loan must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter 

Reasonable Adjustment

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. 

In order to request an adjustment, please:

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or a verbal test rather than a written one. 

Alternatively, contact the Government Recruitment Service via dcmsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility difficulties with any of the attachments, please contact us. Contact details can be found in the 'contact point for applicants' section of the job advert.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.