About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

Job Title/ Position        Finance Business Partner

Grade    G7 

Number of Vacancies    1

Business Group    Operations Services – OPG & CICA team 

Directorate    Operations FBP

Location    National with regular travel to Birmingham required and occasion travel to other sites as required including Nottingham 

Hours    37

Post Type     Fixed Term Appointment (23 months) with the possibility of converting to permanent.

Role Type/ Team    Finance

Overview

The team is based within the Finance Business Partnering directorate within a team that supports the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).  This post leads the OPG business as usual FBP team.

The OPG helps people in England and Wales to stay in control of decisions about their health and finance and make important decisions for others who cannot decide for themselves. OPG is an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice.  The organisation is largely based in Birmingham and Nottingham. The role of the OPG includes:

• registering Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) and Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs)

• supervising deputies appointed by the Court of Protection

• investigating complaints, or allegations of abuse, made against deputies or attorneys acting under registered powers

• maintaining the registers of Deputies, LPAs and EPAs, and respond to requests to search the registers.

Role Summary

As the Lead Finance Business Partner, you will be the business experts with strong interpersonal relationships. You will understand the business and be able to translate and present complex financial information clearly. You will provide valuable financial advice, challenge and support, strategic insight, and business solutions to Deputy Directors and other budget holders.  The Lead Finance Business Partner role supporting OPG is a critical role supporting a complex, challenging and demand led organisation. 

You will line manage a small team of FBPs who support all areas of the organisation. 

Typical Role Responsibilities

G7 FBPs are business experts with strong interpersonal relationships. They understand the business and are able translate and present complex financial information clearly. They provide valuable financial advice, challenge and support, strategic insight, and business solutions often to Deputy Directors and other budget holders. They take on larger or more complex areas and with a focus on business cases.

Entry Routes

Suitable for staff with the required skills and / or experience from within or outside Finance

Progression Routes

Within Finance

This role may be suitable for FBP SEOs and other Finance individuals at SEO, Financial Operations SEOs for example, and G7 with the required influencing, stakeholder management, interpersonal skills, and technical financial understanding.

From Outside Finance

This role is not suitable for non-finance professionals or individuals without significant finance experience.

Role Responsibilities/Tasks

The job holder will be required to undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

• Providing specialist financial advice - engaging with experts on behalf of the business and providing advice on key financial planning, processes, and budget setting.

• Taking responsibility for all financial information provided to the business, and the associated recommendations, using all available data and analytics tools.

• Oversight of income monitoring, cost recovery position and application volume forecasting

• Working with the business to identify weakness in process compliance and reporting on control effectiveness.

• Supporting the development and implementation of credible financial plans that are consistent with the department performance and activity plans.

• Attending, participating, and influencing key strategic meetings.

• Involved at the start of the idea pipeline, engaging early in policy development and business cases.

• Driving evidence-based policymaking by inputting financial insight throughout the process.

• Challenging and supporting the business to enhance decision-making and increase performance.

• Providing coaching and feedback proactively to identify gaps in the financial knowledge of the business.

• Supporting and coordinating delivery of financial services to the directorates.

• Horizon scanning to identify potential issues and helping Directorates develop solutions.

• Management of team members or oversight of other's work and developing leadership skills within and across teams.

Behaviours Required

Success Profiles will enable a fairer and more inclusive method of recruitment by enabling us to assess the range of experiences, abilities, strengths, behaviours, and technical/professional skills required for different roles. This flexible approach to recruitment focuses more on finding the right candidate for the specific role. To find out more about Success Profiles to support your application please click here for further guidance.

• Communicating and Influencing

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Working Together

• Managing a Quality Service

Please refer to the Civil Service Behaviours Framework, which can be found here, to complete this application: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

If we receive a large volume of applications, we reserve the right to conduct the sift based on one lead behaviour. The chosen lead behaviour for this campaign is communicating and influencing.

In addition to Civil Service Behaviours identified above, if you will be using Experience, Ability or Technical standards to assess the candidate please provide further details below:

• Qualified with CCAB, CIMAor equivalent or working towards

• A Statement of Suitability is required consisting of a maximum of up to 1,000 words

• CV

Interpersonal Skills

• Highlight’s areas of potential conflict between stakeholders and manages them accordingly.

• A confident communicator, comfortable with challenging senior business leaders.

• Ability to influence at all levels of the business hierarchy, using logical persuasion and consensus building within groups.

• Able to remain focused on the overall business strategic vision during negotiation, knowing when to compromise and when to challenge for the benefit of the business.

• Highly visible across their area as the primary point of contact for financial advice - the 'face' of Government Finance.

• Understands the vision for the business and confidently leads others to realise the vision.

• Leadership, and the ability to motivate and develop a diverse finance team and promote excellence.

• Highly proficient in using and interpreting data and analytics to support analysis and decision making, identifying gaps in data and reporting, and working with Financial Systems colleagues to develop additional reporting as required.

Professional Skills The core skills following are mandatory, but you may add to them.

Key for Levels of Professional Skills

• A = Awareness

• W = Working

• P = Practitioner

• E = Expert

Core    Level

• Budgeting, forecasting, and costing    P
• The Budgeting Framework    P
• Commercial acumen    P
• Investment appraisal and evaluation    P
• Strategic analysis and insight    W
• Oral and written presentation skills    W
• Performance and risks    W
• Understanding the role of the NAO    W
• Data and analytics interpretation    E
• Useful    Level
• Taxation    A
• Government financial reporting    A
• Supporting the PAC agenda    A
• Risk management and fraud     A
• Interpretation of Accounts    A

Qualifications

Recommended:

• Qualified with CCAB, CIMAor equivalent

• Working towards qualification

In addition to salary, a pensionable, non-contractual specialist allowance will be applied to this role. Specialist allowances apply to certain roles only, are non-transferable to other roles and are subject to annual review.

Travel

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working.  Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

Regular travel to Birmingham and less infrequent travel to Nottingham will be required

Applicants are advised to access the JCC/JSO office map, which is updated whenever a new JCC/JSO site opens, to determine potential travelling times and distances to MoJ locations before applying for a job.

Application Process

To apply please complete the online application form. Applications will be sifted by a panel who will look at the Civil Service Behaviour framework and what is evidenced in your application. Should many applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead behaviour, communicating and influencing.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate the essential role requirements within the application behaviour responses. 

Candidates who are successful following the sift process will be invited to interview, where the behavioural elements and strengths will be tested further alongside other elements of the post. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates in advance of the interviews.

Training

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

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.

Interview dates: Expected end of July / August

For further information please feel free to contact – Louisa Harrison louisa.harrison@justice.gov.uk

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,358, Ministry of Justice contributes £15,165 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, Experience and Technical skills.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.