Financial Governance and Controls Lead (+£5k Market Pay Supplement if CCAB/CIMA/Equivalent qualified)

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Leeds, London

About the job

Job summary

In DHSC, we are proud of our purpose – to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. To achieve this, and create a great place to work, we have four values: we are inclusive, we constantly improve, we challenge, and we are agile. If this sounds like an environment you’d like to work in, we’d love to hear from you.

DHSC leads the health and care system, working collaboratively with a range of Arms Length Bodies (ALBs), such as NHS England. The Department’s total group budget (including NHS England) is approximately £180 billion this year.

This role is in the Financial Governance and Control team whose purpose is to ensure that robust governance and controls are in place across the Department and its ALBs that align with Managing Public Money, and to ensure value for money is delivered for the taxpayer on the significant annual investment in health and social care.

This is an excellent opportunity to diversify finance experience, leading a challenging portfolio in a role central to DHSC’s decision-making processes.

Job description

The Financial Governance and Control team is relatively new and small but perfectly formed team. This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of the delivery of multiple projects to develop the Department’s governance and control strategy, improve products, processes and organisational understanding, working closely with stakeholders across the finance function, the wider department and our ALBs.

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in the Finance Directorate by ensuring that its finances are managed within the framework outlined in Managing Public Money. The team has a significant focus on improvement and best practice. The team is responsible for ensuring that there are adequate delegations, controls and reporting arrangements, aligned with the Departmental risk appetite to provide assurance to the board, the Accounting Officer and ultimately ministers.

The successful candidate will be lead on upskilling colleagues across the Department, ensuring that the understanding of controls and that guidance is current and accessible for stakeholders. A key part of the role is collaborating with leads across the Department to raise the profile of financial governance and control to facilitate compliance with the Financial Control Framework. The successful candidate will work effectively with internal and external stakeholders, making sound judgements to interpret and apply rules and policies.

The role provides an excellent opportunity to function with a large degree of autonomy within a supportive and agile team. The team is made up of a mix of both qualified accountants and those with other relevant experience. A finance qualification is advantageous but not essential for this role (a wide range of applicants are encouraged; the required key skills and experience are set out below). This role attracts a market pay supplement if CCAB or equivalent qualified. We are supportive of candidates who are seeking to become qualified, either starting their qualification through an apprenticeship, or in supporting individuals who are part way through their studies.

If you have any questions about the role and would like an informal discussion, please do feel free to contact the vacancy holder: [email protected].

Person specification

The successful candidate will lead on:

1. Collaboration across the Department and its ALBs – Develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of risk and assurance, and the requirements of Managing Public Money to ensure business case owners obtain timely, appropriate approvals prior to committing spend. Communicate with teams to help them understand weaknesses within their areas and provide clear advice to allow department-wide improvements.
2. Centre of expertise – Provide high quality advice, guidance, and support on a broad range of queries that meet customer needs and ensure controls are followed. Build capability in others by providing guidance, training, and teach-ins to key stakeholders. The successful candidate will also support the directorate in providing a clear framework both to DGs & ALBs in understanding their budget, delegations and the approvals processes that needs to be followed within that delegation.
3. Risk Management – The successful candidate will be able to identify and support mitigation of risks, also help drive a culture of risk management across the Department.
4. Financial improvements – Assess and improve the financial awareness and capability, promoting and assessing compliance across the department and proactively seek ways to improve systems and processes, implementing recommendations from internal and external reviews of the Department’s systems of control.

Key skills and experience required for the role

Essential Skills and Experience

• Experience of building and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships. You will need to quickly build relationships across the Departmental group and with senior officials and be able to collaborate and deliver through other teams.
• Experience of effective decision-making, consulting with stakeholders to ensure impacts and risks are understood before making key decisions.
• A solutions-focused, driven professional with a “can do” attitude, with excellent problem-solving skills.
• Experience of leading a diverse portfolio, managing competing priorities with excellent organisation skills.
• Fostering a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing between business areas, finance and other corporate services (e.g. commercial colleagues).
• Knowledge of public sector finance (e.g. Managing Public Money).
• Ability to work with and challenge senior leadership to develop a clear vision of Departmental risk appetite, our corporate governance and to ensure the structures deliver against priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and influencing skills to make an impact with colleagues at all levels, including building and maintaining networks and relationships, both internal and external to DHSC.
• Previous relevant finance experience.

Desirable skills and experience:

• CCAB/CIMA qualified (or part-qualified) accountant or international equivalent. Note, a finance qualification is desirable but NOT essential. Applicants will need to demonstrate through experience that they have gained relevant experience that can be applied effectively in the role.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Those that hold a full CCAB, CIMA or equivalent qualification will be eligible for an annual market pay supplement of £5,000. This payment is in addition to the advertised baseline salary. The Department also provides support to become qualified.

Your normal place of work will be your contractual primary workplace, usually either London or Leeds. Within DHSC we offer non-contractual hybrid working. The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time spent in the office, enabling in person interaction and collaboration and enhancing team working, learning, and support. 

You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas and some travel may be required across the DHSC estate. 

Opportunities for some working from home may be available; other flexible working options may be discussed with the hiring manager in line with individual circumstances and business need. 

There are a limited number of DHSC colleagues who have existing agreed homeworking contracts resulting from Our Future Estate Programme 2023-2024. Colleagues covered by these arrangements are eligible to apply for this role whilst continuing their agreed existing home working arrangement. Occasional travel to DHSC offices or other locations may still be required according to business need. Travel and subsistence will be provided in line with the pre-agreed homeworker arrangements. 

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,116, Department of Health and Social Care contributes £14,341 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Sarah Fry
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact the DHSC Central Recruitment Team at [email protected]

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/

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