Senior Finance Adviser - Homelessness & Rough Sleeping
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 12th May 2024
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About the job
Job summary
We are recruiting for a Senior Finance Adviser to join the Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Finance Team. We’re looking for a team player who is committed to learning and personal development. We pride ourselves on providing a friendly, inclusive, and flexible working environment where you can bring your whole self to work. You will be joining a diverse award-winning team (Government Finance Awards 2022) taking on real responsibility and stretch from day one.
You will join us at an exciting time. Our work is a top priority for this Government, we secured almost £2.4bn over the current spending review period to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. You will be at the heart of this, ensuring that this funding is spent effectively and reaches the most vulnerable of our society. We will shortly be preparing to bid for future funding and you will play a key role in helping us to develop a strong case for further investment to change people’s lives. If you want an exciting and motivating role, with the freedom and the opportunity to develop and deliver interventions that will make a real difference to thousands of lives then this is the job for you.
Job description
We’re looking for a people person who has a solid grasp of finance and can lead through others. This role would suit someone with previous financial experience who is able to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously across a range of stakeholders. The post holder should have sound judgement and feel confident assessing risk to either deal with issues or escalate to seniors. This is a stretching role for anyone looking to have high responsibility and a wide ranging portfolio of work from strategic finance, forecasting, budgeting and decision making.
- The post holder will play a key part in developing the programme’s plans for the next Spending Review, providing strategic finance advice to policy teams whilst maintaining an overview across every funding line. They should be a credible and trusted critical friend of policy teams, able to communicate complex finance processes to non-finance colleagues in writing and verbally. Successful candidates will be required to critically appraise investment proposals relating to homelessness & rough sleeping and provide advice on strategic fit, value for money, governance and commercial aspects of investments in line with Treasury’s Green Book.
- The individual will be responsible for leading on the budgeting and forecasting for the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping programme. They will be accountable for ensuring that robust figures are presented to senior management and they have conducted a high degree of due diligence on these. We are looking for someone who is confident in working with complexity and has the ability to bring together wide-ranging financial and delivery information to present insights and recommendations to seniors. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring the accounts for Homelessness & Rough Sleeping are kept up to date and accurate. They will be responsible for posting credit and debit journals to our central accounts team.
- They will be responsible for ensuring appropriate governance processes are followed and that we spend within our financial delegations. The individual will lead on the programme’s monthly finance clearance meetings, presenting to the Director on all aspects of the programmes finances, putting forward key decisions and escalating risks. They will ensure that our records are kept up to update and available promptly to the National Audit Office when required.
- You will be able to confidently synthesis and provide advice to policy teams on Managing Public Money, Cabinet Office’s Grants Functional Standards, Public Procurement and Technical Accounting Standards. If applying externally to the Civil Service, prior experience or working knowledge is not required of these. You will be required to translate these frameworks to colleagues and advise teams how to operate within a strict framework to achieve the best outcome.
- You will be responsible for the line management of at least 1 FTE. You will be expected to provide excellent inclusive leadership to the team and wider colleagues at all grades to get the best out of them, working collaboratively.
We’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where individuals are empowered to excel in their roles. We are happy to accommodate any reasonable adjustments if you require these to perform in the role. Examples include, but not limited to, flexible working arrangements, part time hours, hybrid working.
We are committed to the successful candidate’s learning and development, with a range of opportunities to gain professional qualifications or attend training courses to enhance their capability within the team. We expect that candidates are able to evidence their commitment to their own development as well as their team around them.
Person specification
1) Experience forming finance recommendations using qualitative and quantitative information.
2) Experience communicating complex financial information to non-financial stakeholders in writing and verbally.
3) Experience of working in finance with the willingness to learn about public finance if not already possessed.
4) Strong evidence of people skills. Candidates must be able to demonstrate excellent inclusive leadership practices and experience leading teams through challenging times, ensuring that they are supported, motivated and valued in the workplace.
5) Be highly proficient in Microsoft Excel and has the ability to quickly learn how to use the Department’s digital finance systems so they are confident in their role.
6) Able to demonstrate leading on multiple high-profile pieces of work at the same time. Be able to prioritise their work to meet deadlines whilst remaining mindful of the wider team.
7) Already have or be willing to work towards an appropriate professional finance qualification, once in post paid for and supported by the Department (20% of your time will be dedicated to this if through the apprenticeship route). The specific qualification and level is dependent on eligibility and entry requirements for the course. Examples of qualifications you could work towards include AAT, CIMA, ACCA etc.
Benefits
- 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%
Things you need to know
Selection process details
We are for everyone
At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation.
Please contact the vacancy manager if you have any questions about the role.
As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process.
CV and Cover Letter Declaration
We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment.
Please remove references to your:
- name/title
- educational institutions
- age
- gender
- email address
- postal address
- phone number
- nationality/immigration status
You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter.
Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors.
At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing:
Experience
Please submit a personal statement (no more than 1000 words) and your CV (no more than 1 page) outlining how you meet the essential criteria and experience in relation to the role's responsibilities.
The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of experience and ability based questions as listed in the advert. Candidates will be expected to prepare a 5 minute presentation, details of which will be sent with the interview invites.
In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements:
Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description
Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
Ability: Yes
We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs:
Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign
SEO Accountant
- £38,732 - £46,199 (working towards accounting qualification) or £41,679 - £49,417 (qualified accountants)
- For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.
- In order to receive this specialist pay band, you must be fully qualified and in a qualifying post as agreed by the Finance Head of Profession.
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.
Benefits
Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:
Any move to DLUHC 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.
For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.
Location
- Birmingham
- Wolverhampton
- Leeds
- Bristol
- Manchester
- Darlington*
*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.
For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.
At present, a minimum of 60% of your working time will be spent in your contractual office location. Requirements to attend other office locations or off-site meetings will be counted towards this. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis, if you are successful for the role.
Sift and Interview dates
Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 13.04.2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.
Reserve List
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.
Candidate Pack Information
Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.
Internal Fraud Database
The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.
For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Stephanie Larnder
- Email : Stephanie.Larnder@levellingup.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk
