Senior Finance Lead (Business Partner) - Corporate

Kingston and Sutton's shared finance service is an exciting and unique place to work. We provide finance services to two vibrant boroughs in South West London enabling the team to draw on a wide pool of knowledge and experience and learn from activities across both Councils.

Kingston and Sutton are both small London Boroughs, but both also have big ambitions. Both boroughs already have lots of green space and the two Councils are committed to tackling the climate emergency and are developing plans for a more sustainable future. Kingston is embarking on the redevelopment of its largest council housing estate to provide 2,170 new homes including a mix of social and private housing and is also developing a new community leisure centre in the town centre. There is also a thriving business community in the Borough with a mix of big-name brands, including the UK headquarters of Lidl and Unilever, and smaller independent businesses.

We are looking to recruiting for a Senior Finance Lead - Business Partner (Corporate). Reporting into the Strategic Finance Business Partner (Corporate), the Senior Finance Lead (Business Partner) will support the Corporate Finance team within the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames to provide strategic financial information for the Medium-Term Financial Strategy and regular monitoring of financial performance. You will have a sound knowledge of accounting, finance systems, spreadsheets and other IT systems.

Key responsibilities include:

• Support the Strategic Finance Business Partner (SFBP) in the development of the Medium-Term Financial Plan and production of required working papers that support this.
• Lead on the creation of detailed budget estimate working papers including inflation calculations and reconciliation.
• Lead on the production of Council budget book, service budget summaries or similar information as required
• Provide support and information to the Council's budget consultation activities and communication & engagement events
• Provide support in the production of the Council Tax Leaflet or other budget communications
• Work collaboratively with Strategic Finance Business Partners (SFBPs) to ensure key financial risks to the Council are appropriately reflected in medium term financial plans and finance resource is targeted towards the management and mitigation of these risks

To be suitable for this role you need to be a Qualified accountant or studying towards relevant professional qualification (e.g. AAT, CIPFA, CIMA, etc), with experience of leading or providing financial support to change programmes and business improvement initiatives. You will have excellent communication skills, verbally and in writing, with the ability to discuss and present finance concepts and processes in a range of ways with non-finance people. You should have experience of supporting budget managers through the core finance processes of budget setting, monitoring and closing of the accounts.

This position is able to work flexibly between the office and homeworking, with a minimum expectation to be based in the office one day per week.

For more information about Kingston and Sutton's shared finance service, the interview processes and to see the job description please refer to Home Kingston Council () or contact Jack Murphy () at Allen Lane for a confidential conversation.

To apply, please send your CV and cover letter to by Monday 2nd January 2023. The cover letter should be no more than 2 pages and should include why you are interested in the position and why you believe you are suitable.