Finance Business Partner – Central Services
Please Note: The application deadline for this post has now passed.
Post Introduction
The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.
Their activities are hugely varied, ranging from management of a multi-billion-pound investment fund, to a grant-giving charity, a housing service for retired clergy and the administration of three multi-employer pension schemes.
We Include. You Belong.
Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.
Living out our values in all that we do, we:
- Strive for Excellence
- Show Compassion
- Respect others
- Collaborate
- Act with Integrity
We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.
About the Department
Church of England Central Services (ChECS) is a jointly controlled entity between the Archbishops’ Council, the Church Commissioners for England and the Church of England Pensions Board and was set up in 2013 to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the National Church Institutions (NCIs), dioceses, the wider Church and related charities by providing cost-effective shared services including Communications, Human Resources, Legal, Technology, Office Services, Data Services, Finance, and Risk & Assurance. ChECS also has a wholly owned subsidiary trading company which carries out Procurement activities on behalf of the Church of England.
ChECS is one of the National Church Institutions (NCIs) which are national administrative bodies that work together to support the mission and ministry of the Church of England. The Finance Business Partner – Central Services works within the Finance department which is a shared services function working across the NCIs to provide a comprehensive, cost-effective finance service to each organisation.
The Finance team is currently supporting their NCI clients with some major change and transformation projects, as well as undergoing significant changes to their own ways of working to ensure they can deliver a high-quality Finance service which meets the needs of the NCIs. This includes undertaking a Finance Transformation Programme to help Finance develop their service (replacing an ageing finance system as well as associated process improvement and changes to ways of working) and supporting the Church of England Governance Programme which will reshape the National Church Institutions themselves.
What you'll be doing
We are seeking a dynamic, self-motivated, CCAB qualified finance professional who is able to develop strong relationships with the departmental directors and other staff across Central Services, understand the business and provide meaningful financial insight and advice to support the delivery of strategic and operational objectives.
You will act as Finance Business Partner for Church of England Central Services, providing accurate and timely management information, budget monitoring, analysis and advice to budget holders and key stakeholders, fostering a culture of financial accountability and cost efficiency. You will also provide relevant challenge and insight to support decision-making and ensure that budgets and forecasts reflect ChECS’s objectives and strategy. You will have primary responsibility for ensuring an accurate and fair method of recharging the NCIs (and any other customers) for the services provided.
An effective communicator, you will be able to explain financial issues to non-finance staff and to help people to use financial information well. You will deliver relevant training and support across departments to help improve financial literacy and ensure compliance with relevant financial control procedures.
You will be someone who is always looking to improve processes and worker smarter, collaborating with your finance colleagues to drive best practice in everything we do. You will look for ways to improve the quality of management reporting and ensure that your customers receive an excellent service. You will be a confident Excel user, able to use Excel to design and build management reports which can be quickly and easily produced. Experience of using and implementing other reporting tools would also be advantageous, as we seek to improve ways of working.
The post is part of the Finance Business Partnering team within the Finance team, with Finance Business Partners dedicated towards different NCIs. Whilst you have autonomy and focus on your ‘lead client’ you will also work collaboratively with the rest of the Finance team to develop a high-quality finance service to the NCIs including best practice internal and external reporting and a robust financial control environment.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
Finance Business Partnering
Work with budget holders to build understanding of their financial position and performance, including:
- Building strong relationships with senior managers and budget holders and work with them to develop a deep understanding of ChECS’s activities, priorities and business, including identifying key risks and opportunities
- Providing constructive challenge to hold budget holders to account for financial performance, probe key issues, and financial risks and assumptions underpinning the budgets and focus on ChECS’s priorities
- Taking a value-added role, acting as a trusted advisor and demonstrate an ability to provide constructive challenge
- Acting as the first point of contact on finance matters, directing staff to other parts of the finance team as appropriate but ensuring they receive a consistent and joined-up service
- Working with the other finance business partners to develop the business partnering model, helping to provide a consistent and high-quality service to NCI clients
- Keeping abreast of relevant changes in legislation or wider industry changes to facilitate early engagement with these as required
- Providing financial support for relevant project activity (including pan-NCI projects) as appropriate, including preparation of financial models or analysis to support the evaluation of any proposed changes or key decision making
Financial planning, reporting and monitoring
Produce and present to budget holders and the Executive Team, regular management accounts, including:
- Preparing meaningful analysis, investigating variances from budgets, forecasts and actuals and commenting on key numbers
- Producing regular reporting for the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executives and the ChECS Board
- Setting and managing the timetable for the production of phased budgets and quarterly reforecasts, supporting budget holders in preparing submissions
- Consolidating departmental budgets and forecasts and work with the Head of Financial Planning & Analysis and the Director of Finance to produce relevant papers and presentations for the trustees and sub-committees
- Ensuring that budgets and forecasts are accurately recorded in SAP
- Working with the rest of the Finance Business Partnering team to develop and roll out best practice management reports in response to the operational and decision-making needs of the organisation
Financial management and accountability
Ensure that monthly, quarterly and year end close is complete and all necessary transactions are recorded in SAP accurately and on time, including:
- Working with the Assistant Management Accountants and Financial Accounting and Operations team, to ensure that all necessary accounting entries are posted each month with no material errors, omissions or miscoding
- Ensuring the shared service costs are recharged accurately to other NCIs (and any other customers), using a fair and reasonable methodology
- Working with the Tax & Compliance team to ensure that shared projects and activities are structured appropriately and undertaken by the correct entity
- Working with ChECS staff to ensure they use SAP effectively for financial management purposes, including monitoring the use of purchase orders and supporting the wider Finance team in encouraging compliance with financial control procedures and good practice procurement
- Providing financial training and support to non-finance colleagues as required, promoting financial literacy and accountability across the NCIs
Other
- Collaborating with other members of the Finance team, including the Finance Accounting and Operations team, Finance Systems team and Procurement, to ensure that services are delivered in a joined-up way
- Providing support for projects within the Finance team (which could include for example, process improvement projects, system projects, implementation of new processes and solutions etc.)
- Developing excellent working relationships and clear communication with the Financial Accountant for ChECS, to ensure a consistent understanding of activities within the NCIs, and that this is reflected accurately in both statutory and management reporting
- Undertaking other ad hoc tasks as required to ensure the Finance team delivers a high-quality, cost-effective service to its customers
- Your job description is intended to reflect your main tasks and areas of work, but is not exhaustive. Changes may occur over time and you will be expected to agree any reasonable changes to your job description that are commensurate with your banding and in line with the general nature of your post. You will be consulted about any changes to your job description before these are implemented.
About You
The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to recruiting disabled people. We offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.
For a detailed person specification, please see the attached job description.
What we offer
Our benefits include:
- A salary of £62,741 plus age-related pension contributions between 8-15% of salary. We will also match any pension contributions you make up to an additional 3% of salary.
- 25 days annual leave (increasing to 30 days within 5 years) plus three additional days
- Flexible working hours and location, with an expectation of minimum 2 days per week in our office in Westminster
- Structured induction programme and access to a range of development opportunities including apprenticeships
- Access to Occupational Health, and an Employee Assistance Programme
- Opportunity to the Civil Service Sports & Social Club, and get involved in a range of staff networks, groups and societies
We try to be as flexible as we can in your work pattern to support you with other commitments, and to give a good work-life balance.
