Finance Manager – Education

Are you passionate about contributing to the best start for children and young people?  

Covering an area of 354 square miles with 344,000 residents, the local authority is located at the heart of the North West of England. With strong urban and rural communities. Chester, the borough’s city, is a site of historical importance as one of the UK’s best‐preserved walled cities.

Cheshire West and Chester Council is a place where everyone can Thrive – through their core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment. Join a committed and dedicated finance team as a Finance Manager for Children’s Finance.

You will be responsible for a team delivering high quality advice, information and analysis for a gross budget of £335m (including DSG) across the Education & Inclusion service, including areas such as Schools, Home to School transport, Early Years, SEN and High Needs.

The postholder will lead a team of staff with responsibility for providing a wide range of financial services, including the provision of specialist and strategic advice and information and support to key transformation programmes, using a business partnering approach. Your team will work closely with relevant budget officers from the aforementioned areas above.
You will act as the lead finance service point of contact supporting special projects and major transformation programmes linked to the Education & Inclusion service, to ensure the Council’s interests are safeguarded and benefits are realised.

You and your team will provide independent challenge, analysis and interpretation of financial and performance information to ensure that inefficiencies, irregularities and performance variances (financial and non-financial) are investigated and opportunities for improved service delivery are realised. To be successful in this role you will be a CCAB Qualified Accountant with extensive finance business partnering experience at a local authority or similar, with Children’s Service experience being highly beneficial. However, we are happy to speak with candidates across local government finance and other public sector disciplines.

We are looking for a passionate and resilient people manager, with a track record managing a number of reports. You are able to build strong working relationships across finance, children’s services and external partners in order to deliver results and ensure the financial sustainability of children’s services.

If you would like to find out more about the role or explore an application, please contact Will Thomson – willthomson@ivyrockpartners.com – 07392 653 878