Head of Finance and Business Support

Job summary

What you’ll do…

The Head of Finance and Business Support will drive improved business performance in West Forest District through the leadership of the finance and business administration team, and supportive collaboration with the functional delivery teams – Estates, Forestry & Land Management and Recreation & Engagement. Together we are Forestry England, we grow forests for all, for life.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

You will be at Bank House, Coleford, Gloucestershire, GL16 8BA, which is the district office for West Forest District in the Forest of Dean.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

Team leadership

• Lead the district finance and business support team, supporting effective and efficient delivery through a culture of team working and mutual support and collaboration. Specifically act as line manager for the district’s Finance Manager and Business Support Manager. The postholder will likely take on line management of the district’s Project Development Manager and / or the 3 Area Managers once successfully inducted into the business.
• Actively engage with the district’s strategic leadership team (forest management director, head of estates, head of recreation & engagement, head of forestry & land management and human resources business partner) shaping our district strategy and associated delivery plans. Take lead responsibility for business planning and monitoring discussions at this level, engendering support and commitment to drive positive change.
• Foster a positive team working relationship between district and national finance officers; engaging as required on national project work. Be open and realistic as to the challenges inherent in the business, promoting transparency and constructive dialogue.
• Proactively liaise with the internal engagement officer to report on business performance so that everyone in the team can be sighted on ‘where we are, against where we need to be’.

Business improvement & project development

• Positively collaborate with the heads of function and their operations managers to support the development of strategic financial planning to drive business improvement.
• Continually engage and positively challenge managers in the business to evidence the link between programme delivery and both expenditure and income. Be open and realistic as to the challenges inherent in the business, promoting transparency and constructive dialogue.
• Proactively engage at all stages of project development so as to ensure projects are financially sound and will bring about an improved business performance. Appropriately challenge projects that will add to the long-term cost burden of the district. Seek to ensure all projects that are being prepared for external funding include full-cost recovery. Liaise closely with the Project Development Manager, and other project managers as required to ensure projects and associated business cases are financially sound.
• Collaborate with operational managers to identify areas of our ‘day-to-day’ work that can be converted to funded projects and support the resulting project development.
• Lead the development of business planning in the district, so that expenditure and income links more explicitly to operational delivery programmes, and the added complexity of project-based funding is understood and handled effectively. Through support for improved operational planning, build increasing levels of confidence in our long-term financial planning.
• Support the Business Administration Manager in her role to effectively manage the district administration team, provision of IT services, provision and servicing of vehicles, machinery and equipment, and other office support services.
• Engage with operational managers and commercial services to support procurement of goods and services so as to secure improved value for money; supporting the Business Administration Manager in her role as procurement champion, and lead of the administrative team who have administrative responsibilities for the resulting contracts.
  

Management accounting

• Support the Finance Manager in her role of maintaining accurate and timely financial processes, including but not limited to raising and approving /paying invoices, journals, monthly accruals accounting and Government Procurement Card reconciliations.
• Support the Finance Manager and her team in completing end of year processing in an accurate and timely manner.
• Work collaboratively with the Finance Manager and the functional teams to add value to monthly business monitoring, linking financial outturns and forecasting to actual and planned programme and project delivery.
• Provide high levels of oversight to identify and act on potential fraud, misuse of financial systems and compliance with financial systems and processes.
  

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

The district operates an out of hours emergency duty officer Rota and the postholder will be expected to join the Rota and be eligible for on-call payments accordingly.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential professional and technical experience

• experience in an accountancy position for a large organisation is considered essential for this role.
• line management experience is considered essential for this role.
  

Qualifications
Essential

• a fully qualified accountant with a recognised IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) member body, CIMA, or equivalent.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £48,765, Forestry Commission contributes £14,127 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on Strength based questions during your interview and Behaviours at interview which are –

Working together
Changing & improving
Making effective decisions
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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 : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - Head of Finance and Business Support (PB03) Opens in new window (pdf, 119kB)