Senior Accountant

Job summary

About us

We are an arm’s length body of the Welsh Government, responsible for the strategy, funding and oversight of:

• further education
• higher education including research and innovation;
• apprenticeships
• adult community learning; and local authority maintained school sixth forms.

We work in close collaboration with our partners to enable a tertiary education and research system which is centred around the needs of learners; society; and economy with excellence, equality and engagement at its heart.

Our values really matter to us, they help shape the culture of our organisation:

• Dysgu (to learn; to teach; to educate) - learning is at the heart of everything we do. We believe curiosity fuels innovation and helps expand our horizons.
• Cydweithio (to work together; to collaborate; to co-operate) - we can achieve far more together than we ever could alone.
• Cynnwys Pawb (to include everyone; to involve everyone) - we are passionate about inclusion, seeking to create the right conditions for everyone to achieve their full potential.
• Rhagori (to exceed; to excel) - we have high aspirations for tertiary education and research in Wales and always set high standards for ourselves to be the best we can be.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and accredited as a Living Wage employer.

Location

Our headquarters is in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff, which has been specifically designed to meet our needs. This is where most colleagues will meet to collaborate, both with each other and with stakeholders.

As we operate across Wales, we also have limited office and collaboration space in Welsh Government offices in Llandudno Junction, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil.

Main purpose of the job

This post will be crucial to the delivery of an excellent and professional financial management service for Medr and help the Head of Finance manage and account for over £960m of budget and payments annually.

Working closely with the Head, wider Finance Team, and Funding Teams across Medr you are responsible for three key aspects of Medr’s financial management:

• You produce Medr’s annual financial accounts and ensure we meet accounting standards.
• You are responsible for Medr’s cash flow, keeping Medr within its government set limits, while having sufficient cash to meet its c£80m payments per month.
• You will have high level responsibility for managing Medr’s Programme budget, working closely with Funding Teams to plan, mange and accurately forecast spend across financial and academic years.

Job description

What you will be doing

You will be responsible for producing Medr’s annual financial accounts. Producing and ensuring the accuracy of financial statements and their notes, ensuring compliance with financial reporting manual (FReM) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Working closely with the Head of Finance and stakeholders across Medr you will play a key part in planning, managing and delivering the end-to-end process of producing the accounts, annual report and subsequent audit. Support the production of the Performance Report by providing key data.

Manage the high-level programme budget of c.£950m on the finance system, ensuring it reconciles to Board agreed values and the long-term budget across financial and academic years. Support the Head of Finance, providing financial analysis, forecasts, and recommendations to inform strategic decision-making. Supporting the preparation of all associated Budget Group, Senior Leadership Team and Board reporting and papers.

Responsibility for Medr’s overall cash position. Oversee the reconciliation of the budget to cash position in respect of the long-term budget. Preparation of monthly grant in aid drawdown claims.

Oversee the authorisation of financial transactions for payment and accounting journal entries for processing and preparation of accounting reconciliations.

Deputising for the Head of Finance, working closely with them to drive forward the collective development of the Finance Team.

Deliver your accounting and budget responsibilities through excellent collaboration with Medr Funding Teams, forming trusted partnerships.

Build and maintain positive relationships with external stakeholders, particularly the Welsh Government and Audit Wales.

Helping to create an environment where all can thrive. Line management of one Finance Manager and countersign two Finance Officers.

Supporting continuous improvement of finance systems and processes, assisting colleagues through support, collaboration and advice.

Key challenges

Ensuring that Medr’s accounts and accounting processes support the consolidation of Medr accounts into Whole of Government Accounts for the first time.

Maintaining oversight of the Programme budget in a challenging and fast changing environment. Ensuring that flexibility to reallocate budget is balanced with appropriate levels of monitoring and control withing the organisation.

Managing the expectations of internal and external stakeholders, whilst building important strategic relationships.

About your team

The Finance Team is led by the Head of Finance, who is supported by five finance specialists (this position, two finance managers and two finance officers). The Team is part of the Procurement, Payroll, and Finance Team under the leadership of the Chief Financial Officer.

The team’s philosophy is to help and support our colleagues, believing in excellence, integrity, and dedication. We apply our professionalism to build strong and efficient policies and processes, enabling Medr to operate as a highly effective organisation. We uphold the highest standards in the stewardship of public funds, ensuring Medr meets its contractual and statutory obligations.

About your line manager

Richard Arnold

Richard has worked in finance for over twenty years throughout the public and third sectors. He is a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, serving as the Head of Finance of Medr.

Person specification

What you will bring

Attributes

• Accountable - You ensure clear goals and priorities are set for your team, holding yourself and others accountable for performance and outcomes.
• Drive - You lead by example, showing dedication and perseverance in meeting organisational objectives.
• Resilient - You create a culture of adaptability and resourcefulness within your team, offering support and encouragement.
• Honest - You build trust through consistent and reliable behaviour

Experience

• Experience of statutory accounts production and knowledge of financial regulations and accounting standards with the ability to interpret and apply them effectively.
• Experience of financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

Welsh Language requirements

We have evaluated that the Welsh language requirements for this post are:

Desirable

Welsh desirable means that while having Welsh language skills is useful for the role, it is not an assessment criterion, so it won’t disadvantage you during recruitment if you don’t currently possess these skills.

Qualifications

You will hold a recognised chartered accountancy qualification, such as ACA, ACCA, CIPFA, CIMA.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,301, Medr contributes £14,282 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Your Perks and Benefits

We recognise the importance of looking after ourselves in work and in life, so in recognition of this we provide:

• 34 days annual leave a year (pro rata)
• An environment that embraces work life balance.
• A culture that celebrates diversity and welcomes everyone.
• Dedicated well-being time to all our people each week.
• A Cycle to Work Scheme to make owning a bicycle more affordable.

Additional Support when you need it

We know that sometimes you may face challenges or life events that mean you need additional support.

• We provide a comprehensive employee assistance programme with remote access to resources and in person support whenever required.
• We have a special leave policy ensuring everyone in the organisation receives the support they need during difficult times.

More than just a workplace

• You will be entitled to take 5 days paid leave per year to undertake voluntary work to support the communities we serve.
• We will encourage you to grow your networks across Wales, the UK and internationally.
• We have an active social committee who offer a range of activities for our people to come together outside the work setting. You can participate as much or as little as you want.

Personal and professional development

• Once you’re offered a post, we will get to know you and work with you to develop a personalised onboarding plan which considers your experience, skills, learning style and knowledge.
• We’ll help you shape your development plans with personalised career conversations and objectives, taking account of delivery goals alongside your career aspirations and helping you own your career.
• We support all our staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills.

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

We are really interested in you as an individual and what you will bring to our organisation.

Our assessment process is designed to help us get to know you better enabling us to appoint someone who will thrive in the role and who shares our organisational values.

If you are interested in working with us, please send us your application and personal statement through Civil Service Jobs.

The following attributes/experience will be assessed at sift stage:

• Accountable - You ensure clear goals and priorities are set for your team, holding yourself and others accountable for performance and outcomes.
• Drive - You lead by example, showing dedication and perseverance in meeting organisational objectives.
• Experience of statutory accounts production and knowledge of financial regulations and accounting standards with the ability to interpret and apply them effectively.
• Experience of financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

To be fair to everyone who applies, we won’t accept:

• Late applications
• Applications with missing or incomplete information
• Personal statements over 1,250 words

The deadline for application submission is Wednesday 13 May.

Applications are welcome in Welsh and will not be treated less favourably than those submitted in English.

All applications will be notified of their outcomes via Civil Service Jobs at sift and interview stage.

Candidates who successfully navigate the sift stage will be required to complete an online exercise to enable us to determine their behavioural and personality preferences. Immediately on completion you will be given a report which highlights your strengths plus some development tips to help you prepare for interview. Candidates should note that the online exercise is not intended to eliminate anyone from consideration. Instead, it serves as a tool to aid in the decision-making process.

Following this, you will be required to participate in an interview which will be conducted on Tuesday 9 June.

In addition to the attributes assessed at sift stage, the remaining attributes will also be assessed at interview:

• Resilient - You create a culture of adaptability and resourcefulness within your team, offering support and encouragement.
• Honest - You build trust through consistent and reliable behaviour.

We strive for a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. We are happy to discuss any person-centred adjustments required to the recruitment process. Please contact swyddi@medr.cymru

We're looking forward to meeting everyone invited to interview at our headquarters in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff. We don’t usually pay travel expenses, but if this presents a real barrier to your attendance in person or if you require a reasonable adjustment, please let us know in advance by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru so we can discuss and agree arrangements prior to your interview.

Following interview we are committed to offering constructive and actionable feedback to support you on your future career journey.

Next steps

Interested…? Want to find out more?

We know how important it is for you to find out more about us so we will be holding a virtual information session for candidates on Tuesday 5 May at 1pm on Microsoft Teams. This session will not be recorded.

This will be an opportunity for you to hear more about our organisation; the role and how we invest in our people.

If you would like to attend, register by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru.

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.

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

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 : People and Culture team
• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Recruitment team

• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Attachments

Swydd Ddisgrifiad - Uwch Gyfrifydd Opens in new window (pdf, 296kB)Job Description - Senior Accountant Opens in new window (pdf, 299kB)Canllaw i Ymgeiswyr ar Lunio Datganiad Personol Opens in new window (pdf, 112kB)A Candidate's guide to crafting a personal statement Opens in new window (pdf, 113kB)