Strategic Finance Lead

Job summary

In the role of Strategic Finance Lead, you operate at the crossroads of financial strategy, planning, policy, and operations.

Collaborating closely with colleagues throughout the CPS, you play a crucial role in supporting Strategic Finance to drive the CPS’s financial strategy, by championing a collaborative approach with Other Government Departments and external partners, overseeing financial planning and contributing to financial impact assessments for policy proposals.

Your responsibilities include working with CPS Policy & Strategy teams and other government departments to assess and reflect the implications of policy changes in the CPS Medium Term Financial Plan.

You also support activities and preparation for fiscal events such as the Spending Review.

You empower CPS teams and business case authors to enhance the quality of financial and economic appraisals for business cases, offering expert advice and constructive feedback to business case authors and the Portfolio Management Office.

By providing strategic financial support and guidance, you re instrumental in steering the business towards sound decision-making. This involves delivering insightful financial analysis, driving commercial awareness, offering constructive challenge, and ensuring strong financial governance, control, and alignment throughout the CPS.

An additional taxable allowance is payable for the following accountancy qualifications. The allowance in non-pensionable and does not form part of pay awards.

The values payable are:

• £1,000 per year on achievement of ACCA Applied Knowledge and Skills / CIMA Managerial / CIPFA Certificate & 2 Diplomas / ICAEW Professional
• £2,000 per year on achievement of ACCA Strategic Profession / CIMA Strategic / CIPFA Certificate & 3 Diplomas / ICAEW Advanced
• £5,000 per year on achieving full qualification with ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA, or ICAEW

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 18 or over at the point of starting in this role. The expected start date is approximately 8–12 weeks after the application closing date. You are expected to commence employment as soon as possible following the expiry of your notice period. Requests for significantly later start dates may not be accommodated.

This role involves occasional travel for in person meetings.

You must complete and pass your Civil Service tests by 23:55 on 06 November 2026 to be able to complete an application for this role.

Job description

Your role and responsibilities include:

• Reviewing cross-government policy proposals to assess and manage financial implications for CPS.
• Supporting and coordinating the delivery of robust and evidence based Spending Review bids.
• Championing effective strategic decision-making and risk management to ensure strong financial performance across business as usual, projects, and programmes.
• Assessing affordability and value for money of new policy measures and business cases, ensuring financial impacts inform decisions under tight deadlines.
• Ensuring financial and economic cases for endorsement are comprehensive, reflect lifecycle costs, align with strategic priorities, and are affordable

A full copy of the job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need to demonstrate:

• Experience in developing financial plans.
• Experience in financial modelling.
• Part or Fully Qualified CCAB / CIMA accountancy qualification, with strong technical accounting skills. As a minimum you must be working towards full qualification.
• Ability to explain complex financials to a broad base of recipients.
• Ability to lead and influence using a collaborative approach, objectively considering several options and scenarios through multiple lenses, to achieve desired outcomes with a strong sense of continuous improvement.
• Understand Budgeting Principles, Effective Financial Management, Government Finances and Efficiency Frameworks.
• Advanced Excel and presentation skills.

Qualifications

Please confirm that you hold Part or Fully Qualified CCAB / CIMA accountancy qualification, with strong technical accounting skills. As a minimum you must be working towards full qualification.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,240, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £13,106 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact Calum.Chisholm@cps.gov.uk

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

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.

Recruitment process

The recruitment process consists of an online test, online application, assessment and interview.

Online tests

Before submitting your application, you’re invited to complete an online Civil Service numerical reasoning test. You must successfully complete the test to progress to the next stage. Please complete the online test as soon as possible – we recommend within 24-48 hours. The closing date for the test is 06 November 2026

We send you an invitation to take the test and provide full instructions about how to complete it. The test can’t be taken on mobile phones or tablets.

For more guidance about the online Civil Service tests, please see the GOV.UK website: Civil Service online tests - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Behaviours

You are asked to complete a statement of no more than 250 words for each of the following behaviours, setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience match the specified behaviours and requirements:

1. Making effective decisions
2. Seeing the big picture
3. Communicating and influencing

In addition, you need to demonstrate the following experience/technical skills required for this role:

• Part or Fully Qualified CCAB / CIMA accountancy qualification, with strong technical accounting skills. As a minimum you must be working towards full qualification.
• Budgeting and /or Financial Planning
• Financial Modelling
• Recent experience in a Financial Planning, Project Accountant, Finance Business Partner or Strategic Finance Role.
• Good understanding of Investment Appraisal techniques.
• Good level of knowledge of Management Public Money & Consolidated Budgeting Guidance.
• Good analytical skills with the ability to transform financial data into meaningful insight.
• Intermediate / Advanced Excel and presentation skills.

You also need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

The panel has the right to assess the lead behaviour ‘Making effective decisions’ first. If the standard on this behaviour isn’t met, the other behaviours won’t be considered and your application won’t progress. The panel also has the right to raise the minimum standard pass mark. The panel may also refer to the lead behaviour at the interview stage to determine merit order.

CV

You’re not required to upload your CV. However, when submitting your application there is a ‘CV section’. You are required to provide information about your employment and/or academic history for the past three years. The CV section will be used as supporting evidence, it won’t be assessed.

It’s your responsibility to provide the specified information in the requested format to ensure that you're considered for the post.

If you're unable to cover three years through employment or academic history, you must provide a character reference for clearance purposes.

Interview and Assessment

The interviews and assessments are expected to take place on 23 and 24 November 2026

Your interview takes place online through Microsoft Teams. A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with guidance. If you have any queries about this, contact Calum.Chisholm@cps.gov.uk

You should keep these dates free or notify us if you're not available. We'll make every effort to accommodate your date preferences but we can't guarantee it.

We ask you to complete an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role. We will provide details immediately before your interview.

We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against SEO in the Civil Service success profiles behaviours framework. We are assessing 3 behaviours at interview and assessment stage:

1. Making effective decisions
2. Seeing the big picture
3. Communicating and influencing

Essential Experience/Technical Skills - assessed at interview and assessment

Strengths

Strengths are tested at interview stage - the strengths tested are not shared before the interview.

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.

Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. If you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, you are required to securea Security Check clearance, for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form, nationality and immigration questionnaire and national security vetting form.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply.You’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

To be cleared to Security Check clearance level, you have to be able to meet the residency requirement in the Cabinet Office guidance. For the Crown Prosecution Service, this is three years within the last five years.

Reserve list

If you're recommended by the selection panel but not appointed to the current vacancy, you’re put on a reserve list for 12 months. You may be offered another Strategic Finance Lead post in the CPS if a vacancy comes up during this period. We may also approach candidates on the waiting list to fill other roles that require similar knowledge and experience.

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page Recruitment Complaints - Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.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 : Calum Chisholm
• Email : Calum.Chisholm@cps.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : strategic.resourcing@cps.gov.uk

Attachments

Strategic Finance Lead Opens in new window (docx, 41kB)Civil Service Online Test Guidance (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 128kB)CPS Terms and Conditions Opens in new window (docx, 255kB)