Finance Business Partner

Role Responsibility

Kent County Council is responsible for a wide range of public services across the county of Kent and is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The County Council has 81 elected councilors. Kent is the largest and most populated county in the UK with 1.68 million residents and a workforce of over 821,600 people. The Garden of England is the perfect place to live, work and play!

The business partner role provides high level strategic financial advice and support to each of Corporate Directors and their management teams, and Cabinet portfolio holders.  The Finance Division has four such business partner roles supporting Adult Social Care and Health, Children Young People and Education, Growth Environment and Transport, and Strategic and Corporate Services.   

This particular role is for the Children, Young people and Education directorate and is responsible for supporting services such as Looked after Children , care leavers, Adoption & Fostering, Children’s social workers, children’s early help and prevention services, children’s centres, youth services, special needs assessment and placement, home to school transport, school planning and organisation, and schools delegated budgets.

You will have strategic oversight of the directorate’s revenue and capital budgets, which will involve financial appraisal of major policy options and contribution to the development of the Council’s overall revenue and capital financial strategies. You will represent the directorate’s interests and ensure these align with the Council’s strategic objectives and business goals and ambitions.  The business partner must also have oversight of the operation of financial management within the directorate including performance against the approved budget.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with senior managers in the Children, Young People and Education directorate as they embark on a significant change programme to integrate children’s services across Kent.  The directorate has only recently brought together all children’s services under common management.  The business partner will play a key role in identifying the financial opportunities this offers.

It is also a dynamic time for the education service with a move to a national funding formula for schools, the challenge of resourcing school places and finding solutions for the special needs budget.  You will be the lead officer providing support, advice and challenge to the Schools’ Funding Forum and will represent Kent’s views at national level through f40 (the group representing the lowest funded education authorities in England) and through regional groups.

Business partners are also a key role within the Council finance function.  Although they do not have any direct line management of staff, they play a vital role in developing and delivering the Finance Division Business Plan and the Finance Vision.  As part of the “Strategic Manager” family of roles within Finance the business partners are part of the job rotation policy and offer the opportunity to gain wider experience in other roles and wider knowledge of the Council’s services over time.

Due to the nature of this position it would suit someone who has worked in an environment such as;

- Local Government

- Social Care Provider, Child Services & Fostering Agencies

- Multi Academy Trust

- Independent School

- University or College

- Charity

- NHS

This post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

As part of the interview process for this role you may be required to complete additional testing.

Contact Details

For further information on this role please contact Dave Shipton on 03000 419418 or 07976 298534, or by e-mail at dave.shipton@kent.gov.uk

About the Company

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.