Job Description

The Assistant Director of Finance is a key role and member of the Senior Leadership team, focusing on the year ahead within the context of the wider PHSO strategy. The role holder will lead the finance and procurement disciplines and will be regarded as the expert making operational, technical and/or professional recommendations that will have a significant impact on PHSO performance in the short to medium term. This is a critical role, focusing on providing excellent service internally and maintaining professional compliance and assurance in all PHSO activities.

Key responsibilities include:

  • Responsible for operational financial leadership of the Finance and Procurement service ·
  • Responsible for ensuring the provision of a high quality financial and procurement service, encompassing all aspects of financial management, payroll and procurement.
  • Responsible for providing expert financial advice to the senior leadership team, the executive team and Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, and ensure that Finance and Procurement support the delivery of PHSO’s strategy and objectives
  • Accountable for developing, delivering and continuously improving finance services and systems that are customer-focussed, responsive, efficient and reliable, and comply with internal policies and external regulations.
  • Responsible for developing and maintaining a proportionate system of financial controls, appropriately balancing security, reliability and compliance with Managing Public Money, with PHSO’s risk appetite and desired culture of trust and empowerment of colleagues
  • Responsible for developing financial planning, monitoring and forecasting processes that achieve an effective and sustainable allocation of resources
  • Responsible for maintaining effective relationships with key financial stakeholders including ET and SLT colleagues, HM Treasury, the internal auditors, the NAO, and the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee
  • Accountable for the development of proportionate procurement processes that comply with the Public Contracts Regulations and support budget holders to achieve value for money
  • Accountable for the development of efficient and reliable finance and procurement systems in collaboration with ICT colleagues and consistent with our ICT strategy
  • To substitute for and make decisions on behalf of the Director of Resources when required and as necessary.

    • The Successful Applicant

    The successful applicant will need to demonstrate the following experience:

  • Qualified member of a CCAB or equivalent recognised accountancy body
  • Good understanding of risk management and project management principles with experience of managing projects
  • Experienced people manager able to lead and manage through change
  • Experience of preparing budgets and financial monitoring and forecasting
  • Experience of the preparation of statutory accounts
  • Public sector accounting or financial management
  • Knowledge of public sector procurement
  • Excellent communication, interpersonal and influencing skills
  • Skilled business partner with a collaborative, customer focused approach
  • The ability to meet targets and deadlines, use own initiative and work under pressure
  • Awareness of the external environment in which PHSO is operating
  • Knowledge of payroll
  • Strong people management skills
  • Good planning and organisational skills

    • What’s on Offer

    At PHSO our motto is ‘live well, work well’ and to support this we offer a generous range of benefits.

    This includes:

  • Salary package – Up to £71,575 per annum
  • Civil Service Pension scheme (minimum 26.6% employer’s contribution)
  • Generous basic holiday entitlement of 30 days. We also offer an additional 2.5 extra-statutory holiday on top of the normal public and bank holidays
  • Flexible working
  • 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme including free counselling, bereavement support and health advice
  • Premium access to Headspace mindfulness and wellbeing app

    • Equality, diversity, and inclusion are fundamental to the way we work. We are committed to maintaining a culture where our employees can be themselves at work and perform at their best. We understand that it is essential that our employees can represent and understand the diverse community we serve.

    To do this we recognise the importance of having a workforce made up of individuals with their own unique identities at all levels and we actively encourage applications from individuals with diverse identities such as people who are LGBTQI+, from Black, Asian, Mixed Ethnicity and any Other Ethnic Group, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-standing condition, with caring responsibilities or any other self-identified diversity.

    We are a Disability Confident organisation playing a role in changing attitudes for the better. We make sure that disabled people and people with long term health conditions can fulfil their potential in the workplace.

    Further information on the Disability Confident scheme and its requirements of employers can be found here. Any disabled applicant who applies under the scheme and who meets the minimum selection criteria will automatically progress to the next stage of the recruitment process, which may be an assessment or interview.

    First stage interviews will be held on Tuesday 1st November via Teams, with final interviews on Thursday 3rd November.