What's involved with this role: Interim Accountant/Business Partner - Financial ServicesJob Ref: Cheshire E Pay Rate: £20.98 per hour PAYE Hours per week: 37 Monday - Friday, 9am to 4.20pm Role Length: This opening assignment is for 2-3 months City: Crewe, CheshireThe purpose of the role is to manage a team of staff responsible for providing a range of specialist financial and service improvement advice to the Council's services, to ensure effective management of resources, proper accountability and control and compliance with the statutory obligations of the Section 151 Officer and corporate standards.Key Responsibilities:

• Organise and manage the work of a team of staff to ensure that it operates effectively and meets its objectives, as specified in the Service Business Plan.
• Prepare expenditure estimates, capital programmes and revenue budgets in order to ensure that these comply with the Council's Financial Standing Orders and Regulations, the Council's Medium-Term Strategy and professional guidelines.
• Advise on, guide and co-ordinate the monitoring and reporting by individual Service or corporate managers of performance against capital and revenue budgets and other performance targets to ensure that appropriate and timely management and remedial action is taken.
• Maintain financial systems and procedures in the defined area of the post, in accordance with the requirements of Financial Standing Orders and Regulations, to ensure that proper and efficient arrangements are made for the administration of the Council's financial affairs to the satisfaction of the external auditors.
• Identify, investigate and advise on areas of potential financial or Service risk to ensure that appropriate actions can be reflected in the business plan, at a corporate or Service department level and to monitor the effectiveness of implementation.
• Provide input into special investigations, Service reviews and resource projects to ensure that inefficiencies and budget variances are investigated and reported and opportunities for performance improvement identified.
• Analyse, evaluate and advise on financial information for Service, corporate managers and Members, in order to ensure that management decisions are taken in the context of up-to-date accurate and appropriate data and full realisation of benefits.
• Devise, implement and maintain operational procedures and schedules to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of financial services to the agreed specifications and quality standards across the total client base.
• Review and report on the development of new and existing financial systems to advise Service managers on best value and management controls in the furtherance of service objectives.
• Advise Service managers on the financial implications of decisions including where appropriate drafting of reports to Service and corporate committees / panels, to ensure that action is taken with a proper appreciation of corporate financial standards and best value considerations.
• Provide financial training and advice on systems and procedures to improve service delivery on the security and standard of financial management.

Qualifications:

1. Professional accounting qualification, CIPFA qualification or CCAB equivalent etc.
2. Degree, or equivalent, level qualification in a relevant field.

Skills & Experience:

1. Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation.
2. Experience of local government finance or equivalent.
3. Proven track record of conscientious application and technical reliability.
4. Proven track record of conscientious application, reliability and concern for quality performance.
5. Proven successful track record in financial and staff management.
6. Extensive working knowledge and detailed understanding of Council financial practices and procedures, or equivalent.
7. Ability to analyse and present financial data, statistics and trends in a meaningful way.
8. Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for.Clients are generally looking for candidates who are local to, or who can commute easily to the place of work. It will help your application if your CV states, in broad terms, where you reside - there is no need for a full address.Please feel free to apply to us direct via by quoting the job reference and exact job title.To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would ask that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, not as a PDF.If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension, you will be working at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than umbrella pay terms. We do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.Due to the number of CVs being sent to us under current market conditions, unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications. If you have not heard from us within 3 working