Finance Business Partner (Services)

Client:  Harlow Council

Location:  Civic Centre and some remote working

Salary:  £47,754 - £49,764 per annum

Closing date:  Sunday, 10 August 2025 23:30

Harlow is one of the UK’s fastest growing areas in the heart of the UK Innovation Corridor and successful Enterprise Zone with over £1.3bn of infrastructure and regeneration identified and being delivered through our transformative programme of change  Building Harlow's Future . The Council is landlord to 9,000 properties through the HRA with a house building programme that will see an additional 23,000 properties coming into the portfolio over the next 10 year. It is a great place to live and work, being ideally located on the London Liverpool Street to Stansted/Cambridge rail line, and only four miles from the M25. Whilst LGR may be going on in the background, Harlow is a confident and forward looking authority that will continue to play an anchor role in any future of the area. The next couple of years will provide enormous opportunities for personal growth and experience which will mean that our Harlow officers are very well placed for any future roles.

The Service Business Partner – General Fund (X2) are two of four Service Business Partner positions within the Finance Team. The post holders will be responsible for actively managing, informing and monitoring key financial data and information to ensure that financial management is maintained to the highest standard across a range of services. The budget areas supported by this role will flex to maintain a balance across the team, however these roles will focus on support for General Fund (excluding Housing), Precepts, Insurance Management, Pensions and maintenance of Invest to Save Funds.

Services are delivered through an advisory led, business partnering model designed to support service managers in achieving their service goals within agreed finance policies. Active finance system development and reporting is required to enable effective service support.

You will provide high quality professional advisory, analytical and reporting services to the Council, service managers and customers focussed on the achievement of value for money whilst ensuring that financial management is maintained to the highest standard across Council services. You will be required to support and advise services to ensure the adoption of appropriate financial policies and strategies is achieved.

Collaborative working with other members of the Finance Team and all other staff is essential to ensure that issues are identified and addressed, liaising with Finance Leaders as required, achieving service standards, goals and balance of risks.

Key functions of this exciting role will involve managing team resources to meet service and customer requirements, ensuring coverage of services during peak and leave periods, ensuring effective separation of duties. The post holder will be responsible for providing comprehensive revenue and capital accounting support for allocated services, focused on budget preparation and monitoring, closure of accounts and provision of financial support to services areas. You will represent Finance and the s151 officer through attendance at meetings, providing support for projects, in the provision of advice, modelling and contribution to / creation of reports for Cabinet and Senior Management Board. It will be important for the provision of training for service users to be made available and delivered as required.

Close and collaborative working with other members of the Finance Team and staff across the Council is essential to ensure that issues are identified, solutions developed, agreed and implemented, liaising with senior staff and Councillors as required, achieving service standards, goals and balance of risks A motivation for and experience of engaging with colleagues to facilitate the improvement and development of finance systems and reporting is required to enable effective service support to managers through a user self-service model.

To be successful in the role you should either be a CCAB qualified accountant or a part qualified CCAB accountant and be actively studying towards the fully qualification, with detailed knowledge and experience obtained within a similar role, preferably within the public sector or local government, experience of staff management and a demonstrable record of completed projects within a time pressured environment is essential.

This will be an exciting and challenging role working in a dynamic and supportive team which will provide exceptional opportunities for the right candidate to apply their initiative, to design systems’ improvements and to be involved in a highly-regarded central function of the Council.

We are a modern, forward thinking organisation offering agile working styles to give ultimate flexibility and work-life balance. We offer an attractive remuneration package including generous annual leave, professional fees and career average revalued (CARE) pension scheme.

For more information please contact Andrew Barton, CIPFA Penna on  andrew.barton@penna.com / D +44 (0) 7922 386 432

The closing date for applications will be:  10th August

Interviews will be held:  20th August