Accounting Services Manager

Staffordshire County Council is an innovative, ambitious and sustainable county with a proud heritage and bright hopes for the future – well positioned at the heart of the thriving West Midlands to create jobs, growth and prosperity for local people. Much has been achieved in recent years – a better quality of life for local people, major programmes delivered to secure future growth and jobs and substantial changes to how we operate, ensuring we can continue to deliver what local people need at a cost we can afford.

We are immensely proud of our record of managing the council’s finances and whilst there are challenges ahead for the sector, we believe we have laid the foundations to ensure that we continue to deliver for our residents and businesses.

We are looking for someone to join our team at a senior level, to help us maintain and improve our financial systems and transactional processes in these challenging economic times. Working closely with the Chief Accountant and other colleagues, you will lead the Accounting Services team to ensure robust and efficient processes and systems are in place and that transactions and data are held securely and accurately.

You will have an office base in Stafford, and we currently operate hybrid working, so there is flexibility for you to work from home, subject to service requirements.

You will be required to:

• Ensure the provision of high quality, reliable financial records and reporting to inform strategic and operational decision making
• Be the senior finance owner of the council’s main finance and HR/payroll systems
• Ensure appropriate controls are developed and maintained for the main financial and feeder systems operated by the County Council to manage resources and counter fraud.
• Be accountable for the County Council’s control function incorporating system control, payroll control and reporting teams
• Be accountable for the performance management of contracts in place for provision of payroll services & systems and finance systems

We are looking for someone who:

• Is CCAB qualified with experience of managing an accountancy function
• Has a thorough understanding of local government finance in general and of specific issues in management of financial systems
• Has knowledge of exchequer functions in a major organisation, preferably a local authority
• Excellent knowledge of appropriate control environment
• Knowledge of potential areas of fraud in accountancy systems, grading risks and creating systems to minimise them.

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme