Accountancy Officer

Job Title: Accountancy Officer
Starting Salary: £31,537 progressing to £34,434 per annum (pay award pending)
Hours: 37
Location: Stevenage with hybrid working opportunities
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Resources

About the team

We have an exciting opportunity to join Hertfordshire’s Finance Service, providing high-quality financial advice, insight, and support across a range of service areas within Children’s Services.

In this role, you will play a key part in supporting services that make a real difference to over 1.2 million residents across the county. Your contribution will be integral to delivering our core values and ensuring the effective use of public resources.

The Accountancy Officer position will support the senior accountants within the Children’s Social Care team to help deliver safe, effective, and sustainable services for children, young people, and families.

About the role

Key Skills and what you will do

• Support the senior accountants by producing timely and focused financial analysis, collating financial data from various data sources
• Support with the preparation of budget setting and monitoring social care budgets in areas of High-cost demand led areas of expenditure
• The ability to use Microsoft applications and confident in the use of other systems that provide financial information including the authorities central finance system (SAP)
• Contribute to the collations of statutory returns.

Key Responsibilities

1. Financial Planning & Budget Management

• Support the preparation, monitoring, and forecasting of Children’s Services budgets
• Identify financial risks and pressures (e.g., placements, SEND costs)

2. Financial Reporting & Analysis

• Perform analysis and manipulation of finance data to inform budget monitoring and forecasting.
• Review financial data / information with a view to identify areas of concern when budget monitoring.
• Reflect on the accuracy of information to ensure clarity of data.

3. Cost Control & Value for Money

• Support the monitoring of high-cost areas such as Independent Placements, Fostering and Residential Placements

4. Delivery of Finance service

• Respond to and resolve enquiries, resolving concerns, escalating where necessary, to support the delivery of a comprehensive and professional service to internal stakeholders.

About you

Essential

• AAT qualified or someone with financial experience seeking to improve on their financial analysis skills.
• Confident to make effective use of multiple data sources and to use available tools to provide analysis.
• Ability to review and reflect on financial output to ensure accuracy of interpretation
• Ability to manage competing priorities and flexibility to re-prioritise according to business needs.

Desirable

• Experience in the provision of financial analysis to provide insightful financial information to support frontline services.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This job role is Level 8. Please locate the job profile here:

Job profiles - Corporate services

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Susan.Provenzano@hertfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role.

Interview Date: 23rd or 24th July 2026

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

We are changing
Hertfordshire County Councilis undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) principles.

LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.