Finance Business Partner

About the Borough

Joining us, you get to work for not just one high performing London Borough, but two.

Sutton and Kingston councils have a number of shared services serving both authorities, with some teams and roles more focussed on one Council than the other, but the majority are shared across both, meaning you get multiple opportunities to learn from a wider pool of activities and two different political bodies.

We work flexibly in both Sutton and Kingston offices, and support working at home or flexible working patterns that enable you to tailor your working and personal life. We provide the equipment and tools to enable you to work flexibly, and in return ask you to use that flexibility to be creative and ambitious in the services we deliver.

There are some really exciting things happening in both Sutton and Kingston. We are developing the London Cancer Hub, a world leading cancer research and treatment hub that will bring together professionals from across different sectors to identify and test new treatments and therapies. We are undertaking the largest housing regeneration programme ever delivered in Kingston, building new energy efficient housing that will transform some of our oldest Council owned housing. Both boroughs have publicly committed to doing what they can to tackle the climate emergency and are investing in new technologies and societal change that will help bring carbon emissions down and improve our climate impact.

You should choose Sutton and Kingston if you are looking for an opportunity that will challenge you to deliver more, support you to achieve personal ambitions, and expect you to put borough residents at the heart of what you do.

Sutton is a well connected attractive part of London that has a reputation for excellent schools, green and leafy open spaces, and a history that drives a thriving heritage and culture offer through our museums and libraries. The Council is controlled by a long established Liberal Democrat Administration and has high ambitions set out in its corporate plan “Ambitious for Sutton”, that will ensure Sutton remains a great place to live, work and raise a family. The Council plays a leading role in a number of local partnerships and places great emphasis on engaging effectively with its residents, listening to local voices and making their message heard across London Government.

Kingston is a beautiful Royal borough with a historic setting on the banks of the Thames with excellent schools and a bustling retail centre, all surrounded by open green spaces such as Richmond Park and Bushey Park, former recreation grounds for Tudor Kings and Queens. The Council is controlled by a Liberal Democrat Administration and has a council plan “Greener, Fairer, Safer, Together”, that sets out a vision to be a vibrant, diverse and inclusive borough where residents are active, empowered, engaged and able to remain independent and resilient. The Council engages with residents through a number of forums and events through the year, and like Sutton plays a leading role in developing the South West Region of London.

About the Service and Team

This role is in the Financial Planning and Business Partnering (FPBP) team within the Shared Finance Service (SFS). The SFS for Sutton and Kingston Councils has the ambition to ‘Add value, inspire success’, which it does through the following objectives:

• Translate business intelligence into business success by delivering clear professional advice and insight.
• Safeguard the financial health of our Councils.
• Empower our customers to manage their finances.
• Learn, improve and exceed; supporting each other to develop our talent and achieve more.

The FPBP team has 18 roles and is brimming with talented individuals. This vacancy, supporting Children’s Social Care, Education and SEND services, is a great opportunity to join a high performing team and work alongside brilliant colleagues.

Whilst this is a team within the SFS, the team and this role only support Sutton Council.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

As our Senior Finance Business Partner, you will act as a critical friend to the Council, delivering insightful financial analysis to support business improvement and change. Working closely with two Strategic Finance Business Partners and the Head of Financial Planning and Business Partnering, you will provide financial management support and advice to service areas across the core financial cycle of budget setting, budget monitoring and closing of the accounts.

Key responsibilities include:

• Provide high quality senior finance business partner support to revenue and capital budget managers to deliver the Medium Term Financial Plan and approved budget proposals
• Support core financial processes and activities for revenue and capital budgets, including financial planning and budgeting, financial management and monitoring activities, and financial year end processes
• Support and challenge services to manage key financial risks and play their part in protecting the financial health of the Councils
• Act as an enabler for your service areas, proactively seeking opportunities to add and preserve value, whilst supporting the S151 officer to fulfil their statutory responsibilities by providing a “S151 perspective” to service decision making
• Support the SFBP and service managers in working with partner organisations such as Council owned companies, schools, health partners and the voluntary sector

Our Ideal Candidate

We are seeking a lead professional with an innovative and commercially astute mindset. You will have a proven ability to interpret complex financial information and the credibility to challenge and influence senior stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A completed relevant professional qualification (e.g. CIPFA, CIMA, ACCA) or demonstrable equivalent experience.
• Experience delivering finance advice within a large and/or complex organisation.
• Experience providing advice and challenging budget managers.
• Experience developing an in-depth technical understanding of complex financial issues to support financial planning.
• Experience supporting Children’s Social Care and/or Education and SEND services.

If you are ready to take a leading role in shaping our financial service and inspiring your colleagues, we encourage you to apply.

Hybrid Working

Thursday is the current whole team day in the office. There is no current requirement to work more than one day in the office unless services that we support require the Business Partner to meet in person. However, we reserve the right with notice to vary this to support work of the team (such as potential to increase office days around closing, etc).

Early Application

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 26-31 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade
• Enhanced Maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Two volunteering days per year
• Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme (dependent on the role)
• Adjustable and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Sutton we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our PRIDE values.
Here at Sutton we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are in the process of updating our payscales in line with the pay award for NJC, Chief Officers and Chief Executives for April 2025 therefore please take this into account when viewing the salary on this position.

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.