Job summary

This is a newly created fixed term contract position until March 2024. The role brings together a number of responsibilities that were previously tasked to various teams within the Financial Operations and Control branch.

The role of Section Head – Financial Operations is responsible for leading and managing the financial operations for Managed Quarantine Services, Travel, Insurance, Expenses and Grants finance functions working constructively with stakeholders across the organisation. The role holder will lead the operational delivery of these functions and is a valued contributor to the decision making process.

The main focus of these role is to ensure the agreed service level is provided to both internal and external stakeholders within the constraints of best practice financial control.

The span of this role requires that the individual has a diverse skill set and expertise in service delivery, compliance, debt management and financial policy development.

Main duties of the job

  • Management of operational functions assigned to this role in an efficient and effective manner with responsibility for planning and managing resources to ensure they are deployed effectively and able to address priorities effectively
  • Responsible for ensuring that sufficient monitoring tools are in place to highlight and eliminate financial control weakness within the assigned operational functions working with control owners across the organisation as necessary
  • Development and implementation of policies and procedures for change control in compliance with government standards
  • Playing a key role in organisational improvement projects where the function is a stakeholder, ensuring process changes are in line with financial operation policies in conjunction with consideration of future plans.
  • Effective management of internal control and delivery risks with emphasis on customer service
  • Finance lead for management of corporate contracts within the scope of the role

About us

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Date posted

24 February 2023

Pay scheme

Other

Salary

£49,592 to £62,286 a year per annum (pro rata)

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

13 months

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Job share, Flexible working

Reference number

919-GC-60722394-EXT

Job locations

Hybrid working

Hybrid working

SW1P 3JR

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Section Head Financial Operations will be expected to work closely with departments within UKHSA to evaluate if the current processes within the remit for this role are fit for purpose. Undertaking analysis of findings, developing recommendations for improvement and working with the organisation to progress improvement actions.

This will be in conjunction with refining and improving the control and assurance framework for corporate expenses, travel and grant expenditure, ensuring low risk of expenditure out of policy and implementing robust and efficient compliance checks.

The provision of timely and high quality management information is an essential requirement of the role to include KPIs linked to overall department objectives and actions to meet agreed targets

This role will take the lead in providing expert advice and support to both internal and external stakeholders and ensuring team members are trained and developed to maintain agreed service levels.

The financial operations of the Managed Quarantined Service Debt that transferred to UKHSA April 2022 will be a core responsibility of this role including leading the debt collection strategy and providing regular comprehensive reporting to senior leaders and external stakeholders.

Selection Process Details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your behaviours, experience, strengths, ability and technical skills.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Statement of Suitability (in no more than 750 words) . This should outline how you consider your skills, experience and achievements, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria outlined. You will also be asked to provide information within the Employer/ Activity history section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history (this will be used in sifting process and will be scored) .

STAGE 1 – APPLICATION & SIFT:

You will be required to submit a CV and a statement of suitability (Max 750 Words) based on the essential criteria advertised.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TRAC SYSTEM WILL ALLOW YOU TO SUBMIT UP TO 1500 WORDS FOR THE STATEMENT OF SUITABILITY, HOWEVER THE VACANCY HOLDER WILL ONLY ASSESS AGAINST THE FIRST 750 WORDS.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview.

STAGE 2 – INTERVIEW:

All candidates who are successful at the sift stage will undertake a single video interview.

All applicants that progress to interview will be assessed through an interview against a mixture of behaviour, experience, strength, ability and technical based questions.

When assessing strengths, we want to find out whether you and the job role are a good fit. We will look at what you enjoy doing and what you do well and often. By ensuring that the role is the right fit for you, you are more likely to enjoy it and perform well.

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

  • Changing & Improving
  • Leadership
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Managing a quality service
  • Delivering at Pace

Essential criteria

  • Evidence of meeting SLAs and KPI targets in the context of a high volume corporate services and Debt Management.
  • Evidence of financial operations process transformations resulting in improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of services
  • Experience of managing the financial operations of a corporate travel service.
  • Practical knowledge and application of government financial control frameworks in the context of expenditure and income
  • Experience of leading and managing a team through change
  • Experience of drafting papers for ministerial submissions
  • Experience of developing debt management strategies for high volume specialist debt recovery

Desirable criteria

  • CIPFA qualified accountant or equivalent

Location:

UKHSA offers hybrid working for its employees This role will be based at one of our UKHSA offices/locations (Leeds, Manchester, Totnes, London, Horsham, Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham, Harlow, Liverpool, Fareham, Gloucester, Newcastle and Birmingham) with opportunities for an element of working from home. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. The balance between home and workplace working is to be agreed with the line manager, determined primarily by business need and in line with departmental policy. Some occasional business travel will be required to other UKHSA offices/locations as determined by business needs. Business travel between base location and any other UKHSA offices/locations will be covered under the UKHSA Travel and Expenses policy. Currently this requires working from an allocated UKHSA base location for 20% of your contracted time as a minimum, increasing to 40% from the beginning of 2023. The core working hours for this role are 09:00am to 5:00pm.

Security clearance level requirement:

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard. People working with government assets must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard checks.

Eligibility Criteria – Option 3 – External

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants/Civil servants on Loan).

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase.

Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Section Head Financial Operations will be expected to work closely with departments within UKHSA to evaluate if the current processes within the remit for this role are fit for purpose. Undertaking analysis of findings, developing recommendations for improvement and working with the organisation to progress improvement actions.

This will be in conjunction with refining and improving the control and assurance framework for corporate expenses, travel and grant expenditure, ensuring low risk of expenditure out of policy and implementing robust and efficient compliance checks.

The provision of timely and high quality management information is an essential requirement of the role to include KPIs linked to overall department objectives and actions to meet agreed targets

This role will take the lead in providing expert advice and support to both internal and external stakeholders and ensuring team members are trained and developed to maintain agreed service levels.

The financial operations of the Managed Quarantined Service Debt that transferred to UKHSA April 2022 will be a core responsibility of this role including leading the debt collection strategy and providing regular comprehensive reporting to senior leaders and external stakeholders.

Selection Process Details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your behaviours, experience, strengths, ability and technical skills.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Statement of Suitability (in no more than 750 words) . This should outline how you consider your skills, experience and achievements, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria outlined. You will also be asked to provide information within the Employer/ Activity history section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history (this will be used in sifting process and will be scored) .

STAGE 1 – APPLICATION & SIFT:

You will be required to submit a CV and a statement of suitability (Max 750 Words) based on the essential criteria advertised.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TRAC SYSTEM WILL ALLOW YOU TO SUBMIT UP TO 1500 WORDS FOR THE STATEMENT OF SUITABILITY, HOWEVER THE VACANCY HOLDER WILL ONLY ASSESS AGAINST THE FIRST 750 WORDS.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview.

STAGE 2 – INTERVIEW:

All candidates who are successful at the sift stage will undertake a single video interview.

All applicants that progress to interview will be assessed through an interview against a mixture of behaviour, experience, strength, ability and technical based questions.

When assessing strengths, we want to find out whether you and the job role are a good fit. We will look at what you enjoy doing and what you do well and often. By ensuring that the role is the right fit for you, you are more likely to enjoy it and perform well.

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

  • Changing & Improving
  • Leadership
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Managing a quality service
  • Delivering at Pace

Essential criteria

  • Evidence of meeting SLAs and KPI targets in the context of a high volume corporate services and Debt Management.
  • Evidence of financial operations process transformations resulting in improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of services
  • Experience of managing the financial operations of a corporate travel service.
  • Practical knowledge and application of government financial control frameworks in the context of expenditure and income
  • Experience of leading and managing a team through change
  • Experience of drafting papers for ministerial submissions
  • Experience of developing debt management strategies for high volume specialist debt recovery

Desirable criteria

  • CIPFA qualified accountant or equivalent

Location:

UKHSA offers hybrid working for its employees This role will be based at one of our UKHSA offices/locations (Leeds, Manchester, Totnes, London, Horsham, Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham, Harlow, Liverpool, Fareham, Gloucester, Newcastle and Birmingham) with opportunities for an element of working from home. You will be asked to express a location preference during the application process. The balance between home and workplace working is to be agreed with the line manager, determined primarily by business need and in line with departmental policy. Some occasional business travel will be required to other UKHSA offices/locations as determined by business needs. Business travel between base location and any other UKHSA offices/locations will be covered under the UKHSA Travel and Expenses policy. Currently this requires working from an allocated UKHSA base location for 20% of your contracted time as a minimum, increasing to 40% from the beginning of 2023. The core working hours for this role are 09:00am to 5:00pm.

Security clearance level requirement:

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard. People working with government assets must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard checks.

Eligibility Criteria – Option 3 – External

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants/Civil servants on Loan).

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase.

Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Person Specification

Statement of Suitability

Essential

  • Statement of Suitability

CV

Essential

  • CV

Behaviours

Essential

  • Changing and Improving
  • Leadership
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Managing a Quality Service
  • Delivering at Pace
Person Specification

Statement of Suitability

Essential

  • Statement of Suitability

CV

Essential

  • CV

Behaviours

Essential

  • Changing and Improving
  • Leadership
  • Communicating and Influencing
  • Managing a Quality Service
  • Delivering at Pace

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab) .

Additional information

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab) .