Overview

The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the provision of legal aid, administration of justice through courts and tribunals and detention and rehabilitation of offenders. Within the MoJ, you will provide Finance Business Partnering to senior business leaders responsible for delivery of services across Prison and Probation groups including, but is not limited to, the Youth Custody Service, Rehabilitation Services, Contracted out Services and Change Portfolios. Our business colleagues operating within His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (an Agency within the MoJ), are highly committed professionals who seek to protect the public and rehabilitate offenders.

More information can be found at: www.justice.gov.uk

There is one SEO, Finance Business Partnering role available within the Finance Business Partnering Group supporting the Operational Contracts and Change Portfolios.

As a Finance Business Partner, you will be a key member of the finance group, working with other members of the team, wider MoJ Finance colleagues and key stakeholder from the Business Area we support.

The post is part of a small geographically disbursed finance team.

Role Summary

Finance Business Partnering SEOs are responsible for building strong relationships with their directorate, understanding the business, and explaining financial information for budget holders in an understandable manner.

The SEO Finance Business Partner (FBP) - PFI Expiry will play a critical role in providing financial leadership, insight, and support to the PFI expiry process within the Contracted-Out Services and Change Portfolios. This role ensures robust financial evaluation, risk management, and decision support for key stakeholders involved in transitioning PFI contracts to Manage and Maintain operating models.

The post holder will work closely with competition, commercial, legal and BAU teams to drive financial sustainability and value for money while ensuring compliance with HM Treasury (HMT) guidance and MoJ financial policies.

Typical Role Responsibilities

SEO FBPs are developing expertise and responsible for building strong relationships and understanding the business within a directorate or possibly supporting a lower risk Director led unit. They aim to communicate financial data and other information clearly and provide valuable financial advice, challenge and support, strategic insight, and business solutions.

As a Finance Business Partner, you will need to understand the PFI Expiry business area that you support and the way they operate. You will build trust with the SRO and decision makers so that your advice is actively sought.

You will have a level of authority and respect to proactively influence decision making and help drive continuous improvement in the finance ITT (Invitation to Tender) and ISFT (Invitation to Submit Final Tender) documents. In conjunction with the Lead FBP, you will be in charge of the preparation and customisation of the Tender financial documents. You may be required to specifically take ownership of the Finance Review Template (FRT) and to review and adapt it to the particulars of each prison in scope for upcoming competitions. You may work extensively with the finance and commercial BAU teams to ensure the FRT is aligned with the contract Payment Mechanism and satisfies the BAU requirements.

As FBP in the PFI expiry group, you will be an integral part of the evaluation of the finance submissions from bidders, ensuring bidders’ cost modelling is robust and sustainable and that submissions are fully transparent and unambiguous. You may also become involved in Abnormally Low Tender investigations.

You will be the financial advisor to a range of commercial and competition colleagues. You may be required to help develop business cases or to help demonstrate value for money. At all times you will be upholding the integrity of financial management in the public sector and the need to ensure value for money for the taxpayer. You will be a trusted adviser to stakeholders, providing support and independent challenge.

You may become involved in developing and managing financial plans related to PFI expiry. This may include monitoring and reporting on financial performance against budgets and forecasts.

This role will build on your experience of finance fundamentals and provide the opportunity to help in managing finance and supporting delivery.

The post holder will be required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post. This may also include working closely with other MoJ Finance staff to develop solutions/problem-solve, engaging in project work to drive finance improvements.

Travel

In addition to the standard expectations for hybrid working, there will be some ad-hoc travel required to other locations to attend some team and stakeholder meetings in person.

Role Responsibilities/Tasks

• Developing an understanding of the business, its stakeholders, and deliverables

• Building and maintaining relationships with customer budget holders

• Providing advice on compliance with policy, standards, accountabilities, and controls

• Translating, owning, and adding insight to financial data to provide clear information and evidence to support business activities and requirements

• Providing guidance at appropriate level budget holder meetings and boards

• Reviewing and providing input to business cases/ strategic documentation

• Identifying and applying relevant costs, benefits, and investment appraisal techniques

• Providing relevant coaching and training to the business

• Providing ad-hoc analysis and presentations to drive and support business decisions, such as efficiency and cost reduction options, using all available data and analytics tools

• Preparing and customising financial documentation for the ITT and ISFT competition stages

• Taking ownership of the Finance Review Template (FRT), incorporating all required changes for specific competitions and aligning with BAU requirements

• Participating in tender evaluations as a finance evaluator after receiving the required training

• Participating in building and presenting finance cases

• Identifying continuous improvement opportunities and ensuring they are acted upon

• Working with budget holders to develop robust budget plans and monitor those plans.

Interpersonal Skills

• Possesses emotional intelligence and can think empathetically, considering the strategic goals of others

• Fosters a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration between the business, finance, and other corporate services

• Can tailor their communication style to a range of audiences, including internal and external stakeholders

• Uses facts and evidence to aid negotiation and influencing

• Helps others to understand the interdependencies between business and finance

• Proactive and passionate, inspiring others to continuously improve

• Ability to "speak the language" of finance to business, and vice versa, acting as the critical translator between the two

Professional Skills

Key for Levels of Professional Skills

• A = Awareness

• W = Working

• P = Practitioner

• E = Expert

Qualifications

You will be a full member of a professional accountancy body (CCAB or CIMA) or be willing to work towards the qualification.

An allowance will apply for fully qualified members of a professional accountancy body (CCAB or CIMA). The allowance is non-contractual and subject to annual review.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework

Behaviours

Please provide examples of how you have met each of the behaviours below:

• Communicating and Influencing (Lead)

• Working Together

• Managing a Quality Service

• Seeing the Big Picture

Experience

In addition to Civil Service Behaviours identified above, please provide:

• Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words demonstrating how you are suitable for this role, with reference to the professional skills outlined above, in particular at practitioner and expert level.

• CV (anonymised)

If we receive a large volume of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead behaviour, Communicating and Influencing and the Statement of Suitability.

Interview Stage

Candidates who are successful following the sift process will be invited to a virtual interview.

At interview you will be assessed on behaviours (listed above) and strengths. You will also be asked to deliver a 5-minute presentation on a pre agreed topic that will be shared in advance of the interview. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates in advance of the interviews.