Principal Accountant (X9)

Croydon has faced significant challenges in recent years, in terms of the Council’s financial position and of course the pandemic challenge faced by every local authority.

This is a very exciting time to join Croydon as we move from the recovery and improvement phases to the transformational phase of our journey to bring the Council back to financial sustainability.

You will be helping to rebuild the Council, its finances, its governance, its culture and its services. The financial challenge is steep, but the Government has noted our strong progress, with a new Executive Mayor, Cabinet, Chief Executive and Corporate Management Team, who all share a commitment to the task ahead and putting Croydon’s people first.

Croydon is a fantastic place; a vital part of London’s growth story with a strong identity in its own right and this is a rare chance to make genuine change in a place of great opportunity. What we do together over the next three years will help shape the future of one of London’s most diverse and exciting boroughs.

As a Principal Accountant, you will be supporting the Finance Manager and Head of Strategic Finance, deputising when required. You will have overall responsibility for overseeing financial planning, management and coordination of financial arrangements for a given area across both revenue and capital finance and/or cross cutting areas such as corporate and statutory reporting, and technical finance.

Following the recent restructure of the finance function, we are looking to appoint nine Principal Accountants across the following services: Adult Social Care & Health; Children, Young People and Education (x3); Sustainable Communities, Regeneration and Economic Recovery (x2); Housing and Resources (x2).

Key responsibilities include:

• Being responsible for the financial support and financial processes for specific service(s) covering both capital and revenue, ensuring these are delivered through the year;
• Taking active ownership for delivering the key outputs during the year. This includes ensuring that deadlines are met and that outputs are of a high quality to support effective financial management
• Establishing a strong working relationship with budget holders, with regular meetings, to help support them with their financial management accountabilities. This includes adopting a robust approach when necessary;
• Main point of contact for budget holders, providing a high standard of service with regular meetings, to help support them with their financial management accountabilities;
• Using information from directorates, produce regular, accurate and up to date forecasts based on financial analysis to aid budget preparation and monitoring purposes;
• Using regular monitoring, proactively respond to financial risks (such as overspending) and opportunities, advising on action and escalating issues where appropriate;
• Regularly perform reconciliations of balance sheet and income accounts and expenditure accounts where appropriate. Investigate variances on a timely basis and take necessary action, escalating when necessary.

To be suitable for the role you need to hold a CCAB/CIMA accountancy qualification or have senior finance relevant accounting experience. You should possess evidence of successfully managing key financial processes (budgeting, monitoring, forecasting, closing of accounts, completion of grants and statistical returns), and have experience of working successfully as part of a professional team to deliver strong financial management advice to managers, ideally within an environment of change.

For more information about the role please contact Jack Murphy at Allen Lane.

To apply, please submit your CV alongside a supporting statement (no more than 2 pages) stating why you are interested in applying, what you can bring to this role and highlighting your relevant experience and suitability.

The closing date is Sunday 12th January 2025 at 23:59pm.

Equal opportunities

Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Subject to business needs, we will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements and support hybrid working, whereby staff attend the workplace for part of their working week and work from home, or elsewhere, remotely for the rest of the time. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised role.

Croydon council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment.